1st April

Mushindo Wado Kai Open Kata Championships

 

A huge congratulations to all our clubs who represented Yanagi Kai Karate Association at the Mushindo Wado Kai Open Kata Championships on Sunday. This competition gave us a great chance to take the squad to a competition and just concentrate on the kata discipline. This also gave us the opportunity to get all our squad together before the English Championships in a few weeks time, a little added bonus of winning the club of the day....

 

8 gold, 3 Silver & 8 Bronze.

 

24th - 25th March

The Swedish Open

(report by Tony Tutty)

 

We took a small team of four athletes over to compete in Malmo at the Swedish Open Karate Championships, our team consisted of Lauren Tutty, Natalie Payne, Kelly and Niamh Horsfall .

 

On day one, first up was Kelly in the  kata event, she was drawn  against a very strong Danish girl losing out 2 -1in the first round not the best start, but fortunately the Danish girl made it through to the final which meant Kelly came back into the repecharge system and went onto win the bronze medal. Natalie next up started extremely well and made her way to the semi final losing out 2-1to the eventual winner,  her fellow England team mate Amy Sell. Once again she to was able to take the bronze winning her repecharge final, two bronze medals a good start for both our girls.

 

Kumite next up, Natalie had to step up two weight sections as her own weight was cancelled. She started well winning her first and second rounds only to be beaten in the third. This was always going to be a difficult task with the girls so much heavier than Natalie, a real tough section. Kelly was next with a good start and going through to the semi final to compete against the current European champion. Kelly fought well but came out  losing the bout but then went straight through into the repetarge final and managed to win her second bronze medal of the day.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                  Niamh Horsfall

First up on day two was Niamh in the kata, her first European competition ever, she showed no nerves and started very well . Niamh went all the way to the semi final losing 2-1 a close encounter but very happy with the bronze medal position. Lauren next up started well but lost out in the 3rd round to a Swedish competitor.

Then it was time for the kumite, Niamh  first on and winning her first two fights and made it again to the semi final stage, losing out in a close fight 2-1 but again took the bronze, her second medal of the day, a great start for her first international competition . Lauren was up next and started well and made it to the final winning 6-2 and taking the gold well done Lauren, which rounded off a great weekend away for Sale Dojo.

 

1 gold and 5 bronze medals ! Brilliant!!!!!

 

 

 

17th March

Presentation Evening                                                                                           

 

Firstly I would like to apologise for canceling this event last year, with all the hassle of setting up the new association there didn't seem to be the time. This I realize was a mistake , after  how much I enjoyed the evening this year and the positive feedback I received from parents. As there isn't so much money around at the moment we decided to hold the presentation evening at the dojo to save on expense. A little apprehensive not sure if the dojo would be suitable but no need to worry, a fantastic evening, the only negative was there wasn't any last orders and I didn't leave till 3.30. A huge thanks to everyone who brought food for the buffet and prizes for the games, think I had three helpings and still had to throw loads away.

 

Congratulations to all who won awards, but for me the highlight of the evening was the award to Nicola Hey on her 5th Dan, Andrew Blake on his 3rd Dan, and Conroy Sproul on his 2nd Dan.

 

Senior student of the year 2010 Vincent O'Hora    

Senior student of the year 2011 Brian Kanyanga

Cadet student of the year 2010 Lauren Tutty

Cadet student of the year 2011  Mia Swain

Top competitor of the year 2010 Lauren Tutty

Top competitor of the year 2011Jake Kiernan

Top kata competitor of the year 2010 Lauren Tutty

Top kata competitor of the year 2011 Natasha Holmes

Top kumite competitor of the year 2010 Jake Kiernan

Top kumite competitor of the year 2011 Jake Kiernan

Most improved student 2011 Lydia Bevan

Students vote 2011 Christopher Williamson

 

14th March

Beginners Course

 

Was a little apprehensive with this beginners course as we had a low number on the first day, only 15, however this almost doubled the following week. There must have been Chinese whispers in the playground.

Again this was another enjoyable five week course and more than half have continued with their training.

The ironic thing I found out is that Sensei Eric Tomlinson's grandson is now training at our club, Eric was my very first Sensei back in 1978.  Funny how things work out and this makes me feel old!

 

                 

                                                                                                                                                                                            Callum Tomlinson & Sensei Swain

11th March

Kyu Grade

 

Congratulations to all those who passed their Kyu grades. Another fantastic grading with some high standard karateka

First class passes to Sally Tomson, Sheyda Jebbehdar, Armin Jebbehdar and Sinhin Li.

 

4th March

Chojinkai Children's Championships

 

As most of you know if you read our newsletter on a regular basis, I love the competition ran by the Chojinkai Karate Association mainly because of the location, so close to the Scottish boarder. Sensei Doug James is one of the most respected instructors around and because of this he can use his influence and bring in the top referees in the country. This was the first opportunity for most of the squad to try out the new WKF rules and because the high level of officials this was a great exercise.

This is a tournament where we usually do very well in the kata sections and again we achieved our fair share of the medals, but sometimes you have to be honest with yourself and I think we were the second best team on the day.

The team from Malta impressed me so much, the standard of the kihon within the kata was of such a high level, not only in the senior grades but in the juniors as well.

Unfortunately no golds in individual sections but silver from Kelly Horsfall and Lucy Whitworth, we also achieved a bronze medal  with Natalie Payne. Kelly. Natalie then took first place in the pair kata13-15 section, then going even better in the younger section with an all Sale Dojo final. Gold for Jasmine Mulai and Mia Swain, silver for Cameron Bryan Smith and Lucy Whitworth. Then Cameron, Lucy and Mia took our final medal,  a silver in the cadet team kata.

A little more successful in the kumite, double gold for Spencer Cooper our top performer of the day and he didn't even seem to get out of first gear. Jake Kiernan impressed me the most, gold a real tough group, full of seasoned internationals but when Jake's on it, he's unbeatable!    Chris Williamson seems to be back to his best after the blip of the last competition taking the gold in the male 16-17. Lauren Tutty does what she does best and wins again in the girls 13-15 section. Kelly Horsfall took the silver to round off a great personal tally one gold two silver, pretty impressive...... Final medals bronze from Bailey Healey, Alana Lees and the boys team Thomas Tutty, Spencer Cooper and Aaron Kiernan.

 

Great Day...

 

26th February

Uk Open Karate Championships

 

I would like to apologise to everybody at Fix 'N' Kicks for cancelling their squad on the 26th February at such short notice.  The EKF had scheduled a squad for the 25th, but for some reason moved the date which obviously meant our England 'A' Squad members had to attend their squad instead.  Every cloud has a silver lining as this freed up the Sunday so I was able to take a full car of kids to the UK Open Championships instead.

Paul Campbell, the organiser of the competition has had his critics in the past mainly due to impartial refereeing  at his events. All I can report back from the day is that we didn't see one bad decision from his officials and that doesn't happen too often.  I don't think the venue was the best, the main criticism was the lack of seating for the spectators and when parents are paying £8.00 to watch their children, you would be expected to sit down and see the tatarmi.  The overall standard of the competitors was extremely high, an opportunity missed for one or two of our squad members. Autumn Holmes took the bronze in the junior kata, she's now starting to look the part and growing in confidence in every competition.  Unfortunately that was the only kata medal with our other girls falling short at the quarter final stage, but I think it is always going to be difficult when they have to compete against the boys as they are naturally stronger.  Autumn also took a medal in the kumite, this time a silver, one of three, our team picked up on the day. The other silvers came from Mia Swain and Spencer Cooper.  Our only gold medal was from Autumn's sister Natasha, this was extremely pleasing as this is the first time she has fought in the older section. Natasha and Mia teamed up with Alana Lees to take our final medal, a bronze in the girls team kumite. One gold, three silver and two bronze with only six squad members.  Well pleased.

 

19th February

Kyu Grade

A very busy grading, nice see so many of our beginners achieving their first grades. A special mention to all the students who passed with first class passes, Ellie Payne, Autumn Holmes and Lydia Bevan .

I would also like to congratulate Autumn and Lydia for becoming our newest senior grades.

 

              

 

10th-12th February

European Cadet & Junior Championships Baku Azerbaijan

 

The first thing I thought that went through my mind when I found out that the European Championships were to be held in  Azerbaijan was "where the hell is it and how am I going to get there?

I was so disappointed that I didn't manage to get to the World Championships in Malaysia at the end of last year, even more so, when I found out Karen assumed I was going anyway.

 

Sensei Tony Tutty, Anthony Kiernan and myself left for the airport on the Wednesday at nine in the morning, the flight was due to leave for Istanbul Turkey just after eleven. Unfortunately we had  a five hour wait before connecting to Baku and at ten Euros for one beer it was going to be a long wait. We arrived in a very snowy Baku airport around four in the morning and got to our hotel about half five. The airport had been closed for the last two days and had to close the day after we arrived, the weather was only about minus  twenty !!!

 

The Thursday was spent catching up on our sleep, later we popped over to the England hotel to see the guys from the dojo. In my experience you can tell how civilized a country is by their taxi service and when the taxi driver told me that you're not aloud to wear a seat belt in Azerbaijan, I knew the country was up there with the dodgiest, and the smell of petrol was a little concerning too.  Like a lot of eastern block countries they are very grey looking and a little bit moody, but it maybe totally different in the summer, don't think I'll be going back to check though.

 

Competition day one and the usual thoughts going through my head were of dreams of producing a champion, but what was about to unfold was further  from the truth. Aaron Kiernan was the first to take the mat, he was up against the boy from Turkey always going to be difficult for Aaron as this was his first major championships.  He found out the hard way how difficult it is to score a point in Europe after loosing the first one, Turkey ran out a 2-0 winner. Lauren Tutty next up, she was up against Slovakia, Lauren was hit with a body kick, which again put her under pressure from the start, even though Lauren chased the fight once more a loss of 2-0. Jake was competing on day two, but much of the same Belarus 4-0. A long way to travel not even to see a score!

Had to catch a flight back on the Sunday so unfortunately didn't get the chance to see Kelly Horsfall competing to the girls team kata, think the result sums up the weekend after her team mate made a huge mistake a 5-0 defeat. Night mare!

 

Glad to be back home........      

 

22nd January

English Karate Federation Kyu Grade Championships

 

It seems ages since the last competition and I was delighted when I saw on the calendar that at the beginning of the year the English Karate Federation had introduced the first English kyu grade championships. I really didn't know how the day was going to pan out and what the quality of the competition and competitors would be. 

The competition was held at the Ponds Forge Leisure centre in Sheffield not too far for us guys to travel. We set off fairly early as registration was at 8.30am and I assume it was going to be a very busy day. We'd only been travelling for about 20 minutes when the minibus started to make even stranger noises than normal and we decided to turn around and head back to the dojo and the inevitable happened - we broke down!  Great start to the new year, sat at the side of the motorway in the pouring rain. A quick panic and a few phone calls, we made sure the kata competitors got down to the competition on time. Luckily the AA were brilliant and towed us back within the hour. Then back into the cars and off to Sheffield again, but the bad news is, I think old rusty is finally dead. RIP

 

So if anybody has a spare ten thousand pounds, I'm sure we can put it to some use!  

As you can imagine, because of my late arrival, the day started extremely hectic, a big thanks to the parents who helped us off the motorway and the parents and coaches for getting the kata competitors to their areas.   

One of the consequences of my late arrival was that we had little pockets of the squad all over the arena, this made the job of keeping track of everybody nearly impossible and regrettably didn't get time to speak to many of the competitors before they went on to compete.  So I would just like to say sorry to any of the guys who I may have let down as I feel I did not do my job right. I just need to make sure that next time we insist we all stay as one big group as I don't think I can do another day like this one and it certainly didn't help the continuity of our squad.

This brings me on to the competition and like I said earlier, I just didn't know what to expect and if the truth me known, I'm not too sure if it worked. There seemed to be an awful lot of England A squad members competing  who inevitably breezed through their sections.  Maybe next year the brown belts should be excluded as they are able to compete at the senior championships later on in the year. The idea of a tournament was to encourage new talents, but when you have students performing pinan kata up against people performing black belt kata and lower grades being knocked about over the mat by seasoned fighters, I don't think it will encourage them, it will probably put them off.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed the day and we had some promising performances.  Kaitlin Williams from Hayes Karate won the gold in the girls under 9 kata with over forty girls in her section it's no mean feat when you consider  she is only five years old. There's a prospect for the future and the first gold medal for Yanagi Kai.

We also had some success in the girls team kata in the under nines with a bronze from Lydia Bevan, Autumn Holmes and Amy Bryan Smith. Also in the older girls section another bronze from Alana Lees ,Niamh Horsfall and Caitlyn King, not too bad considering we drafted Caitlyn in on the day because Jeremy Koshy took ill. All that shouting in the dojo seemed to have paid off, thanks to Ami Garrod Rogers for her time and effort drilling the teams.

To be honest I think we struggled a little in the kumite, but I probably knew it was going to be little painful with such an inexperienced squad, most competing in their first major championships, but I can't criticize the effort. Lydia Bevan picked up her second medal of the day and another bronze for her individual event, narrowly missing out on the final. Our final medal once again came from the girls in the team event in the under 11 section.

The team consisted of Jessica Richardson, Dominka Glodowska and Alison this time, I think they should of made the final, but still happy.

Well done to all the Yanagi Kai Squad, I think it's going to be another two years until we see the fruits of this talent, but before that, there will be a lot of hard work to be done in their dojo's but I'm sure we can achieve it together.  Well done to all.

 

6th January

 

First of all I would like to wish you all  a Happy and injury free New Year. I'm going to approach this year as if it was our first at the dojo, there seemed to be so many distractions last year, with karate politics getting in the way of the more important things. I feel we need to spend a little more time trying to grow our club from within and developing our kata and kumite squads. Also we need to make a huge effort to get closer to our sister clubs within our association which will enviably lift the profile of Yanagi Kai.

 

Like most years I'm excited about the start of the tournament season as you know this is my first love. With more international competitors than ever training at our club, this should increase our chances to achieve them elusive medals at European and World level.

April is a massive month for the club this will be the first time we  compete at the Senior English Championships under the banner of Yanagi Kai Karate Association, so I'm asking you all to train hard and be as supportive as possible.  This is massively important to me so don't let me and the club down!