Saturday 11th May, JKA Scotland held the yearly Special Course & Dan Grading. The midyear course where brown and black belt members all gathered at Dunfermline High School eagerly waiting to see what Ohta Sensei 7th Dan JKA had planned for the next 3-hours of training.
After the warm-up everyone knew that this course was going to be a great one as always, and the temperature inside the training hall match that outside as it was a beautiful hot day.
Training started slowly building up with basic drills to get the body and mind focused before progressing to combination techniques and working with a partner to put these into practice, with the main area of focus being on distance.
After a small break, the session continued with the focus switching to kata and in particular Heian Nidan and Sandan. Sensei explained these katas in more depth and focused on specific movements within the kata before splitting into groups of 3 and practicing application for certain parts of both kata’s.
After our 2nd break it was time to focus on the kata’s that will be performed for Dan Grading’s. The 1st being Jion followed by Bassai Dai. Sensei made sure that everyone was aware of the main points of the kata and how to use the body to perform these moves correctly.
At the end of each Kata Sensei asked if any students had any questions and provided an explanation of each to make sure that all questions were answered and understood.
After 3 hours training, everyone thanked Ohta Sensei and for a fabulous course. All students had something to work on and practice from the course.
Dan Grading
Following the course, a Dan Grading was held, and the following students were successful in passing Dan Grading:
1st Dan – Shodan 2nd Dan – Nidan
Duncan Collin (Bass Rock) Helen Alexander (Bass Rock)
Athanasios Nikolaou (Carnegie) Kevin Stickings (Dunfermline)
Lucy Dykes (Carnegie) Arthur Bruce (Shibumi)
Ryan Black (Dalgety Bay) Claire Watkins (Dalgety Bay)
Gavin Nicol (Dalgety Bay)
We would also like to thank all the JKA Scotland members who supported and Ohta Sensei for a fantastic course, we hope you enjoyed it.