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.

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

On March 15th Sensei Louise and I travelled with a small group of fellow karate-ka to Koh Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. After briefly settling in, we started training with Sensei George Andrews on Monday morning at 10am. We trained for a solid 2.5 hours, covering junbi undo, basics and impact work. The temperature on that first day was roughly 32°C, with high humidity. At 12.30 we stopped for a lunch of tropical fruit and lots of water. We relaxed at our hotel in the afternoon before returning to the dojo at 5pm for another 2.5 hours of training, which included practice of san dan gi and kata.

Training continued in a similar manner for the following 4 days. On Saturday, the group training was only held in the morning as the evening session was reserved for grading candidates, including Sensei Louise. The final session of the course was held on Sunday morning, at the end of which Sensei George announced the results of the grading, and it gives me great to pleasure to say that Sensei Louise passed to sandan (3rd dan).

Congratulations to Steve, Rohit, Iain and Vikram on a successful grading at our new dojo!

This week is the second anniversary of Cambridge Goju Ryu and tonight we celebrated with a grading!  Many congratulations to Steve, Deirdre and Vikram on a successful grading at the club tonight.

Congratulations to Steve M, Iain, Jo and Rohit on a successful grading at the club tonight.  In addition to our regular black belt members we now have a great mix of students from white belt through to blue.

We held our second grading at the club tonight.  After the traditional warm up we worked through the syllabus, covering basic strikes, blocks and kicks.  This was followed by moving basics including san dan gi.  The grading candidates were then tested on kata Gekisai dai ichi, which looked strong despite some nerves showing in places.  With the technical part complete we moved onto padwork, light sparring and the fitness test of press ups, sit ups and "star jumps".

Both students performed to a high standard.  Many congratulations to Iain and Jo for passing their 8th kyu (orange belt) test.

The club has been running for 5 months now and today was a special day for us, the first grading of our new students.

With both Sensei Martin and Sensei Louise watching and only three students grading there was nowhere to hide. We worked through a series of basic striking and blocking techniques, followed by a kick / punch combination and then san dan gi.  The first kata of the goju ryu system, Gekisai Dai Ichi, was performed to a decent standard, both to the count and moving together as a group. We finished with padwork and a spirit test of press ups, sit ups and burpees.

Many congratulations go to Al Weaver, Iain Cumming and Jo Brookfield for passing to the grade of 9th kyu (yellow belt).