Early Christmas Cheer At Recent Karate Grading

Our recent karate grading was unusual for many reasons, firstly for the first time ever the grading was held on a Sunday morning at the unusual time of 10am. The grading lasted 2 hours and for the majority of the grading students were paired up. This brought it’s own challenges as all pairs were pre-determined before the start of the grading, which is always a risk due to potential unexpected absentees. When deciding who partners who it was decided that students would be partnered with someone of a similar grade and where possible age.

The primary focus of todays grading was to see how well students worked together. The grading started with a partnered warm up consisting of the usual loosening up, followed by some quick, short, high intensity exercises and a period of stretching. It was now time for the grading to start. Led by Sennen Karate Club Instructor and 5th Dan Black Belt Luke Jackson and assisted by Marazion Karate Club Instructor and 4th Dan Denzil Searle and Brown Belt Sam Newbury.

Students began the grading by demonstrating various hand techniques, striking pads held by their partner every time an examiner gave the command to do so. The examiners were looking at multiple things including the range of the strikes, the stances of both students, the positioning of the pad, the focus of the strike and whether the student was doing the correct technique.

It was now time to ditch the pads and find out if it works. Students took it in turn to be the attacker, launching a specific attack towards their partner, who in turn had to defend against it with a well controlled block or avoidance followed with a counter strike. Again examiners were looking to see how well students worked together and how controlled techniques were and how well they were able to defend against an actual attack.

By now students arms were getting tired and in some cases sore due to to the sheer volume of techniques they were asked to perform, in some cases this was caused by incorrect blocking or being too aggressive or tense with their blocks, which can happen especially when trying too hard to impress. Now we moved on to kicks and the pads were being used again. Students were again asked to execute various kicks on demand whilst striking the pad held by their partner. This was a good test of range, balance, control, stances and correct pad holding.

Once all necessary kicks had been performed on the pads students now had to defend against the kicks they’ve just been unleashing on the pads. Higher grades had a greater arsenal at their disposal when dealing with kicks which included catching the kick and throwing their opponent on the floor, which they demonstrated with great control and precision.

After an intense period students were relieved to find out there was light at the end of the tunnel and the grading was nearing completion. All that was left to do was a bit of sparring for the higher grades whilst the lower grades looked at falling and rolling. We finished the grading with kata.

The grading was now complete to the relief of the students who had put in a great shift and gave a lot of effort during the last 2 hours. It was now time for some much needed refreshments whilst the examiners discussed their performance. As always there are a lot of factors to take in to consideration when deciding a students fait, it’s not just based on their performance at the grading but how they perform in class each week, the number of hours training they have, their age, their behaviour and attitude just to name a few, it’s always a difficult decision and one which isn’t going to please everyone.

Despite the unusual grading format and higher intensity than usual, the examiners were very pleased with the overall effort of all students, the standard was good and students displayed a good understanding of techniques and worked well with their partners. As always there were several things that need addressing which have been noted and will be looked at during class over the coming weeks.

The following grades were awarded:

New Belts

• Daisy Clemence-Wall: Blue Belt
• Eva Pounder: Blue Belt
• James: Green Belt
• Velvet Weller: Orange Belt
• Sophie Cartland: Yellow Belt

Tags

3 tags were awarded to:

• Nini Jelbert (Orange Belt, 3 Tags)
• Ellie Beckwith (White Belt, 3 Tags)

2 Tags were awarded to:

• Marni Robinson (White Belt, 2 Tags)
• Herbie Weller (White Belt, 2 Tags)
• Phoebe Buxton (White Belt, 2 Tags)
• Ben Cartland (Yellow Belt, 2 Tags)
• Morris Curnow (Yellow Belt, 2 Tags)
• Yogi Jelbert (Orange Belt, 2 Tags)
• Ayla Payne (Green Belt, 3 Tags)

1 Tag was awarded to:

• Sam Beckwith (Yellow Belt, 2 Tags)
• Torren Parsons (Orange Belt, 1 Tag)
• Lucas Carroll (Green Belt, 1 Tag)

For those who didn’t pass this time, i know how disappointed you are, come back stronger more determined and show us that you really want this. Your time will come.