Kumite, strech's and self defence.

I guess it’s about time I got a post up isn’t it.
Well the grading about 2 and a half weeks away so we've been doing lots of grading orientated classes which has been good. I now know all of my kumite defence's, kumite is sparing element of the grading at my level its kihon ippon Kumite which translates as basic one step sparring. During kumite we will pair up and my partner will attack me with ether a face punch (jodan), a body punch (chudan) or a mae Geri (front kick) and ill block and counter with a certain set of moves (which are all given numbers). On top of kumite there’s Kata and Kihon (basics) to learn. I’m happy with my Kata but my basics need some work so that’s what I’m going to focus on more over the next few weeks I think.
John (or Dr John Ollason) was also asked to take the warm up on Sunday (19/4/09) which was a really good warm up which included some new stretch’s which i'm going to start doing every morning so my legs will be more bendy and supple. The stretch involves lying on your back, pulling your knee in to your chest, straitening the leg which you have pulled to your chest and then straitening your other leg. John has been a big inspiration to me and a lot of people in the Dojo recently as he always trains really hard and is older than most of the people in the dojo, He puts a lot of the 20 something’s like me to shame really. He also wrote a really good article about the club not that long ago, Here on page 4. The arcticle is about his experences with Karate and other martial arts which i enjoyed reading.

We have also been doing some self defence stuff at the end of lessons which has been interesting and fun, I got a cracker of a burse from it too. We did a lot of wrist locks and escaping from grabs which are always useful.

I think that’s about it really, Bring on the grading.

Howdy...

...I did spend a few hours writing and contemplating a magnificent introduction post, but i felt it would be better to keep it formal, so i will.

My names Philip Kelly and i live in Aberdeen. Im a student studing Design for Digital Media at Gray School of Art and i also work part time at Tescos. I enjoy music, drawing, partying and so on, but my main passion is practicing Shotokan Karate.

I train at the Shi-Gaku-Kan dojo's which are run by Sensei Mark Donaghy (5th Dan) and his Wife Libby (3rd Dan). Ive been traing at these dojo's for about 2 years now and im currently a Green belt (which is a 6th kyu or 4 belts in to the grading system).

My Reasons for starting Karate were mainly down to my freind Mathew James, other wise know as Brambles. He asked me to go about a year before i accually started karate but i declinded (not really sure why). After year, some long conversations and major quizzing i attended my first class which i still remember was mainly yoga type strechs with a partner as well as some basics. I still remember some of the strechs that we did, im surprised i even managed to get any of them right. So that was it, i was bit by the karate bug and after that my intrest as grown and it has become a major part of my life which i plan on keep that way.

My aim with this blog is to share my experiences in karate with anyone who is intrested and document my journey through Karate to where ever it may take me.

So now you know the score and i hope you enjoy this insight in to the massive world of Karate.