Seishinkai Shotokan Karate International

The London Dojo took its Kyu grading on Thursday 11th December in front of a panel of Adam Sensei (4th Dan), Seth Sensei, Kaan Sensei, Nick Sensei & Johnny Sensei.  It was an excellent grading overall with some exceptionally strong kumite demonstrated.  The group of 5 white belts were the best group of adult white belts that Adam Sensei has seen.

Those who passed were;

To 9th Kyu - Andy Culter, Nicole Schuerer, Nadine Schuerer, Monika Wieselberg & Ellen Leibelt.

To 8th Kyu - Peer Lunstraeten

To 7th Kyu - James Hetherington, Sue Griffiths & Elizabeth Harrin

To 2nd Kyu - Stephan Radcliffe, Alex Brims & Vanessa Martins.

 Well done to all.

 The London Dojo sent a team of 8 to this years SSKI Nationals held at the Hemel Honbu Dojo and put in another strong performance.

In their first competitions James and Sue won medals in both kata and kumite, both narrowly loosing to more experienced competitors.

Alex and Vanessa were also in their first competition and lost to some high quality opposition, but everyone commented on how impressive Alex was, and there is certainly a lot more to come.  Adam Sensei won the Mens Senior Kata, took 3rd in the Mens Senior Kumite and along with Johnny and Kaan came second in the Team Kata.

The final event of the day was the Hemel vs. London Team Kumite match which again proved to be an exciting and entertaining end to the day.  The Hemel team eventually won but the 4-1 scoreline does not really reflect how close the match was.  Both Kaan and Seth lost their fights in the final 10 seconds after holding their own against their opponent, and Alex put in another spirited performance, narrowly loosing the the Mens Kumite Winner doug Carson.  Johnny was un-lucky to come up against Male competitor of the day Gary Richards, who finished their fight with a excellently executed sweep and punch which caught everyone (not least Johnny!) by surprise.  Its getting closer every match!

Sensei Malcolm again commented on how good the London club was, both in terms of numbers and quality.  Well done everyone!

More photo's in the photo gallery.

The London dojo undertook its Kyu grading on Thursday 18th September 2008 in front of a panel of Adam Sensei, Kaan, Seth & Johnny. 

 A good standard of Karate was exhibited throughout and the following people passed their grading;

Peer Lüstraeten - 9th Kyu

Lorna Booth - 9th Kyu

James Hetherington - 8th Kyu

Sue Griffiths - 8th Kyu

Denis Fernando - 5th Kyu

Emma Brown - 2nd Kyu

Katherine Wiles - 2nd Kyu

Kat Wiles - 2nd Kyu

Yoko Isaji - 1st Kyu 

With immeadiate effect there will be a change to the teaching structure on Monday nights.  From now on there will be no seperate children's class, instead the children will train with the adults in a mixed class from 7pm - 8.15pm, with the final 45 minutes being dedictaed to the Brown and Blackbelts.  Also the Monday night classes will be taken by the Assistant instructors on a rota basis.  The 5 assistant instructors (Rich, Nick, Kaan, Johnny & Seth) have been helping me teach for the past 18 months and are all very capable Sensei in their own right.  I can only see this as beneficial for the club as it gives the Blackbelts far more teaching experience and the students a variety of instructors to train with.  I will continue to take the Thursday night classes.

We have trialled this over the past month and it has been a success (actually the Monday classes have greater numbers than my Thursday class!).

Please see below for the rota of who is teaching.  The plan is to have one main instructor and one deputy each week.  Nick Sensei will also be taking on his share of the teaching responsibilities when he is available.

Adam Sensei 

The first weekend of July 2008 saw the ‘3rd International Shotokan Training Camp’ take place at Herqueville Manor in the beautiful French countryside. In total, 33 Karate-ka made the journey to train with Paul Herbert of the ASK and this years guest instructor Adam Cockfield of the SSKI.

In addition to the training with both sensei, Michael Hogan of ASK Ireland and the national kata coach, also took a special class for the Kyu grades. Jeff Matthews also gave an excellent power point presentation on the subject of martial artists, self defence and the law - Jeff is a vastly experienced karate-ka and police office who is also an expert on conflict management. 

Over the 4-days, both instructors taught various levels of technique and theories applying to traditional karate, sport karate and also effective street-applied karate techniques for personal protection. The brown and black belts also covered the kata’s Meikyo and Gankaku with in depth breakdowns and understanding of their applications and feel.

There was also special early morning sessions for those able to roll out of bed for a run and training on the banks of the river Seine with Paul Sensei. On the second morning, Adam Sensei took the early birds through a tough but highly enjoyable plyometrics training session.

Aside from the training, there was never a dull moment over the weekend with beautiful weather, BBQ’s, Football, Pool, Karaoke and a fair bit of drinking. The 4th International Shotokan Training Camp is already booked at Herqueville Manor for Friday 10th to Monday 13th July 2009.

Please see below details of the International Shotokan Training Camp run by Paul Herbert Sensei (4th Dan).

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to announce the dates for the 2008 International Karate Course being held in Rouen, France at Herqueville Manor. After the success of the previous two international courses it is hoped that this one will be even better than ever. The course is open to individuals of all ages, grades, clubs and associations. Please pass on this information to anyone you think may be interested.

Dates are Friday 4th July – Monday 7th July 2008 and the Course Instructors are Sensei Paul Herbert (4th Dan ASK) & Sensei Adam Cockfield (4th Dan SSKI) plus a guest instructor.

Costs are: Adults only £75 each, Juniors only £45 each and Family only £160 (3 to 5 sharing). Price includes eight training sessions, accomodation at the Historic Manor, three daily meals (inc BBQ) and party entertainment (*price excludes alcohol).

Please visit www.shotopromotions.co.uk and www.herqueville.com for further details. All bookings and enquiries through Paul or on +44 (0)7834 239 714

 The SSKI Under-16's Champs were held on Sunday 18th May at the Hemel Hempstead Honbu Dojo.

London's only entry of the day, Erin Beck, picked up London's only medal of the day, a well deserved 2nd place in the Junior (6th - 4th Kyu) Sanbon Kumite.   Erin also competed in the junior kata but missed out on a place in the finals despite doing an excellent Heian Shodan.

Well done Erin! 

On Wednesday 16th April 2008 in front of a panel of Tony Bunting Sensei (5th Dan) and Malcolm Phipps Sensei (7th Dan), Adam Sensei took the exam for Yondan (4th Dan).  Adam had to perform the kata Meikyo and then demonstrate its Bunkai, against a team of Blackbelts, the kata being chosen 3 months previously by the grading panel.  Adam also wrote a mini thesis on the history, performance and bunkai of the kata.  Following the kata performance and Bunkai, Adam had to teach a 1.5 hour senior grade lesson based on a thesis that he was also required to complete.  The title of thesis was "The Impact of Competition Karate on Modern Shotokan", and the lesson followed this theme concentrating mainly on two Juyi Ippon techniques and breaking each one down concentrating on variety of technique, targeting, distance, hikite and impact, showing the difference between competition kumite and kumite orientated towards self defence.  The lesson also touched upon competitions impact on kata and the erosion of bunkai in Shotokan.

Afer 2 hours of performance and teaching, the panel announced that Adam had passed 4th Dan and commented on the high standard of the grading.  Copies of the thesis can be found here.

The Impacy of Competition Karate on Modern Shotokan

Meikyo

References

On Sunday 6th April 2008 braving the bad weather SSKI London sent a team of 10 to the SSKI Shotokan Shield, held at the Hemel Hempstead Honbu Dojo and put up an excellent show.   First up was Katie Beck who picked up a bronze medal in the Ladies Junior Kata.  SSKI London had two competitors in the Ladies Senior Kata Yoko Isaji & Karin Haberkorn, Yoko narrowly missing out on the final but Karin won the event with an excellent rendition of Sochin, after initially drawing with A-Squad member Alexis Rayman for 1st place.  In the Mens Senior Kata, the days largest event, Nick Ross-McCall, Johnny Chiodini, Kaan Yargici & Abe Katz all performed well but missed out on the final, but club instructor Adam Cockfield won the event with performances of Nijushiho & Unsu.  Karin Haberkorn was then up again in the Ladies Senior Kumite, winning her way through to the final only to loose after being one wazari up, Alexis Raymen scoring with an excellent Jodan Mawashigeri to take revenge for her loss in the kata.  Some more strong performances from all the London competitors in the Mens Senior Kumite saw Abe Katz narrowly loose to Dougie Carson who eventually went on to take third place be beating London's Nick Ross-McCall.  The event was won by Dan White, who beat Adam Sensei in the final.  London then went on to take 1st and 3rd places in the Adult Team Kata.  

The Shotokan Shield is set up to find the associations best all rounder, so after totting up the scores from the three events the Shield Winners were announced with Londons Karin and Adam taking the Ladies & Mens titles respectively, the childrens title was taken by Thomas Carson (The three shield winners are pictured above).

The final event was the exhibition Team Kumite match between London and the Hemel Honbu dojo.  Nick and Abe lost very narrowly in the first two fights, Adam then won the 3rd fight, Seth King put up an valiant fight only to suffer a suspected broken nose, meaning his opponent was disqualified.  The match went into the final fight with Johnny Chiodini just missing out, meaning the Hemel dojo won 3-2! 

It was an excellent day from the London dojo's perspective, with everyone performing very well and with a great attitude and will only stand everyone in good stead for competitions in the future.  After the event Malcolm Sensei commented on the strong showing from the London club, both in terms of numbers and performance.  Well done everyone, also a big thank-you to those who came to support the club.