What? Not those Waltons? Sorry... Hideously dated cultural references aside, I just wanted to say a big congratulations to Eric, Ross and Kate Walton on their grading successes at this past weekend's Adult National course in Larbert. After an intense weekend of training, Eric is now a 4th Dan black belt, Ross is a 3rd Dan and Kate moves up from brown belt to 1st Dan. I've enjoyed training with all of them over the years, with Eric and Ross being part of the club since I joined back in 2007 and it's been great to see them advance through the grades. Eric has been a great teacher and has given me plenty of encouragement and tips over the years. Mind you, he is a sneaky so-and-so and you always have to be on your guard when training with him. Ross would have been 14ish when I started training so to see him now as a third Dan is really cool. He's also a lot bigger and stronger than he was back then and has developed into an excellent training partner and coach. Kate started with the club as part of her Duke of Edinburgh award and enjoyed it so much, she stayed with us and now is a black belt. As was the case with me back in November, she was delighted to get this. Now you may be thinking, this is one crazy family. And you'd be right, but despite eight Dan grades between them and the photographic evidence, they genuinely are really good people. Well done all of you! As mentioned a few weeks ago, the club launched a Women's Self Defence Course on 22nd February. Run by Emma and I, this was intended to teach some simple self defence moves, without the potentially intimidating atmosphere of a martial arts club.
We tried a variety of routes to publicise this, handing out flyers to parents at our junior classes, on the Bearsden Community Facebook page and an article in the local newspaper. This generated a good level of interest, with the most hits over a week that this website has ever received. Nevertheless, we were unsure how many people would actually turn up. What if nobody came? For a first attempt, we thought we might get six people and we would have been delighted. Instead, we had 16 people join us for the six weeks. Wow! We'd better get to work. Emma and I had worked on a schedule of beginning with pads and then teaching a couple of skills each week. The following week would feature a recap of the previous session before moving onto the new skill. The first week took a little longer to get started, getting everyone registered and explaining the aims of the course. We started with some pads and then some basic contact and movement. Everyone was a little tentative, which is to be expected. We hit pads and have contact every week but when it's new, it can feel a bit weird. One thing that became apparent - 45 minutes was going to pass very quickly. Week 2 focused on reacting to a wrist grab, making use of some of John's patented quick and effective moves. The third seek featured being grabbed from behind and a variety of ways to escape. Also notable is by this time we were remembering everyone's names! In week 4, a real life policeman joined us to give a talk on things to look out for and how some of these moves may be perceived, for example on CCTV. We also practiced moving through a crowd when you do not know where a threat may come from. This borrowed from an excellent practice that Pauline Walmsley has taught at courses. Into week 5 and we covered being pushed against a wall and being choked. The latter element can feel quite uncomfortable and we advised anyone who did not like that to focus on being grabbed instead. This was the one session we felt had too much in it given the time constraints so we'll look to rework this a bit. Lastly in week 6 we put it all together and invited Fraser and John to join us, to give everyone someone different to practise the moves on. We closed out with Emma and I doing a short demo of a typical club practice, with some pads, sparring and takedowns. Hopefully nobody was too intimated by this and might even come and join the club. So that was our six weeks. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the session and we received some lovely feedback forms from the class. Emma and I had an absolute blast putting it together and running the course, so much so that we are going to run a second block of six lessons, starting on 19th April. We're looking forward to it and hope to see some of our originals return and some new people joining. See you on the 19th! Take a look at the Skills tab and you will see the different areas of a typical Shoto Budo practice, with pads, parrying, takedowns and wrestling all featuring. However, I've often wondered how to move from one skill to the next. Recently our practices have started to fill in those gaps.
Hugh has used a pummelling drill from amateur wrestling before as a warm up, but we have been concentrating on the movement within this. It's a physically tiring drill, particularly when your opponent is bigger and / or stronger than you. From there, we added attempts at trips and distractions which could serve multiple purposes. It might result in an opponent being on the ground, it might create some space to apply a lock or it could break contact allowing either an escape or reset of distance. The next addition was to add some light strikes, with us wearing grappling (or MMA style) gloves. We are not practising for a competitive fight so the strikes are not intended to cause damage but they serve as a distraction and another thing to be aware of when defending. When we started doing this a few weeks ago, I was very much getting caught up in the grappling element and got tagged almost constantly. It was something new and an element that previously we did not need to be aware of. The next building block was to try and break the grapple and move to a distance where kicks or punches would be effective , leading to a short period of parrying before moving back in to the grappling distance. Again this been something new and in some ways goes against instinct to keep at a "safe" distance from an opponent. However, once that notion was overcome, I found myself getting more comfortable coming back into close quarters. It is helping me find ways past people who may be taller than me and thus can fire out kicks to keep me at bay. Last week we added another stage of taking this movement to the ground to allow a short period of wrestling. That is still going to need some work to flow and indeed I found myself more on the receiving end of takedowns. However one thing that I did find myself doing was quickly getting into a "technical standup", a Brazilian jiu-jitsu move. This is a way of getting back on your feed whilst still being in a defensive position and without turning your back to an opponent. This is all still a work in progress but the gaps slowly are starting to fill. There are a lot of things to be aware of. The grappling and potential locks. The strikes when close in, which could be hands, knees or feet. There are distractions that could lead to trips. There is balance. It is a physically and mentally tiring practice but after a few weeks, I definitely am seeing the benefits of the practice and how it all comes together. "So", said Hugh as he turned to Emma and I, "I'd like you guys to start working towards Second Dan.
Eek! After that initial reaction, I realised that I am excited by that prospect. Who knows how long it will take. After all I started the blog after getting my brown belt to document my journey to black belt, not expecting it to be more than three years until it actually happened. Whilst I hope it won't be another three years, I'm not going to make any predictions because all sorts of things can happen. Work, injuries, life, distractions.....SQUIRREL! Where to start? Well, a part of my First Dan grading diary was to rate my skill levels in various areas so let's look at that. We can come back to that over the next few months to see how I am progressing. Here are my self assessed scores prior to my last grading, as taken from my diary. Firstly I ranked my ability to perform all of the katas I know Taikyoku Shodan - 3 Taikyoku Nidan - 3 Taikyoku Sandan - 3 Heian Shodan - 3 Heian Nidan - 3 Heian Sandan - 3 Heian Yodan - 3 Heian Godan -3 Tekki Shodan - 3 Tekki Nidan - 3 Tekki Sandan - 3 Tekki Den - 3 Bassai Dai - 3 Bassai Sho - 3 Hangetsu - 3 Hangetsu Den - 3 Kwanku Dai - 3 Kwanku Sho - 1 (I had only started learning this one at the time of my diary.) As the recent course showed, "learning" kata is a lot more than just learning a sequence of moves. I think my form generally is improving as I try to pay more attention to the movement, how everything links together and what are the moves trying to achieve. If I were ranking my kata now based on knowledge from the course, I would score myself lower. I think these scores reflect me knowing the basic shape of the katas but the next area to develop is the finer understanding of these moves and what they are intended to accomplish. Following on from kata, I ranked my ability in a variety of areas Kicks - 2 My kicks still need a lot of work. Left leg kicks are not great, right leg kicks are better but need more snap. Hand strikes - 4 I think my power, accuracy and variety is improving on punches, elbows, hand strikes etc. Defences - 3 My leg parrying is getting better and finding I use that now in parrying practise. Still a tendency to try and grab attacks. Locks - 4 Getting better here, particularly working with John on some of his quick attacks and locks. Maybe need some more variety. Breakfalls - 3 Comfortable with my breakfall techniques but cardio is always a challenge on the breakfall kata. Parrying - 2 I feel this is my weakest area. Defensively I feel ok but when trying to attack, I'm not picking targets well and have a tendency to charge in and leave myself too open. Takedowns - 4 Sacrifice throw needs work but I think my other takedowns have really improved lately. Grappling - 3 Tripping and unbalancing is getting better. Struggle a bit with a larger opponent to get enough movement to do anything useful with them. Wrestling - 4 I think my movement on the ground has improved. Still need some work on finishing and sometimes leave arms in vulnerable positions for chokes Parrying continues to need work but more recently I have found myself getting more confident in the practise. However, I am still very linear in my movement and need to improve that. My wrestling also needs more work than the above score suggests, particularly avoiding being pinned down and thus having to expend a lot of energy to escape from bad positions. I have been wrestling with Ross and Eric recently, both of whom are highly skilled and in Ross's case, very strong. Looking back, I scored myself in the context of being a brown belt but if I want to progress to second Dan, then my ability will need to improve across the board. That's not a bad thing but I believe it is important to recognise how the expectations change and where I need to develop. To this extent, I have found myself recently asking many questions of Hugh and sharing observations with the class. Whilst I have always asked questions, the Springburn course has really awoken a desire to understand why things work and the wider picture of how everything fits together. Hopefully nobody minds the barrage of questions and brain dumps too much (sorry everyone!). Also with the Women's Self Defence Class now underway, both Emma and I need to be able to answer questions from the class. It is an interesting development and shows that the long held idea that getting a black belt means the real learning starts is a lot more than just a martial arts cliché. So, with both skills and understanding to develop, the journey to Second Dan is well underway. Let's enjoy the ride. The first course of 2017 saw a good number of Shoto Budo practitioners descend on Springburn Academy over the weekend of 11th and 12th February. The theme of the course was kata, how to improve and how to use it.
The class was divided into groups and, as with November's National Course, we had 30 minutes or so with different instructors whilst the senior grades circulated to clarify both what was being taught and how it was being received. I was training with the black belt group over the weekend and, obviously enough given that I only got my First Dan in November, this was the first course where I have been part of that group. Such was the level of information and practice within the group, I can safely say that my head was as exhausted as my body. For example, on Sunday my group was working through the Tekki katas and using application of these in open space and against a wall. Graeme Muirhead and Richard Price (both 8th Dan) fed into the session about the movement, and timing of certain moves to generate power with Graeme effectively demonstrating what he meant. It really showed that "knowing" a kata is not just some vague sequence of moves but what the moves actually are doing. Billy Haggerty (10th Dan and Shoto Budo's Technical Director) made a point during the wrap up that he still practises Taikyoku Shodan (the first kata) and it has all the moves need for self defence. I imagine that I was not the only person who was surprised by that, the (incorrect) assumption being that the higher the grade, the higher the kata would be practised. I think the value of all the katas is something everyone should remember. Another valuable learning point from Billy was that kata in itself is not self defence. If one goes into a situation with the intention of using a specific kata, it will likely fail. He then framed it as "stay safe" rather than "use kata" and that simple phrasing visibly changed the mindset. After a demo of this, he asked if anyone saw moves from kata. Lots of shaking heads. But what about these steps he asked? What about these parrying moves? There were moves from kata but since he hadn't framed it as kata application, many of us did not recognise it as such. So much information, so much to process and so much to take back to the club for regular training. It was exactly what a course should provide. It also was the first grading opportunity for our kyu grades and we had one member participating. Congratulations go to Scott McCallum who achieved his orange belt. Well done Scott! As we enter February 2017, the club is branching out and launching a Women's Self Defence course that will run over six weeks. Given that Shoto Budo as a martial art is primarily about self defence and we have female members already, why introduce this course? Essentially we recognise that starting a martial art can be quite intimidating, for both men and women, and progression through the grades, attending courses and is quite a time commitment. It may not be what everyone is looking for. However, the elements of our practise can benefit anyone and this new course aims to give some moves that would be useful in a self defence situation. Therefore Emma and I have put together six lessons which focus on different types of attack, with counters for these. The moves are designed to be simple and memorable so that they can be recalled when necessary. We did not want to include some of our more complex locks - even after nine years of practice it can still take me several attempts to apply these which is not quite what we're aiming for here. Emma has been very keen to start such a class, having trained as teenager, joined Shoto Budo when she turned 30 and now as a 1st Dan black belt, is looking to pass on some of her skills. She always encourages women to join a martial arts club but understands how daunting it can be. Commenting further, Emma added "the most common reaction I hear about when women are attacked is that they "freeze" so the idea is to give you movements that we practice so that they become natural reactions should the worst ever happen. We've designed a 6 week course to tackle 5 different attacks and a variety of ways to defend against them". We'll hit some pads (a great stress relief!), try some moves and hopefully have some fun whilst doing it. A six week course won't make anyone a ninja but it might improve confidence, a little bit of fitness and maybe encourage people to join the club. The course is affiliated to our club so we decided to have a logo that was a variation on our triangle logo existing club logo. Many thanks to Laura Murdoch for designing this. The first class is on 22nd February and we'll check back in here with updates on our progress. For more details, take a look at our Womens Self Defence page. Bearsden Martial Arts Club has been running classes for children and adults in the area for over 30 years. Our chief instructor, Hugh Russell, has over 40 years of experience in various martial arts and currently is a 9th Dan Black Belt. He is assisted by instructors Eric Walton (3rd Dan Black Belt), Ross Walton (3rd Dan Black Belt) and John Marley (1st Dan Black Belt).
The club trains on Tuesday nights at Bearsden Academy and on Wednesday nights at St Joseph's Primary School in Milngavie. On both nights, child classes are from 7pm to 8pm, with adult classes following from 8pm to 9:30pm. Today we have 30 adult members, and 60 juniors. In addition to our training, the club has regular social activities. New members will be made to feel very welcome. We actively encourage people of all grades to train together so a new member will get to train with everyone from other newcomers, up to Hugh. We have 14 black belts in the club at present which allows us to give 1-to-1 tuition with a black belt for new members to help them feel comfortable and get used to our training. The club has its roots in Shotokai Karate but, reflecting the interests of the senior instructors, has evolved to incorporate elements of many martial arts, such as judo, jiu-jitsu and aikido. The over-arching principle is one of self defence and the emphasis is on self development and continual improvement so there is no competitive fighting element to what we do. A typical practice may involve elements such as hitting pads, parrying, wrestling and takedowns. This is performed in a safe, controlled and supervised environment and is always appropriate to the grade of the practitioners. Speed and technique for experienced black belts will be different to that of the new comer and practice will reflect that. Training with us has many benefits. There are improvements in overall fitness, balance, flexibility as well as the improved confidence and ability when it comes to self defence. A session of hitting pads is also a wonderful way to relieve stress after a particularly busy day. Children can start training at five years old and will have two opportunities per year to grade and move to a higher belt. Depending on their progress, junior members can start training with the adult class and then at 18 can move up to the adult grades. Our instructors are PVG Disclosure checked. Age, size and sex are no barrier to joining. You don't have to start young and you don't have to be the Incredible Hulk. We have members training in our adult class ranging in age from 14 to 61 and covering short, tall, big, small and all points in between. We welcome new members regardless of age. For example, Ross started at 6 years old, is now 29 and a 3rd Dan Black Belt whilst another member started after 50, has been training with us for about 18 months, loves the fitness element and now has an orange belt (the third colour after a beginner's white belt). We also encourage both male and female members to join and women joining will be made to feel welcome and not embarrassed in any way. Regardless of age, levels of fitness and flexibility or previous experience, training with the club will help you to improve and you will find yourself being able to do things you never thought possible. In addition to the regular training nights, the wider organisation holds several courses throughout the year giving everyone an opportunity to learn from other instructors, train with different people and grade for new belts. Getting to a black belt is not a race nor is there a time limit. Of our new 1st Dans, Emma has been training for four years, Scott for nine years and David for 18. Commenting on the club, Hugh finds training to be enjoyable as it helps fitness and flexibility whilst as a coach, he is rewarded by seeing club members develop and grow from beginner to black belt and onto coaching themselves. Eric runs the Tuesday night junior club and "finds it very enjoyable that a wide variety of kids, from quiet and shy, to full of beans, can change over a relatively short time into competent and confident youngsters. It’s hard work keeping everyone on track for their progression to their next grade, but we try to make it a fun way of learning not only a Martial art, but the self-confidence, self-discipline, compassion, self-control and respect that come with this, which is great for the instructors and parents but more importantly for the kids themselves." The cost for children is £14 per month and £17 per month for adults. This covers membership of Shoto Budo, insurance and training two nights per week. A newcomer can wear comfortable clothes such as shorts and t-shirt before buying any equipment, such as karate suits, pads and gloves which can be purchased through the club at a discounted rate. If you a have New Year resolution to get fit and want to try something new, come along and join us. Your first night is free and there is no obligation to join. There is a contact form on our website and we can answer any questions you may have before you come. More information is available at our website, www.bearsdenmartialarts.org, on Facebook at facebook.com/BearsdenMartialArts/ and on Twitter @BearsdenMAC. 2016 is almost in the books. It's been an eventful year in world events but closer to home, what have been the hightlights for Bearsden Martial Arts Club? I asked my club mates for their personal favourite moments. Perhjaps unsurprisingly, gradings were highlights for many. Scott M had his first grading over the summer during a course in Greenock, saying he will never forget his first one. Just wait until the next one, Scott! Diana loved this year with her highlight being getting to the end of it and feeling that she is making "steady progress even though I am even more acutely aware of the known unknowns and this has really boosted my confidence". It's always nice to feel progress is being made and I'd like to congratulate Diana on not one but two successful gradings in 2016 and she begins the new year as a blue belt. For David, his highlight was seeing the progress that everybody has made over the year and the grading in November. He's far too modest to mention it but many of us were delighted to see David finally get his black belt. It's been a long time coming and it was thoroughly deserved for such a good guy. Training and grading for first Dan was Emma's top moment and she specifically included the training part as first Dan is more than just a weekend course. It's a process with ups and downs along the way. Similar to Diana's growth in confidence, Emma pointed out that the praise from Hugh, other instructors and fellow martial artist has given her a huge spring in her step and also the feeling that she is capable and worthy of the grade, even when there were times she doubted her own ability. I could not put it any better myself, as that pretty much word for word my own highlight. From a period of injury and low confidence in 2015, this year's training has been so good for me with many challenging but enjoyable sessions over the year, culminating in the grading in November. As mentioned in the last article, my enthusiasm for training has been renewed and my fitness level has been better than it has been in a very long time. Previous articles have covered the joy so many members get from seeing others develop their skills and this was reflected in many comments. From our new black belts, junior black belts, kyu grades and kids coming through from beginners, it really is satisfying to see everybody improve. We have a club Facebook group and the supportive and congratulatory messages to each other before and after grading is genuinely heartwarming. Hugh continued this theme, with one of several highlights. From a club point of view, so many people graded over the year and in particular the National Course in November that Hugh takes great pride in seeing the club develop their skills. It has also been a good year for the club in terms of membership numbers, across both our junior and adult classes. On that last note, we cannot rest on our laurels and will be looking to grow membership further in 2017. It might not be training related, but Hugh also mentioned the club's Christmas night out! We might spend time hitting and choking each other, but we are actually quite a sociable bunch. The final highlight was from Jamie and is perhaps the most inspiring, motivational story of the year. Alan Dunn, who trains in our Greenock clubs, was awarded a special 2nd Dan at the spring Adult National. A keen and passionate martial artist, his progression was put on hold by a massive motorcycle accident. As soon as he could move in a wheelchair, he turned up at Billy Haggerty's door asking what can I do? And he kept coming back, getting on two canes, then one, then a stick, until finally walking freely which was nothing short of a miracle. He still struggles but that does not stop him from training and coming to courses. Shoto Budo literally saved his life, and Alan being awarded for his sheer determination was one of Jamie's most heart warming and emotional moments of my year. I agree and that is a story that we can all be inspired by. Just amazing. So that was 2016. We enter 2017 with a healthy club, lots of freshly graded members and our journey continues. Who knows what the new year will bring but let's hold on and enjoy the ride! I've now been a black belt for a month but as my first dan grading approached, I wondered how I would feel afterwards. Would it feel like an achievement, an anticlimax, a culmination or a step along the way?
The quick answers:
Let's look at each of these in a bit more detail. It did feel like an achievement. It has taken a while, there have been interruptions for work, injury and life in general, but to get through the course and perform in the grading felt great. I have said before that I consider martial arts to be a personal challenge and to meet this particular one, one that had built up a daunting aura over time, was so rewarding. After all the training and the formal grading, your reward is a certificate and a 290 centimetre length of black cotton that Greaves Sports will sell you for five pounds. It might not be some elaborate trophy but it certainly did not feel like an anticlimax. In fact very much the opposite, putting the black belt on for the first time felt . . . a bit weird. In fact, a month down the line and it still feels weird. For me, it symbolises the time and effort I have put into Shoto Budo and also what it has given to me in return. It definitely is not the end of the journey but it does feel like a significant milestone. After all, if I train in Shoto Budo for the rest of my life, I'll never get another colour of belt. There has been a perhaps unexpected benefit: I feel re-energised in my training. My frustration with injuries and lack of progress (perceived or otherwise) have been banished to the past and replaced with a desire to continue learning and to move up again. Who knows when that will be but I have a renewed enthusiasm for my martial art, all thanks to this length of black cotton. There is so much more to learn. It was interesting to see the reaction of my work colleagues; on more than one occasion the phrase "better not argue with Scott, he's a black belt now" has been uttered in meetings. It's not that in the space of a grading I suddenly learned a whole range of new skills or some previously secret techniques but to the wider public, the black belt clearly maintains its mystic status as being a symbol of being a martial arts expert (I'm definitely not). Most of my colleagues were surprised that there are another nine dan grades after the one I had just achieved. Training with so many talented people both at the course and in my club shows just how much more there is to learn and how great is the scope to improve. I might have been training for nine years but I feel like I have barely scratched the surface. It's clear that a first dan black belt is far closer to the start of the journey than the end. Watching our higher dan and Meijin grades train is both hugely impressive and inspiring. It is also notable how much knowledge our Meijin grades have when it comes to the fine details of what works, how and why. For example, during the course, Emma and I were practising a technique taught to us by Markus and Marko (very skill third and fourth dans respectively) but when one element was not working for either of us, a small detail from Richard Price (3 Meijin, or 8th Dan) made all the difference. That is a level of skill, knowledge and vision for everyone to aspire to. So to answer the opening question "now what?" is actually quite easy. More training, more learning, more fun and, hopefully somewhere down the line, second dan. Without question, I am really looking forward to enjoying the next leg of my martial arts journey. Three and a half years after starting this blog to track my progress, I am absolutely delighted to say that I am now a first dan black belt! My grading took place at the recent adult national course, held over the weekend of 4th to 6th November at Carronvale House in Larbert. Although this year has been mostly injury free, going into the weekend, I was worried about my body holding up to the rigours of 14 or so hours of training across six sessions. Preparations had gone well, my fitness felt good, my grading diary was complete but still... would I just get through the weekend? At these courses, formal grading takes place in the Sunday morning session although performance is being assessed over the weekend. In the other five sessions, coaching with taken by the third and fourth dan black belts, teaching small groups in 30 minute chunks. This rotation between instructors, allowed us to get coaching from a wide variety of very talented martial artists, with the Meijin grades chipping in, to add guidance and fine details. The theme of the course was kata and how we use moves from kata in so many elements of practice without necessarily thinking about it. I really enjoyed the different sessions, with personal highlights being a Friday night pad work session which then lead into a Saturday morning parrying practice with Markus and Marko from Finland, outdoor takedown practice on Saturday with Kenny and outdoor kata and movement in a confined space with Chris and Alexis. Sunday morning came and it was time for grading. First up we had a good number of kyu grades going for new belts. I will admit that whilst I held pads for them, I didn't see too much of the grading as I was trying to psych myself up for my own grading. The good news is that amongst many successes, our very own Diana and Iain jumped up to blue belt and orange belt respectively. A large contingent of brown belts and junior black belts was up next. Much of the next hour is a blur so you're not going to get a blow by blow account of my grading. We started with pad work where the challenge is to not set off at 100 miles per hour at the beginning of an hour or so of grading. I did manage that and benefitted from reminders to breathe (and smile, by Eric) from the pad holders. We then moved onto having a static target to demonstrate technique in our kicks and hand strikes. I was paired up with John Gallagher and he coached and coaxed me through this and provided good targets. I think my hand strikes are ok but my kicks still need work. Once complete, it was back to pads with the targets moving around. There was not a great deal of mat space so we split into two groups. My group was on first for two runs through the break fall kata, the first of which I messed up, but then recovered for the second. We got a break whilst the second group had their turn before coming back on for another two (I think) break fall katas. The interval helped here, four of these in a row and the room would have been spinning! Next it was takedowns and again with limited mat space, we paired up with a single opponent which in my case was Jamie from our club. It's funny but we practise so many takedowns yet when it comes to grading, I instantly forget about 90% of them, which is always annoying in hindsight. However, I was really quite chuffed with myself for being able to use a John Marley special for one of my takedowns. A small fist pump may have happened! We got a breather whilst Billy gave instructions to the rest of the group about the next test. From a sitting position we were to defend whilst opponents tried to punch, kick or grab us. This was a new practice but one I really enjoyed. I do remember exclaiming "Liam, you can kick me better than that" at one of the third dans. Adrenalin can do funny things to your thought processes! I did manage to get some success using an X-guard takedown which we haven't practised in the club for some time but has always been a favourite. Wall defence was up next, dealing with opponents as they try and get you against a wall. This was going quite well until I accidently kneed Laura on the nose. I felt terrible about this. Even in the heat of the moment, I need to be able to maintain a better level of control. Sorry Laura! Parrying was next, with I think four or five rounds of this. At this point, I was really tiring and this section of the grading is pretty hazy. Andy and John were opponents but I'm not sure who else. This always feels like my weakest skill so combined with fatigue and I don't think this was the strongest part of my performance As we lined up, I realised we hadn't done any kata, which had been the first item of all of my previous grading so as the penny dropped, my thought was "oh no, are we going to start at Taikyoku Shodan and work all the way up to Kwanku Dai?". My legs were jelly so the prospect of this was not good. As it turned out, we did four katas, the exact ones now escape me but only as high as Heian Godan. Phew! From there, rather surprisingly, we moved onto practical application of the first kata, Taikyoku Shodan. Given that the weekend featured so much free form application of kata, I wasn't sure if this was intended to be the formal application that we had learned previously. It was, and I paired up with Jamie and Kenny to run through this for a few minutes. And with that, grading was over. We bowed to the group and, exhausted, sweaty and emotional, exchanged a variety of hugs and high fives with each other. We had done it! Markus and Marko were grading for fourth and fifth dan respectively, and all second dans and above were put through the grading with them as a trial run for their next grading. After 30 minutes or so of watching and recovering, I jumped in to participate in their wall and ground defence and sparring sessions. The healing powers of Lucozade clearly had worked their magic. After lunch, we had the Sunday afternoon session and despite being tired, I really enjoyed this. Third dans Paul and Chris put together an excellent session involving parrying, kata and multiple attacks that was perhaps my favourite of the entire weekend. A group kata and stretch followed and then certificates were handed out. Receiving my first dan certificate and 1st dan patch for my belt was just such a high for me. Is it the right thing to hug the line up of Meijin grades handing out the awards? I don't know but I did it anyway. I owe so much to so many talented people who have coached and developed my along the way. Perhaps the best feeling for me was the privilege of grading alongside several of my club mates. In addition to Diana and Iain, our club also gained six new black belts. Robbie and Carla attained junior black belt level whilst Ashley, Emma, Davie and I all received our first dans. I have enjoyed training with this club so much over the years, made some very good friends along the way and to share the experience with some of them was just awesome. A few club photos later and it was all over. A great weekend, a lot of learning and a tough, rewarding grading. I loved it. My body ached for the next few days but nothing could wipe the smile of my face. |
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