It was a little sad today as we couldn't properly celebrate the club's 11th anniversary, but we are privileged to have a great group of dedicated students that have supported us through the pandemic. Even though we couldn't share a beer together we still trained online and we'll look forward to getting together in the future.
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I wouldn't normally write an end of the year review, but this year obviously hasn't been normal. While we are missing the dojo terribly, there have been plenty of positive moments to look back on. Ten Year AnniversaryIt feels like a lifetime ago, but in February we celebrated the ten year anniversary of Cambridge Goju Ryu. We held a training course with special guests Sensei George Andrews and Sensei Simon Oliver. It was great day and it feels me with great pride to look back at the photos of so many people training with us. GradingsA few weeks later Nick and David traveled to London for a weekend of intensive training, at the end of which they were awarded 1st kyu pass. Little did we know that this would be the last grading weekend of the year. During the year we graded Debasish, Virginia and Cassius online, but nothing compares to a grading in the dojo. The Move to Online TrainingI remember our last class in March, we focused on Sanchin kata and naively thought that we would return to the dojo after the lock down. I had no plans to start teaching online, as surely that wouldn't work. A few weeks later we joined the Zoom revolution and started teaching from our home. We made a couple of changes, switching the Thursday evening classes to Saturday mornings and reducing the length of the classes to just one hour, and as I write this almost 9 months later we're still going strong. Space has always been a major concern of mine so we haven't practiced kata as I would like to and instead we have concentrated on smaller sections of the kata, which could be considered as more important than the full sequence. During this experience we haven't been alone of course. Sensei George soon began teaching the usual OTGKA weekend courses again, although just on a Sunday morning, and the IOGKF and other senior instructors have held online courses. Demonstration for Japan Matsuri 2020One of my proudest moments of the year was our involvement in the production of a ten minute demonstration video, which was used by Japan Matsuri Presents 2020. Keep SmilingKarate means different things to different people, although for us, self defense is the core purpose. However, self defense can also be interpreted in different ways. While self defense techniques from physical attack is of course very important, the process in which we obtain these skills should not be overlooked. One aspect that has perhaps been more important than ever this year is mental health, self defense from stress or anxiety. Hopefully this is something that can be achieved during a class, even if only for a short while as you sweat and forget about any issues of the day. With that in mind, for the first time at Cambridge Goju Ryu we celebrated Halloween and this weekend we hosted an online quiz. Thank You!Thanks to everyone that has supported the club this year, without you it would have been a much harder time. We look forward to returning to the dojo, but having survived this long we'll wait until it is the right thing to do. Wishing you a Happy Christmas and all the best for 2021.
We have started running two online classes per week. Please see the Classes page for details.
Last Class on Tuesday 17th March It is with some sadness that we have decided that we'll have to cancel the adult classes until the situation improves. However, we will hold one last class on Tuesday 17th. It will be a very relaxed class practicing kata. Children's Classes We are currently deciding the best course of action and will decide when to close the Saturday morning classes soon. Video Classes for Home Training We are considering the idea of uploading some short videos to help inspire you to continue training at home. Perhaps we could upload a new video every Tuesday and Thursday. Any thoughts? Best wishes,
Martin, Louise and Fabio We are training as normal this week, but please keep up to date by checking this website as we might need to cancel classes at short notice. If you feel unwell, or have any concerns, please stay at home.
Best wishes, Martin, Louise and Fabio Many congratulations to David and Nick for passing to 1st kyu today under Sensei George Andrews at the OTGKA Honbu dojo in London. The experience doesn't fall far short of the full black belt test and both students performed admirably.
On Saturday 15th February, Cambridge Goju Ryu celebrated it's ten year anniversary with a four hour seminar. Training was conducted by two very special guest instructors; Sensei George Andrews (Goju Ryu) and Sensei Simon Oliver (Shindo Jinen Ryu). The club has been teaching adults during the week for ten years but in 2016 we expanded to include a class for children on Saturday mornings. Sensei George took the warm up session in which the young members of the club trained alongside the adults. Sensei Dave Amber then took the children for a separate session while Sensei George took the adults through a few basic techniques and combinations. After a group photo and saying farewell to the children, the participants were split into two groups, black belts and kyu grades. Sensei George took the kyu grades through the complete sequence of ten San Dan Gi exercises, an important aspect of our fundamental training. The black belts were introduced to kata Seiryu by Sensei Simon Oliver, focusing on the self defense applications. Although this was outside the comfort zone of the group of largely Goju Ryu practitioners, it also felt strangely familiar. For more information about kata Seiryu, the Wikipedia entry for Konishi Sensei is a good start. In the final session of the afternoon, Sensei Simon introduced kata Seiryu to the kyu grades, while Sensei George took the black belts through a series of padwork drills followed by kakie (pushing hands). After training, those that were able to make it relocated to The Dumpling Tree for a relaxed Chinese meal and a few beers. Martin and Louise felt honoured to be able to host an event with two great instructors of karate-do and to have been supported by so many of our students and friends. Particular thanks to those that traveled across the country in such bad weather. Thanks also to Sensei Dave for teaching the children and to Sensei Fabio Giovannoni for the original t-shirt design, the hand drawn Nio Guardians holding aloft the IOGKF kenkon. Many thanks to Holly for taking the photos while suffering with a bad cold.
Thursday 19th December marked the last class of the year and we returned to our tradition of practicing kata 108 times. The significance of the number 108 at this time of year was described in this post from 2016. We took a break from this in 2017 and last year we practiced Shisochin kata 54 times as we were limited by the availability of the dojo. This year we practiced Gekisai Dai Ni. Many thanks to everyone that has supported the club this year. We are looking forward to 2020, with our ten year anniversary in February and several other events to look forward to.
Black belt grading examinations are taken under Sensei George, the OTGKA chief instructor, at the honbu dojo in London. We encourage our students to also take their 1st kyu grading on these occasions as it helps to avoid any surprises when attempting the black belt test.
It is with great pleasure that we can announce that Catherine successfully passed her shodan test this weekend, following 7 hours training and a 2 hour grading. Martin was promoted to 1st kyu, taking his last grading step on the path to black belt. We held the first grading of the year this evening at the club. Many congratulations to everyone - all very well deserved.
Sarah Dawson 7th kyu Jonathan Platt 5th kyu Bruno Goncalves 4th kyu Adrian Galwin 4th kyu David Wilson 3rd kyu Hannah Sanders 2nd kyu Nick Gibbons 2nd kyu |
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Martin Stockley
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