An exciting weeks training peaked with our brown belts achieving their first part BAMA black belt gradings in Aikido Te and Karate, so well done to them! December will see them take the biggest step of their martial arts careers with their full blackbelt grading! Catch up with that on the BAMA Wednesday nights blog, also this Saturday saw Richard San run another Holistic Martial Art class open day at Leisure@cheltenham, thats in his ‘HMA’ blog!
Finally, good luck and well done to Sempai Ben who not only achieved his black belt first part this week, but is also leaving us to work on a Caribbean cruise ship for 3 months as a professional musician! (no one here in rainy Britain envies him…much!)
His hard work in the practice of his guitar and of martial arts is a lesson to us all in the making of opportunity happen for yourself!
See you in the dojo!
James San had the class to himself this week, and so was able to give them a treat, and work on their technical ability, working on many of the great Karate hand techniques that often the large class has little time to learn. I’m sure next week will see a return to the more traditional blood and thunder of ‘Combat Class’!
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BAMA Advanced Class, Mondays 7.45pm
Richard San took the black belt class through ‘Combat Rhythms’ this week. This is a great BAMA lesson that trains the body to fight in devastating yet simple rhythms, the idea being that in the stress of combat the mind might step in with too much thought or panic causing paralysis of the martial artist, this advanced lesson allows your training to win out!
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Nick San took a great step forward on his path to Brown belt in sword this week, his advanced kata written together with Richard San is really starting to look very good! We in the sword class are looking forward to him performing all of his syllabus, plus his new kata very soon!
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Holistic martial Arts Class, Tuesdays 6.30pm
This class is becoming a firm favourite with the instructors and all of our students who pop along to try it at; Leisure@Cheltenham. We continue to have members of the leisure centre drop in to try it regularly, and this was helped this week by their free open day held there this weekend. On this session Richard San showed them the first passage of the High Mountain ‘hard form’ called; ‘Pushing through rocks’, he then finished up with the fluid movements from the sword based ‘art form’, everybody there seemed to grasp the concepts and have great fun!
If you haven’t yet seen this new HMA syllabus then ask Richard San or Tim San for a look, it explains how we will be blending the knowledge of Karate, Aikido and Sword into this course, or better yet pop along on Tuesday evening and try it for yourself!
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Reflective Aikido, Tuesdays, 8.30pm
Quite an advanced class this week, as Tim San explained the need for movement within ones self to affect an opponents posture and stability. It was a difficult lesson to grasp as more often than not students sacrifice technique in favour of speed, cutting those vital corners that make all the difference. But the class worked well and come the finish the ‘Attack Drill’ had them moving smoothly while causing dramatic changes in their opponents posture, well done to all.
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Japanese Sword, Tuesdays, 9.30pm
‘Iado’…the draw, cut and re-sheath of the sword in one fluid movement, is the purest form of sword, and this was the lesson on Tuesday night.
It is no mere physical exercise and to be able to come anywhere near achieving this ideal of the swordsman the mind too must be fluid, so often just in the act of grasping the sword we become anxious and stiffness of movement follows. In this Tuesdays class Richard San explained the ‘fusion’ of sword, swordsman and cut, lots to come back to there!
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BAMA Karate and Aikido Te Class, Wednesdays, 6.45pm
Lots covered this week as the class was divided up into small groups, each focusing on specific syllabus requirements. This culminated in the brown belts taking their first part gradings as mentioned above. And didn’t they do well!! Well done again to Sempais Kash, Andrejz, Patrick and Ben who pulled an excellent performance out of the bag of their syllabus, knowledge and skills. Great to watch and be a part of.
Each week our students are growing in confidence and skill and it is a joy to watch these individuals develop and blossom into accomplished martial artists, keep up the good work guys! All that practice and discipline is clearly paying off!
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Last weeks koan created a lot of discussion in the groups, ‘what is the nature of the Ocean, the martial artist and his Way?’ Can we still be called a martial artist if we are unable to train physically? The topic of ‘Labels’ soon raised its head here, so often we grasp an identity through the false labels of our life choices, often the truth hidden by these labels we attached. I think it would be safe to say that the class thought the martial arts were more than just the actions of the physical!
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0 Comments
Sempai Kevin · 16 July 2012 at 11:05 am
Wow.
I’ve just caught up on the last three/four blog entries and can’t quite believe how much is happening. Wisewarrior is certainly embodying its name and shows no sign of dropping into the lull that has affected the wider world.
Congratulations to the new first-part qualified Sempai’s and perhaps someone would be so kind as to give me a heads up when Nick San is due to take perform is Brown-belt sword Kata, I’ve seen him working on it before and we’re all going to be in for a treat!
Now, when can I get back up to Gloucestershire to join in once more….