Wales & Southwest regional SKIF-GB Karate squad was held on a hot June afternoon on Saturday 24th June 2023.
This time was a change of venue from our usual Bristol based event with it been held at the Lysaghts Institute in Newport, Wales. Whilst it was a hot June afternoon, the upstairs ballroom was adequately aired making it an ideal venue for us.
Sensei Dave Griffiths (7th Dan) took the session having only been released from hospital a day or two before.
Working on points Dave had noted from the recent SKIF-GB championships, the theme was reaction training and an emphasis on Gyaku-zuki strikes.
After the initial warmup, we got straight into it with a bit of tap kumite - tap kumite is based on the school ground game of tag and is a safe form of kumite for the younger students, but gets them used to finding openings and making a 'strike' tag to either the shoulder or knee.
Following this there was some reaction skill training - a simple game of catching the opponents mitt dropped from a hands out position - trickier than it sounds.
A couple of Gyaku-zuki reaction training followed this - first striking the opponents mitt when moved to a new position been wary of a wallop if you got too close. Then with hands touching a Gyaku-zuki with the opposite hand when you feel the opponent start to pull hikite, but you must beat your opponent.
Keeping with the reaction training it was now to react with a simple block (head cover) against a shuto strike.
Partnered into groups of three, it was then an exercise to work on attacking skills. With two of the partners just swapping positions the attacker must attack with simple Gyaku-zuki or Kizame-zuki/Gyaku-zuki combinations, over and over with the opponents swapping position quickly to put the workload on the attacker.
Finishing off the basic training was line training - moving down the line each opponent would attack at the same time. Again the emphasis here is on the workload as you are moving from one opponent to the next.
After the basic training, Sensei Griffiths got individuals up for a bit of Shobo Ippon Kumite, but sudden death (or just a single point) with no kicking techniques allowed - so that the students were using Gykau-zuki as much as possible.
With the two hour session approaching its end the class was split - Sensei Griffiths took a brown belt to the side to run through the katas Bassai Dai, Jion, Empi and Kanku Dai. Sensei Nick Dunbar took the rest of the class through Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan and Sochin.
An enjoyable day was had by all.
