I'll try and sum up the last 6 months as best I can and hope to add a few details in later posts.
Karate-Leicester-squad-shine-Euro-test
The achievements of the Leicester Contingent didn't go unnoticed and they received congratulations from the Lord Mayor of Leicester who attended the end of year association party.
Whilst I didn't get to go to Portugal this time around, partly because I had yet to learn two of the Shiteigata or compulsary kata, and partly because there were karateka who were significantly better at kata than I am! I was really proud of what our team achieved and hope to be with the squad in November 2012 in Venice for the next European Championship.
In other news, after training 3 times a week for a few months and concentrating on my dojo wado rather than competition stylings I, along with my fellow punchbags Raj Bhardwaj and Colin Greenidge, was awarded the rank of second dan... as you can imagine I'm quite pleased with this. :) and after the 3 hour exam which also saw one junior and two senior students relaise their dream of 1st dan, I was both congratulaed for losing, and chided for maintaining my shotokan roots in different applications.
Despite the pain of the next few days; and I know Raj and I both counted 8 different injuries after our sparring and Matt and I both had actual holes where the balls of our feet should have been from what seemed like a thousand katas, I really enjoyed the grading and the opportunity to demonstrate the full range of what I had learnt over the last 18 months. Having had my first dan for twenty-one years (!) it was quite a feeling to look down and see two little gold stripes!
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| Sensei David, New First Dans: Matt, Callum and Rav, New Second Dans: Me, Raj and Colin, Sensei Connie. |
More to come soon, as I get back into the swing of things.
Dewa mata atode.
