It’s not always deadly serious, sometimes we just have…

Whilst as a karate club we like to run a disciplined environment with good dojo etiquette, it is important to remember that we all do this ultimately because it is fun. This may be things like the water bottle challenge, pad work or occasionally the instructors engaging in a bit of light heated free sparring with one, two, three or more of the juniors simultaneously.

In this case one of our junior shodan black belt, Phoebe and I were having a little fun with an impromptu sparring drill after the lesson doing a block and counter attack and gradually getting faster until one of us got through and past the block when we realised we had an audience and they decided to film. The first spontaneous run through actually got a lot faster before it was filmed.

Featured Post Image by master1305 on Freepik

Watch our new promotional video!

We thought you might enjoy our latest promotional video for the club as we return to dojo training in 2021. This video was shot during the class on Saturday 22nd May 2021 at our relatively new Bournville College Dojo (as unfortunately it was closed by the Coronavirus restrictions soon after initially opening). If you are an existing student and haven’t visited there yet please come and check it out, it’s a great venue to train in.

New members are welcome, please contact Sensei Susan Hession if you are interested in joining as always the first two classes are a free trial before joining. Please see our classes & fees page for information about class times and locations.

We’d like to thank Yvonne Skalban for producing this video for the club. If you are looking to have some video related work done please check out her site at  https://www.evproductions.co.uk

Welcome Back II – The return of the adults

Welcome back! It’s been a busy week here at Birmingham & Weoley Castle Shotokan Karate since this is the first week this year both adults and children have been able to train in the dojo. We have had new starters and returning students young and old , some who have not been able to train since before the pandemic. It will come as no surprise that we were overjoyed to see everyone face to face again. Whilst we have been able to keep in touch and train online in Zoom together these past months there is always that extra buzz being back in a dojo not to mention the relief that you no longer have to worry about kicking over your TV! 😃

With so many people unable to train in the dojo or at all for such a long period we have been easing people back into things this week concentrating on basics and kata that people already know but may have become a little rusty at for those who have trained before, rebuilding our fitness levels and of course introducing our new starters to the wonderful world of Shotokan karate. We of course aren’t out of the woods yet with covid-19 so this is all taking place whilst we adhere to strict cornavirus safety measures to ensure the safety and continued good health of our students and instructors.

On Saturday we had a visit from our good friend and Chief Instructor of Enso Shotokan Karate , Sensei Austin Birks 6^th dan and Yvonne Skalban 2^nd dan both former students of the late Shihan Cyril Cummins 8^th dan. This proved the perfect opportunity to present him with a belated 60^th birthday present which due to lock downs over the past year and his ongoing battles with cancer has not been possible until now. This was a framed Kanji (Japanese calligraphy script) that roughly translated to our late instructor’s and the club’s motto, Never give up, Never give in.

At present we are back in two of our three venues, Weoley Castle Community Church and Bournville College running classes for all ages and abilities, please see our classes & fees page for times and locations.

So indeed we are pleased to be able to say to all, welcome back to the dojo!

Here are a few photos from our first week and a video kindly produced by Yvonne from the class on Saturday. If you are looking for some video production work please check out her site at https://www.evproductions.co.uk.

Welcome Back I – The kids are back

Well its great to be able to train in the dojo now that the first stage of the coronavirus easing of restrictions is here, so we would like to say Welcome back to all our juniors. We have had a great week with the childrens classes resuming at Weoley Castle and Bournville College. It’s been great to see you all again in person and be able to welcome new starters to the club. In a few weeks time we hope to be able to welcome back our adult students as well.

Here are a few photos from our first return to dojo training in 2021.

Socially Distanced: The Training Continues

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