Last night was our (re)opening night, and it not only was it well attended, but lots of fun too. There were 13 people training, two of them were instructor friends who travelled here to support our opening night, Vijay Pathak from Forest Schools of Karate (Welwyn Garden City), and Tracey Radley from Kuroten Practical Karate (Wivenhoe). There were six ‘newbies’, and five returning members from before we closed in 2022. It was wonderful to see everyone, and they all worked really well together.


We began with a safety briefing, noting the exits etc., taking care of ourselves & each other, listening to your partners, and ‘not being a dick’. I went on to explain how context is key; knowing what and why we’re doing in each drill, and ask questions if you want to know something, if something isn’t clear, and if you want some help.
Moving on to the physical side of things, we worked on Delivering a Knockout Jab (lead hand straight) to the focus pads from a static position, advancing, on the retreat, and striking on the retreat with a visual & audible prompt.
Next was a blocking drill, ensuring realistic distancing and targeting. Higher grades did this with more foot movement.
We also worked on defending against a hooking punch, closing down our ‘enemy’, then adding a simultaneous strike, all as one move that’s worked from the ‘enemies’ feed.

To see everyone working well together, understanding what’s going on, and the right amount of sweat and smiling is a joy. Well done, everyone. You were awesome.
I’m already looking forward to the next class.
Cheers,