First 2012 Kata Focus class

The first Kata Focus class in 2012 was held on Sunday 29th January and the theme was to cover the Heian and Tekkie Shodan Kata, but with a "twist". The idea being that randomly selected class members were chosen the previous evening to look at one of the Kata and present it to the class so that it was an interpretation rather than the "correct' form. Each randomly selected person self choosing "their" Kata, also on a random basis. The Class is usually for Black Belts only and the objective of this exercise was to encourage the members to develop a lateral view of the Kata and think outside of the box. eg all to often certain combinations are only practiced on the left side and it is vital to also develop the other side. The other important objective was to develop the individuals instructional skills.

A few words from Rob 1st Dan

"On Saturday evening, I got a phone call from Sensei Merv congratulating me on winning a place in the prize draw. Thinking I don’t remember entering one, but also thinking who’s gonna turn down a months free training - not me!

Oh how wrong I was - it wasn’t a months free training at all, Sensei Merv continued with "congratulations your prize is teaching your own version of Heian Nidan in the Kata Class tomorrow and you have 20 minutes’to cover the Kata.

Geez, teaching the children basic Karate moves is one thing but instructing black belts on my own version of Heian Nidan is quite another. To say I was nervous at the thought would be an understatement. But I was
eager to rise to the challenge. And then it came to me in my sleep! How about moving forward on the first move instead of to the side and then moving to the side for the second move, which would be the opposite side to normal. Throw in a few maegeri's and nukite's after the shuto’s and there we have it! Perfect!

The morning came and (thankfully) I was first to teach. I did it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Everyone else seemed to as well. I learned lots from those few minutes of instructing. But I’ve always wanted to teach
a Black belt Karate class since I was 8yrs old. At aged 39 I did it!

Gael's words on the class were:-

Kata focus – with a twist

Sunday’s special kata classes are always a challenge, early on a Sunday morning, but the first class of 2012 was even more of a challenge. While we were quickly told we’d be working on the Heian Kata's, pretty basic at a first glance compared with some of the 2nd and 3rd Dan Kata's we were used to tackling in these sessions, it soon became apparent that this was perhaps harder still. After a quick warm up and Kihon Kata as a warm-up exercise, we were straight into Heian Shodan, which set the pattern for the rest – where we first ran through the Kata in question in its standard form before looking at the ‘twist’.
Rob 1st Dan, literally kicked things off with his take on Heian Nidan, changing the direction of some moves and adding extra kicks and punches. For example, the first two moves involved us moving to the front and then to the side, which took a bit of getting used to.
Next up was Nigel 2nd Dan with Heian Sandan. This time we were looking at a bunkai section, which was actually relatively easy compared to our first challenge but illustrated a different variant on the usual bunkai associated with the kata’s first few moves. In case we thought it was going to be a relatively straightforward session after that, Scott 1st Dan got us thinking with Heian Yondan in reverse, with a particular focus on the twisting move early in the Kata, which was surprisingly tough to do on the opposite side to normal. We then took that little section and applied it before Mick 2nd Dan took to the stage.
Mick’s Kata was Heian Godan, and again the emphasis was on the bunkai, with two different sections being applied, again in a different way to usual.
Finally we finished off by running through Tekki Shodan several times to count, as a warm down.

A great session and a different way to revise the Heian Kata's that really had the grey cells working… I was very glad I’d had my breakfast!!