The events calendar for 2017 is now available. The Central Region all grades sessions and kata squad starts with squad selection this Saturday, February 11th. You do not have to be a member of the squad to train on the all grades session. Please see Ron, Kieran or Rob if you want more information.

Event details do change, so please check the Events page regularly for up to date information.

The club’s final special event of the year was to celebrate our Chief Instructor, Sensei Ron Hicks’ 60th birthday, which occurs over the Christmas holiday. Ron has been an inspirational club instructor, who leads from the front, both technically and in his instruction across all grades in the club. Ron has been a member of Bath karate club for over 40 years and still approaches training and instruction with the enthusiasm of a newly minted Dan grade!

As a token of our appreciation and as a birthday present, the club’s senior instructors have had made a 3D model of Bath karate club’s logo – a vertical sai on a red background. The sai is a traditional karate weapon originating from Okinawa. Normally, sai come as a pair and can be used to strike and block in a similar fashion to how Shotokan karate’s punches and blocks are executed.

Ron’s gift features a pair of sai in a frame (only one sai is visible, the other is behind the background). Bath karate club has used a single sai as its logo since its formation in 1969. The prongs of the sai represent the three components of Shotokan karate:  kihon (fundamentals), kata (forms), and kumite (sparring).

Training has now finished for 2016 – it resumes on Thursday 5th January 2017. On behalf of all of club’s instructors, we wish our members, families and friends a peaceful and healthy Christmas, and best wishes for the New Year.

We are a very social karate club! Although we train hard, the annual Christmas party is a key fixture in the club calendar. This year saw one of the largest Christmas dinners – over thirty actively training karateka let their hair down (those that still have hair!) at Bistrot Pierre in Bath.

The food was good and the company excellent.  A brilliant way to end of a hard year of training. We also heard Sensei Ron’s annual speech, reflecting on the year’s successes – well done Gosia and James – and also looking forward to 2017.

Many thanks go to Rob for organising this year’s meal, and also acting as an impromptu waiter during dinner!

Congratulations to the club’s karateka of the year for 2016:

Competitor of the year – Gosia Glapiak

Student of the year – James Langley

Both Gosia and James have shown their commitment to training and competing over the year and are worthy recipients of this year’s awards. Well done to both of you from the club!

Today saw the latest kyu grading in the Bath-Bristol area followed by the annual children’s competition held in memory of Sensei Bill Winfield. The day was presided over by Sensei Bob Poynton, 8th Dan. There was a great turn out from all of the clubs in the area with 73 people training with Sensei Poynton and 52 people grading. There were also 22 children competing at Bills Day.

Congratulations to the following members of Bath Karate who successfully graded:

9^th Kyu: Islam Elbadawy

8^th Kyu: Momen Elbadalwy

7^th Kyu: Alex Martin, Adrien Espinasse

6^th Kyu: Nancy Richardson

5^th Kyu: Adam Mutlow, Sam Daly 5^th Kyu, Ben Hardy 5^th Kyu

3^rd Kyu: Jack Frith

2^nd Kyu: Paul Gamble

1^st Kyu, Adam Winchester

 

Bill’s Day Competition Results

Kumite 7^th Kyu and Below: 1^st Harry Lee; 2^nd Dylan Mateer

Kumite 6^th Kyu and Above: 1^ST Tyler Templer; 2^nd Allister Hanlon

Kata 7^th Kyu and Below: 1^st Dylan Mateer; 2^nd Quaid Bennett

Kata 6^th Kyu and Above: 1^st Archie Newbury; 2^nd Alistair Hanlon

Student of the day: Dylan Mateer

Thanks to everyone who trained, graded, competed, refereed and supported the event. Thanks also to Sensei Poynton for spending the day with us.

 

The club instructors wish to send their congratulations to  Rebecca and Sam who have recently got married. Rebecca has been a member of the Bath club for over 10 years and Sam joined about 18 months ago. The two of them met at school (sadly, not training at the club – that would have been a good story!) and training in karate together has been a more recent joint activity. They are currently away on honeymoon in Iceland, but as you can see from the photo below, Sam has not neglected his dedication to the art!

The club has recently moved to a new dojo at Oldfield School in Bath. The details can be found here. As you will see from the pictures, the new hall is bright and modern and air conditioned. It also has a fully mirrored wall, to give you instant feedback on how you are doing! The new dojo also has good sized changing rooms with showers.

If you haven’t been to train at Oldfield School yet, then come over soon.

Please note that as of Thursday 3rd November 2016 Bath Shotokan Karate Club is moving venue to: The Dance Studio, Oldfield School,  Kelston Road,  Bath BA1 9AB.

You will be aware that Bath Sports Centre is undergoing a major refurbishment to the building and facilities. During this time, and in order that we can train in the right atmosphere we have found a new training hall for the club. The state of the art dance studio at Oldfield School will be a high quality dojo that has a sprung wooden floor and large mirrors that will enable the club members to train and improve in an appropriate environment.

Oldfield School is to the west of Bath city centre, near the Royal United Hospital.

Our training times will remain the same:

Adults:

Mondays,  7.45pm – 9.15pm

Thursdays, 7.45pm – 9.15pm

Please call Kieran on 07818 511216 if you have any issues or questions.

 

 

The club session tonight was taken by our guest instructors, John Bruce, 5th Dan and Holly Sterling, 4th Dan from  Sendai Kushiro Karate in Sunderland. Having been guest instructors at the club in the past, we were expecting an inspirational and technical session for all grades. 

John took the Dan grades for the first half, going through kata Tekki Nidan (a club favourite!). The session was based around the principle of developing the ‘small’ movements (hip and slight body rotation) rather than the large, obvious movements. Meanwhile, Holly was instructing the Kyu grades in basics, focusing on posture and timing in punching, and also the kata Heian Nidan.

The instructors then swapped and John took the Kyu grades through aspects of kihon ippon kumite focusing on defences using spinning uraken uchi strikes. Holly took the Dan grades through some kumite techniques linking kicks, sweeps and punches. This was very technical, but most were able to make the combination ‘flow’ by the end of the session – which came all too quickly. 

Overall, the session was enjoyed by all the students, each of whom took something to work on from the expert instruction of two of the best ambassadors for the KUGB. We are already planning the next session with them … 

Just to prove that the Bath Karate club trains hard and plays hard! The club had its summer barbecue and party today. A chance to relax, enjoy each others’ company and even talk about subjects other than karate!!

Many thanks to Kieran and Paula for hosting the party and opening their house to the club.