First Kata Course & Grading

A tradition of the Windsor Higashi club is to have a Christmas night out (for the adults) on the day of the last Kata course of the year. This was held on the 16th. Several people chose to come to the party (on a boat that sailed up and down the Thames) but didn't bother with the kata course. Seeing as I was going to be in London anyway I thought I may as well join in and see what it was all about.

To be quite honest, I didn't think all that much of it. Admittedly, the conditions were not ideal as attendance was very high - over 60 people crammed into a training hall thats much smaller than the one I train in during the week. We literally had about 2 foot square in which to move, and for kata, thats a bad thing!

As a beginner, I am taught kata just as series of karate moves and generally I have to just follow along and copy other people. Its not until a bit higher grade that you start to receive a bit more attention. Kata isn't really just a series of fancy moves for the sake of it; it's a simulation of a combat situation in which you fight off several attackers at once. Knowledge of the combat behind the kata is called 'bunkai'. Occasionally in class, I'll see the higher grades demonstrate this. One person is surrounded by several others who are all being attackers and then each move of the kata is analysed in terms of this combat. Interesting stuff.

I thought that the kata course, being a "course" would be teaching us advanced stuff like this. I thought that the kata would be picked apart and taught in detail but no - we just practised the kata one move at a time just like we do in class. The higher grades got to do some practising of a few specific moves with a partner but for us low grades, we just practised the same kata over and over and over again. Frankly, I was bored to death.

If these courses were held locally then I'd probably still attend them but the trek to London took two hours including an hour long journey on the underground (and I have a bit of a phobia of tunnels so I really dislike the tube), and the ticket was a tenner. My time and money can be better used elsewhere, at least for another few grades.

Oh well.

On the subject of gradings though, after much bugging, Garry finally decided to hold a grading on the last training day before the Christmas break on the 20th. It was originally due to be held in November but some mixups with the venue led to continued delays and it was starting to look like I was going to have to wait until January.

I was really eager to grade because I've done all this early stuff before. I've been training for four months now so I was definately ready for it. The grading was a breeze, and for me, really rather short. For 8th Kyu all that is required are the basic punches (front and reverse), the four basic blocks and a front kick. That's it!

There were two 8th Kyu's going for their yellow belt and for their grading they did the same stuff as me, plus a roundhouse kick (mawashi gaeri) and the first kata, Pinan Nidan. I'm fairly confident I can also do this stuff well so I'll be wanting to grade again at the earliest opportunity.

I received a first class pass which I am very pleased with. I just hope I can continue that standard in the future. I might be impatient when it comes to gradings but deep down I would rather take my time and get a good pass each time than to rush through them and scrape by with a 3rd class pass.

I didn't have any nerves at all. In fact I got a real buzz out of it - I was disappointed that there weren't more people watching! I think some of thoe other people grading were nervous. But all was good, everybody passed in the end!

Now I gotta wait until January 10th before I can train again! That's three weeks, UGH!