Christmas

Merry Christmas from JKS York Karate Club.

See you in 2013!

Christmas Party

After the rigours of grading, everyone could relax and enjoy themselves at the club Christmas party. Thank you to the Welfare Committee, and to all the volunteers, who organised the party for the club. I think everyone had a great time and I could not think of a better way to end an amazing inaugural year for JKS York Karate Club.

More photos are available on the website here (http://www.yorkkarate.net/#!yorkkaratedragons/c136m) and the club Facebook page.

Just a reminder that training is on tomorrow and Thursday before we break-up for Christmas.

Grading Course

What an amazing course yesterday for JKS York Karate Club. We had over 70 students training and 54 grading. I am pleased to say that everyone passed and that there was an unprecedented number of double grades on the day.

Both Sensei Keith and Sensei Craig provided interesting and different classes for everyone to enjoy. Most of the children had only ever trained with me and so I think it is good for them to see and train with other instructors. It was also the first time that many of the children had trained in a different environment from the after school club. This also represents progress in their development within karate.

I was impressed by the effort and concentration that everyone put in to the training and I was also very impressed with the overall standard. Everyone tried very hard and fully deserves their certificate and new orange belt. For many, the next challenge is now their red belt grading examination in February on the National York Karate Course with Sensei Alan Campbell and Sensei Scott Langley in February.

Once again, well done everyone.

Simon
December 2012

Raffle

Just a reminder that the JKS York Welfare Committee is hosting a raffle at the Christmas party on the 16th December. Any donation of prizes would be welcome on the day. Thank you.

 

School Gradings

This Sunday will be grading day for all the children who attend the after school clubs. We have Sensei Keith Gullen and Sensei Craig Williams to teach on the course so it should be a great day!

With around 50 children grading, the instructors should be kept very busy. Training is open to anyone, please see the flyer below for more details.

A VERY SUCCESSFUL COURSE FOR JKS YORK

I am delighted to announce that all 22 entries from JKS York Karate Club passed their gradings with flying colours. Well done to everyone for their hard work, determination and effort and now you can enjoy your reward of attaining the next level on your Karate journey. The standard was very high from JKS York Karate Club and I was very proud of the way you trained and the skill you showed during the gradings.

The course was very well organised by Sensei Paul Brant (Selby Karate Club) and the training provided by Sensei Matt Price and Sensei Alan Campbell was outstanding.

Once again, congratulations!

Were you there taking photos? If so, please add your photographs to the JKS York Karate Facebook page or email your photographs for publication on this website to jksyork@hotmail.co.uk

And Yoko Geri Keage

And Yoko Geri Keage. Notice the difference in technique from Kekomi regarding the 'set-up' position and the feeling of kimae (focus) immediately after the execution of the technique.

Yoko Geri Kekomi

Much of our time over the last few weeks has been focused on Yoko Geri (side kick). In this video, our World Technical Director, Sensei Kagawa, provides a masterful example of Yoko Geri Kekomi.

Enjoy!

Whilst JKS York does not condone this kind of mentality regarding competition, and thankfully Shotokan Karate competitions are not like this, we do recognise the effective power of the kicking techniques. You will recognise almost all of these techniques within Shotokan Karate and our Kyokushin kai brothers (a different karate style to Shotokan) are willing to demonstrate their effectiveness at full force.

(SOUND TRACK NOT APPROPRIATE FOR YOUNGER VIEWERS!)

Today's class

The class today centered around kihon kumite, looking specifically at gohon (5 step) kumite. The above video of two senior JKS insructors perfectly demonstrates the main teaching points from today.

Please note that the strong stances are more or less maintained throughout the movements and that the attack is carried out quickly, but there is a small delay before executing the next attack. This creates distinct, individual movements that are sharp and crisp.

Osu - keep training hard!

Notes on today's class

This video perfectly demonstrates the main teaching points of this evening's class. Note how his front knee remains stable, with very little movement, and how his back knee points forward as much as possible.

The hips remain level and his back heel remains rooted to the floor.

An additional point that was not discussed during our training session tonight was the need to squeeze the 'groin area' when the hips are in the shoman (front) position and there is the feeling of the tail bone being tucked under the body. This ensures the generation of power in a forward motion as opposed to simply rotating around a stationary point.

An easy motion to practise outside of the dojo as very little space is required.

Osu - and keep training hard!

Simon

Great training session last night at JKS York Karate Club. Everyone is looking ahead to the grading on the 28th October 2012. Keep training hard and the grading will be easy.

Some members at the club have asked for a video of Heian shodan and so here is Simon performing the kata slowly. This video will also be published on yorkkarate.net in the near future.

Welcome to the official JKS York Karate Club blog - full of news, stories, videos and information about the club and JKS Karate as a whole. Enjoy!