It's been a really excellent few weeks of karate. The brown & Black belt session followed by the DKK Junior Course then this morning it was the DKK adult grading. Apart from having numbers up as in days gone by the spirit and ability of those grading really was at the forefront of today's grading.

Gradings are never easy and again it amazed me to see each and everyone forcing themselves on, not quitting, eager to finish and achieve. Pushing unfounded doubts aside. A great, equal mix from Bristol and Portishead and Lisa from Devon with support coming from Naomi with children in tow. Well done to three new badged DKK green belts and a strong group of blues.

It's a given that DKK is never easy, in gradings or at training, mentally and physically, there's always something to learn and ideas to grasp. Some of you are just out of school and you push yourselves accordingly, young bouncy ready for anything, though many still with doubts but age is on your side. Others have entered into physical activity after having years of being inactive or raising a family and building careers or been active but not pushed to this extent or you just take so much longer to just recover! I take my imaginary hat off to you all.

Bristol university students make sure you keep things going, don't disappear when you return to Bristol in January, it's too easy to do that, take the tough road and make sure you step up ready to train again, bring someone else along, enthuse those around you.

A huge thank you to those that stood either side of me to help grade and all those that were there to spur on those grading through verbal and physical means. As you know without the support of DKK non graders these gradings would be extremely different.

Those that didn't grade this time your time will come round, maybe in March. Make sure you put our biggest event in your diary DKK Summer School 17-21st June, SS is massive!

I'm also hoping to run a throwing session next term and then the DKK tournament.
Don't have stair nightmares!!! 

See you at training. 

Oss

“Karate may be referred to as the conflict within yourself, or a life-long marathon which can be won only through self-discipline, hard training, and your own creative efforts.” – Shoshin Nagamine (founder of Matsubayashi-ryu Karate)

Sensei Dan Lewis

So DKK summer school 2015 has come to an end. If you were part of it you'll be back next year, what a fantastic experience it has been. The day started with the 3rd dans taking students through the intricacies of stances used in Goju Ryu karate and how their functions are best used. This was follower by Sensei Gavin Mulholland hurting students with the kubotan! A vicious weapon that can be used easily if you have a pen shaped utensil with you. Soooo painful! The last session of the day was eskrima and how techniques can be used with the hands and equally with the feet. 

On the final afternoon, the DKK grading took place under the beating sun. It was fantastic to see so many pass to their next belt to those that badged to green belt. It's going to be a large grading next year with 7 people attempting black belt. Well done to Mike Jenkins who achieved shodan black belt. The evening/ night/morning was rounded of with the 'Instructor's BBQ'. Well done to everyone that was there training for the weekend and grading. Winter School 2015 here we come. Are you going to be part of it??

Shihan Dan Lewis

This weekend I did something awesome. I'm so happy to have made it through my 2nd Dan grading. A big thank you to all of you who have helped and supported me. Special thanks to Sensei Dan Lewis, for being an awesomely inspirational teacher, Sempai Darren Heywood, Rob Curtis, the fabulously feisty Marjukka Viitala, Michael Parsons, Danny Williams, Chris Taylor, Goran Powell for his great advice and all you other lovely people who have encouraged and supported me. Special thanks also to Matt Savigear my fellow nidan candidate who through injury was unable to continue, its been an honour and pleasure to train alongside you, speedy recovery. Congratulations to my fellow Nidans Jake Hoban and Mike Thornton who were amazing, it was an honour to share the field with you. It's been a fantastic DKK summer school, thank you to Sensei's Gavin Mulholland and Dan Lewis for making it all possible, it's a privilege to be part of such a amazing club full if exceptional people. And yes I'm still smiling! x


Philippa Lovegrove, Nidan

Well done to all those that graded yesterday, I'm sure a happy but sore group. For some it was an initiation into DKK, for others it was a long awaited deed finalised. 10 years since JD last graded, well done. Louise Thorne showed the spirit that is important to DKK; what ever is put in front of you, get through it, how ever long it takes, be determined to get there in the end. 2 new green belts, Chris and Terry. To all the others that went out and did their thing, congratulations. To the other instructors and those that have once again been there to shout, motivate and ultimately test the resolve of those grading. 

It is always special when you are taught under Shihan and a privilege when you get to go to one of his high grade courses, you feel like you soaked a huge wealth of martial knowledge that will take you months or years to fully digest and to integrate with your own martial art journey.

The courses focus was seiunchin and focus is the key word. We practiced the kata several times aiming to get everyone in sync with one another. We worked on where our focus should be, thinking about application whilst doing kata, looking before we strike, playing a little with the katas tempo exaggerating key moments to focus the mind.

We made it more snapper at one instance and at another far more Sanchin and gentle and Ju like but equally as dangerous.

Shihan has an amazing way of bringing the kata to life, not just a string of techniques, principles or a series of movements, but a living breathing organism that just makes the kata so much better, you could feel electricity in the room when everyone’s seiunchin evolved, it made you think oh my god this is how kata should feel like all the time.

We then looked at a section of seiunchin that a lot of people have a weakness in the kata, where you drive the hip at an angle to deliver a powerful uppercut. We focused a lot of time on this sequence with Shihan explaining about short range shock power. It was at this moment that a light ball clicked in my head, he was describing the short range power that I learnt in China through White Crane, the only difference was that my leg starts of in the air.

The way I like to think of it is like a gunshot as if you pulled a trigger (I never have but I have a very powerful imagination.) it’s not about speed it’s about the right muscles firing the right body structure at the right time, it’s a state of mind, BANG and you explode into it. Too much thinking and you can’t achieve it.

After we worked on this then we practiced this section of the kata in randory, then we use the gun principle to hit pads, reacting before you think, focusing less on chambering but always having your hands in guard and just react.

After this we went through the main kata and for the last section of the course he wanted us to practice principles of tensho. To do this he had to teach the lower grades tensho. I will deviate slightly off topic this was like the best Christmas present, I’ve always wanted to learn tensho ever since I first saw it when I started Goju ryu, when I first really appreciated the karate kid films, when I went to china and saw Tensho like movements within the second and third forms of white crane, when you watch Wing Chun form. I’m surprised I didn’t bounce off the walls! It’s like learning Sanchin all over again, I understand the principles and can only do the basic form but my mind-body connection doesn’t understand the deeper seated principles of  tensho, that will takes many years.

Well back to the topic, after this Shihan showed us how the principles of tensho were useful in sudden confrontation and he ended up looking like a kung fu master from the movies, with hardly any effort of stepping to the side and using tensho’s relaxed movements to get his attacker into a vulnerable position. We tried it with multiplies which was very fun, it was very aikido like and surprising how effective the moves could be. Sometimes I would get stuck because this is a new form of defending and it will take years to master, but when it worked it felt freaking awesome.


By Dan Solomon
Shodan - Ho

You can always tell how good a course is when months later you are still practicing its principles on your punch bag, and this course was especially awesome. The underlying feature was the three mechanisms that Tim and Caz (Bristol’s newest Sandans) use when striking an opponent.  What they refer to as the Sanchin punch. It was really interesting when they showed how they generate so much power just from body mechanics and structure, with a combination of the three principles that derive from Sanchin.

The first one is the simple spear, where you punch through the pad, but rather than just focusing on the punch, your focus is on pulling the other arm back with force which seems to drive your shoulders and hips more into the punch therefore generating power.

The second mechanism they use was the circular hip punch, rather than punching through the pad, you use your whole core to pivot providing more weight to the punch enabling you to deliver power without using tensing your muscles.

The third mechanism was the corkscrew punch , drawing yourself from the ground and using the structure from the hip to the punch. It appears deceptively less powerful than the other two seem but you can generate power at a far shorter distance than the others.

When we combined all the principles together there was a considerable difference in our power output with minimal effort. This in itself is very useful for a fighter, not having to rely on their physical power to give power to the punch it means that your punches can be faster and use less energy. It shows that when you use the principles of Sanchin that you don’t need to muscle your way in. The Sanchin punch relies on technique giving a small person the ability to generate a lot of power though their body structure.

Videoing each punch was very useful as it shows us how each principle works, and what we need to work on to make them far more effective. Mix in watching how the Nidan’s adopted it to how they fight on the pads, surprise Kumite with the London lot, ale and the ingenious use of a collapsible donkey toy it made for a very special course.


by Dan Solomon
DKK Bristol Shodan - Ho