A slack week only 3 training sessions of an hour each with the final one learning or rather re learning Bassai Sho and hopefully Kanku Sho. I found on Saturday I'd more or less re-forgotten Kanku Sho but the other is back on board. On Saturday I even wandered out with my Bo staff and went through a basic kata too, was bloody windy mind. I had a look at some gi's in Decathlon I so need new ones as mine are well worn. I might look in London this week.

A shot of us training another day. There is an element of me aerobically being way off course but once my joints warm up the memory kicks in and things take shape. There is now a definite difference between legs in kicking which is odd and I am trying to kick at the same level. Also I have realised how much leg strength I've lost as the Ren geri is wobbly to say the least. For the un initiated ren geri means 4 kicks (Mae geri, yoko geri, ushiro geri and mawashi geri) all with same leg without putting it on the floor till all 4 kicks are completed. Should be done 3 times each leg. Does anyone have a zimmer I can use for balance?

Training Begins

Luckily I'd kept up some kata it is the best way to train as long as you have a camera now and again to view yourself from outside. Those little errors creep in and from you what perceive to be a strong sharp kata actually looks like you did as a white belt. Whenever I taught a lone student I'd get them to critique me too and ask if various points looked reasonable it helps knowing you still want to get better even if they see you as way ahead of them in terms of time served.
Although SEKU recently revisited their haian kata to standardise alongside Nakayama's Best Karate series as well as edicts from the Japanese Karate Association (JKA) via their re printed Karate Kata Vol Book. I had on the whole got (Haian) Shodan, Nidan, Sandan, Yondan, Godan and Tekki Shodan kata sorted. Mick gave me some tweaks on foot positioning and the usual bollocking for strength over technique failings, sorry I'm a big bloke but I had them in mind. Over the week we also concentrated on the basic techniques needed as well as the combinations. It is now a routine I have going through all the blocks and kicks slowly increasing as the days go by. I had my first blood blister in years after day one! By day 4 things were coming back, we'd cemented the brown belt kata back into my head, Enpi, Jion, Bassai Dai, Kanku Dai and Hangetsu. We also spent a while going over Nijushi Ho my exam kata, at least at this time.

2012 where is time going?

Ages since I last posted and with a new Government in Gibraltar, the 2012 Europeans coming, extortionate hotel prices included  ..can you believe Platini is whining Mr Gravytrain himself? Any I thought I'd diary my journey for the next 6 months as an added incentive for myself. a motivational sort of diary if you get my drift.
I've tried to practise the martial art of Shotokan Karate now for more than 20 years. I first kissed the knuckles back in 1982 under license from the Karate Union of Great Britain (KUGB). After about 14 months the club dissolved as the instructor was posted (Derek Frame) from RAF Coltishall where I was and I concentrated on football. I'd always wanted to practise karate not Tae Kwan Do or any other and shotokan being the most common it was natural I'd end up there. After a lull of some 7 years I ended up in Portsmouth and started again under license to the then South of England Karate Union, now the Shotokan of England Karate Union (SEKU) around autumn of 1991. To cut a long story short I've been involved ever since taking my 1st Dan in 1995. The move was on to take my 2nd Dan by 1998 latest but unfortunately I had a few setbacks namely ruptured disks, 3 to be precise lower back. It takes around 6 months focussed training and me being the size I am I attempted twice to run up to the exam the first in 19984 months into left me with about 3 weeks in spasm. the second attempt was in 1999 whilst training in London under Sensei Enoeda and his assistant Ohta. This ended in more than a month without sport. It seemed I was doomed.
I have seen all my sempei and kohai move along but travelling around like I did, I end up more often than not training on my own or in some other styles. For example in London alongside shotokan I was studying Ju Jitsu, in Australia for 6 months I studied ju jitsu but also dropped into dojo's far and wide to dabble in Goju Ryu, Pen Kat Silat, Aikido and best of all 90 minutes of a knife defence lesson in Ninjitsu at a dojo in Adelaide. Her ein Gibraltar I spent ages at the Shoto Kai club until my back went, again. But throughout I have kept teaching when asked and trained alone when needed. I'm not giving up yet.
My good friend Stacey Crowe (5th Dan) has been nagging me to take 2nd Dan ever since I nagged him about taking his 4th Dan. so I promised I'd try for a fourth time and I have been up until November 2011 when work interfered with my routine long 11 hour days leave little time when you have a wife to spend some time with. However in February my mate Mick Dewey (8th Dan) came over, i asked if we could do some training so for the next 4 days we did just that and it was the kickstart again I needed.