This was only our 2nd ‘Grading and Performance Night’ and it’s already become a firm favourite with Tim San and Richard San, and it would seem you guys too! Big thanks for all of you who managed to make it along to this special night. We just can’t believe what an amazing standard you are all showing us when you walk on to the area!
The night is a simple idea; instead of the whole class just watching the students who are grading…everybody can get up on the area and perform something of their choice! And what a buzz there was in the room this time, kicked off by the headline act of Sempai Lucy grading for her Aikido-Te black belt first part. She was asked to perform many times throughout the evening, demonstrating both art and aggression wonderfully with great skill! Special thanks too must go to her Aikido partners who placed their bodies on the line for Sempai to demonstrate all the techniques and applications, well done guys!
We had the full range of gradings, form Yellow belt right through to Graeame San, who will be trying for his 1st Dan in BAMA Karate soon! Special mention goes to Nick San, the longest serving student in the room after Tim San and Richard San, who achieved his 1st part black belt in sword on the night, well done Sen!
But these performances did in no way overshadow the awesome displays from the other students who weren’t grading, but they were certainly displaying the same spirit and focus! We had demonstrations ranging from Karate Katas to combat and knife displays and from Reflective Aikido Katas to sword displays, a feast for the martial arts eye!
The biggest highlight of the night for the instructors was the atmosphere and friendship created from you all, especially as some of you don’t get the chance to meet up very often, so it was really great to see everyone chatting and catching up in the pub afterwards!
Here’s to the next one in 2014!
By the way, if you want to see lots more pictures from Novembers Grading & Performance Session then we will be putting them up on our member’s page soon!
Challenges
This week saw the introduction of our first Wisewarrior Challenge… The 7 Day Zenkutsu Dachi Challenge!!! On regular periods throughout each month we will be putting forward short routines to copy; aimed at helping students with their own personal practice. These will help improve martial art technique, but will also help towards fitness and body conditioning; which are also key factors in the subjects that we teach.
Modern day life finds people busier than ever, and often finding the time for practice can be really difficult. These challenges are a fun, quick way of keeping up with the demands of a complex syllabus and can easily be fitted in throughout the day.
As the weeks progress we will be encouraging students to work on stances, develop fitness levels, explore different techniques and increase the repetition of patterns. Also as i hope more of the dojo members take part in these challenges – then each of us is helped knowing that we are all working together! 🙂
But above all we would like these challenges to inspire students to ask questions about their syllabus, and how they can improve fitness and technique. Practice, after all: is as much about thinking as It is about sweating!
If you have any questions or maybe challenge you would like to offer up then ask me or the team!