September has been a very busy month at the club. We started with a black belt grading at the Honbu dojo in London, followed a couple of weeks later by our first public demonstration at Cherry Hinton Festival and we've just finished off the month with a grading of kyu grades (coloured belts).

Many congratulations to Tamsin on taking her first grading and passing to 9th kyu (yellow belt). Congratulations to Catherine on earning her 6th kyu (blue belt) at her first Goju Ryu grading having joined us from a background in Shotokan karate. Finally congratulations to our four new 5th kyu (purple belt) students - Deirdre, Xorge, Lewis and Ioannis.

The club is currently enjoying a great span of abilities with every grade from white belt through to purple belt, a couple of brown belts that we would like to see attempt shodan next year and an interesting mix of black belts (IOGKF and from elsewhere). It's great to see the club going from strength to strength and I'd like to thank all of our students for making the club what it is.

Best wishes, Martin.

Saturday 20th September was Festival Day of the week long Cherry Hinton Festival and alongside the many attractions was set out a large community performance stage. The afternoon was to be filled with an interesting mix of dance groups and martial arts clubs and Cambridge Goju Ryu was to put on its first public demonstration. The performances were opened with a Chinese Lion Dance from the Cambridge Chinese Community Centre. It was a cloudy day and half way through the afternoon, during a Tang Soo Do display, it really poured down. Fortunately for us, the rain passed in time for our demonstration.

While Sensei Louise and 5 of our fantastic students ran through aspects of Junbi Undo warm up, San Dan Gi, Gekisai Dai Ichi kata, bunkai, chishi and padwork, I explained to the audience what was being performed. To give our students a brief rest, Sensei Louise and I performed Sepai kata together.  We then demonstrated kakie exercises as group, followed by Sanchin kata and finally Tensho kata. It's amazing what you can pack into 30 minutes!

The afternoon was rounded off by the Chinese Community Centre with traditional dance, Tai Chi and Wing Chun demonstrations. Many thanks to our students for their support and to the organisers of Cherry Hinton Festival.

The black belt grading in September 2013 was a special moment in my karate journey as I successfully passed to Sandan under the watchful eye of Sensei George Andrews.  Alongside me that weekend was three of my students who were grading to 1st kyu.  A lot has happened over the past year, including the move of the Honbu dojo to new premises in Peckham to make way for the demolition of the Institute of Traditional Karate-Do in the Heygate Estate. 

During the past 12 months the three students increased their efforts, making the extra commitment to train with Sensei George as often as possible at the monthly weekend courses, in addition to their regular classes in Cambridge.  The grading weekend this September was another special moment as Steve Morrell, Paul Middleton and Tony Swanser successfully graded to Shodan, making them the first black belt students of the Cambridge dojo.

Of course, I can’t write an article about achievements of the Cambridge dojo without mentioning the Gasshuku in Koh Samui in March earlier this year at which Louise passed her Sandan test under some very tough conditions.

Many congratulations also to Tony Saunders, Finn Eiles and Jabrane Iguider who graded to Shodan and Ben Lacey and Andy Watson for grading to Sandan.

Martin Stockley