Well September is almost over and it has been a busy month. We introduced a booking system for classes due to the limited spaces available and although there have been a few disappointments we have been mostly able to let everyone train when they wanted to. Everyone is now getting used to socially distanced training and we thank all students and their relatives in helping us maintain social distancing and adhering to covid restrictions. As the Covid-19 situation has evolved around us and rules changed we have adapted and have and will continue to take all the measures necessary to protect our students and our instructors. Which is why we have recently requested that everyone wear a mask during training including children unless it would cause them undue distress (or can’t due to health reasons).

So what have we been doing during these classes, well as you would expect it has been various combinations of kata and basics. On the senior classes with myself for the black and brown belts we have been revising all of the kata we did during lockdown. For those who did it over zoom there is a difference to doing it in person without having to dodge furniture and where you can have a better visual perspective on each technique. Naturally people had started referencing direction based on their locations e.g. turn towards the sofa so doing the kata in the dojo with sufficient space and different cues at times was clearly like learning it anew. For others it was the first time they had done these kata and so it was something completely new for them. I of course also threw in some of the old favourites that everyone should know at their grades and went into some detail about various techniques. For the lower kyu grades we have concentrated on some of the Heian kata revising previous ones, completing ones that had been started prior to lockdown and learning the next one in the sequence. It has been a busy month we have covered Wankan, Jiin, Kanku Sho, Kanku Dai, Tekki Nidan and Sochin.on the advanced kata front plus revised Tekki Shodan, Bassai Dai, Enpi plus all the Heian kata. Some of these we did in depth others in passing. Kanku Sho being the first kata with one of the more complicated jumps it took a few attempts but everyone tried their best as always and we were getting there near the end. We have also done various combinations and basics with a strong concentration on controlling kicks rather than letting the momentum dictate your position and the technicalities involved when doing them to execute them correctly and with power. Finally we did a few exercises to make people think and not rely on “auto-pilot” to guide them.

I have observed the end of some of the other sensei’s classes with Sensei Mike taking his class through the kata Jitte and Hangetsu and doing exercises based on using basics in limited space. Meanwhile Sensei Sue has taken classes through basics and various advanced kata including some previously mentioned plus some socially distanced partner work as shown in the videos below. Sensei Faye, Sensei Jacob and Sensei Daniel have taken various children’s and adult classes which I have alas not witnessed personally due to timing and covid restrictions limiting movement between rooms However as with the classes mentioned above they too have been doing combinations of basics and kata.

It has been a busy but fun month and we look forward to pushing forward again in October, no doubt as the month progresses we may have a few surprises along the way but as always we will train on. Never Give Up, Never Give In.

Osu Sensei Richard

 

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