martial arts training : karate events

Karate Events

Kobudo Seminar on Sai with Julian Mallalieu Sensei	03-02-2008
Sensei Julian has been a friend of the Shito-kai Murayama group since being introduced to us by Julians Sensei, Fumio Demura Sensei - Head of the Genbu-kai.
The seminar took place at the STR Dojo Longlevens, Gloucester at 11am, Sunday morning. The previous night Sensei Julian and wife Sharon travelled down from Manchester to celebrate Senpai Donas birthday. The seminar started with the usual introductions and Sensei explained a little about his experience in kobudo and the lineage of his knowledge from Shinken Taira, probably the most well known Kobudo master, to Sakagami Ryuso to Fumio Demura, Julians own Sensei.
Sensei Julianbegan with basic grips - thrusts and blocks using the Sai before showing the more complicated manipulation of the Sai. This proved challenging for all the students which was no surprise as we were all beginners! Once all the students were able to manage the basics Sensei began teaching Sai Kihon no Kata - a basic kata Demura Sensei teaches before teaching the longer and more complex traditional Sai kata. It was around an hour before all present were able to perform the kata without too much prompting. At this point the students were split into groups of 5 and were invited onto the mat to perform the kata so that Sensei Julian could better see any problems and was able to offer more help and advise.
The seminar finished a little after 1pm and as is customary, a photo session followed, the results of which you can see below. Our sincere thanks to Sensei Julian and his wife Sharon for being such good company and for sharing their knowledge with us. Arigato gozaimashita Julian Sensei! PS. Thanks to the parents for their great photos!