Official Wado Academy Forum

WADO RYU KARATE-DO ACADEMY

WINTER COURSE

26 FEBRUARY – 2 MARCH 2014

As in previous years the Wado Academy 2014 winter course was held at the Spectrum Leisure Centre, Guildford. Over 160 people attended the course over the space of 5 days with a minimum of a 100 people training each day. As before many Wado Academy students from many different countries came to practice. The list this year included, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, The Caribbean, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and of course England. Thanks to everyone for making the effort to attend and show support for the Academy and in particular for M. Shiomitsu 9^th Dan Hanshi Shihan, the Academy’s Chief Instructor.

Unlike last year Shiomitsu Sensei visited the course every day and kept a weather eye on both students and instructors. While he did not train he did present Dan grade certificates to those worthy of receiving such an honour and everyone was lifted by his presence.

This year the instructors on the course led by Sensei Arthur Meek 7^th Dan Kyoshi were Sensei Kazutaka Otsuka 6^th Dan, Sensei Rob Howells MBE 6^th Dan, Sensei Peter Hill 6^th Dan and Sensei Nick Quillam 7^th Dan who joined his fellow instructors on the Dan grade panel at the end of the course.

Each day the training was divided into 2 sessions. The first session would start with a warm up and led into a training session on basic elements of Wado Ryu Karate-Do. The second session was divided between the instructors with Arthur Sensei focussing on instruction for those intending to take their Dan grading either now or in the future, while Kazutaka Sensei took Dan grades in the intricacies of Bassai kata and from the third day on Peter Sensei took Kyu grades in the fundamentals of the Wado Academy syllabus.

Eight Academy students went forward at the end of the course to take their Dan grading. Out of these eight, five were successful and our congratulations go to them for gaining their Dan grades as follows:

Juniors 1^st Dan

Scott McCoy
Ethan Champion

Seniors 2^nd Dan

Russell Ovey
Gillian MacKenzie
Eric Prole