SMR Jodo Seminar - St. Annes

June, 18th to 20th 2010

The Jodo seminar began on the Friday evening with the arrival of Yves, and a small class from Fylde Budokai; Mark, Cat, Craig and I (Jon). The evening centred on practicing and improving the first 3 kihon, honte, gyakute and hiki otoshi, with the last hour spent practicing several kata from Omote. The class finished off with a repeat of the earlier uchi komi to re-test what we tried to correct earlier. The evening was finished off with a drink and a chat in the local pub.

On Saturday morning we were joined by Dr. Mark from Fylde Budokai and guests Charles, Tristan & Daniel. The morning was spent practicing Kihon Sotai as well as the first 3 kata from Shinto Ryu Kenjutsu. After lunch the remaining kihon, then all 12 kata from Omote were demonstrated by Yves and Mark, then we spent time practicing each kata in turn. Everyone practiced up to the last one they knew and then were taught the next kata by Yves. The evening was finished off with a well earned meal at a local Chinese restaurant (with the most notable dish being the minted Mongolian lamb).

Sunday morning had a smaller class of Yves, Mark, Dr. Mark, Craig, Cat and I. Most of the morning was spent on uchi komi and Kihon Sotai, trying to improve our basic technique, followed by kata practice with Yves and Mark as uchidachi. After lunch, we practiced what we had learnt over the last 2 days while Yves worked with Mark on Chudan kata.

2pm was grading time, with Dr. Mark, Cat, Craig and I being assessed. Cat and Craig were awarded 5th Kyu, Dr. Mark was awarded 4th Kyu and I was awarded 3rd Kyu.

On behalf of all those who attended, I would like to say a big thank you to Yves for giving up his time and coming all the way to the UK for the seminar, for his excellent instruction, and for teaching us so much over the weekend. I would also like to thank Mark (Taylor) for organising the course, running Fylde Budokai and for getting us to where we are now. I look forward to the next one...

Jon Leech

Group
Standing: Charles Bacon, Craig Byrne, Cat Howard, Daniel Howe, Tristan Lowe
Seiza: Jon Leech, Mark Taylor, Yves Galley, Dr. Mark O’Donnel



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