Sam and Owen get their Last Brown Belts

Hi All.

Last night at the Buntingford Karate Club Sam and Owen went for their 1st Kyu (Brown belt with 2 white stripes) grading.

The grading starts with some kick-bag work and then moves on to basics, then kata, then various forms of one-step sparring, then there is self-defence and finally a terminology test.

They both excelled at the kick-bag and basics being strong, powerful, accurate and technically correct.

Both guys made simple mistakes in their kata which Keith and myself put down to nerves. They were both asked where they went wrong and both of them freely admitted their mistakes. I got Owen to do Bassai-Dai again and he went through it with no problem.

We got Sam to perform Jion and we had Owen perform Wan Kan. They also had to perform Heian NiDan. Apart from their two small silly mistakes all the rest of the kata went off without a problem and was performed accurately and both were technically correct.

For their Kumite they had to go through Go Hon Kumite (5 step sparring), Ippon Kumite (1 step), Jyu Ippon, and Okuri Jyu Ippon. Both men came out with a full range of blocks, strikes, kicks, take-downs and locks. Very impressive and very well controlled. The Self-Defence was against knife attack, bottle attack, strangle and punches. Again, very well controlled defences.

They must now attend regularly and train towards their next grade – which is Black Belt. Well done guys….and good luck!

PS. Don’t forget to sweep the floor lads!

Sensei Bill.