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GOOD SPIRIT
Club member Steve Lanigan's account of starting Karate in his Forties

On a recent Sunday I attended my first Karate grading and achieved an orange belt. As a forty-six-year-old student with just six month's training behind me, among a group of much younger participants I felt a bit like a sore thumb and was relieved to get through the grading without obvious mistakes. Though naturally apprehensive about the quality of my performance, my real fears in the run-up to the day were to do with my self-consciousness about my age and lack of experience. (What would people think of someone my age starting out on a lifetime's Karate training?) I need not have worried. On what turned out to be an enjoyable day, I met friendly, welcoming people who were not the least bit concerned about my preoccupations. Pre-grading training was challenging and instructive, the experienced and skilful Sensei emphasising the principles underlying each form of practice we undertook. I learned a lot about my own strengths and weaknesses and about Karate more generally. The opportunity to observe more experienced practitioners exercising their skills taught me much and gave me a better sense of the wholeness of this discipline.

So why was I there? Why does a forty-six-year-old take up a painstaking and difficult discipline, and what does he get out of it?

In January of this year I was working at a Bristol school and became friends with one of my colleagues. He has been practising Karate for some twenty-five years and runs his own Shotokan club locally (Backwell Shotokan Karate Club). Looking for opportunities to deploy his skills more widely, he had arranged an eight-week introductory level Karate course to run as an evening class at the school. I was invited to participate as a beginner, free of charge!

I'm physically big, proud of my strength and welcome opportunities to employ it. Though reasonably fit, I was conscious that my full physical power was under-developed. For a long time I'd wanted to discipline and channel my energies, but had frankly been too self-conscious and timid to seek out an appropriate, sustaining programme of exercise. I'd never undertaken a course of supervised, directed physical training and had grown to believe that such a thing was beyond my capabilities. At school I'd been a reluctant participant in sport and because I never demonstrated a will to join in, was more or less left alone by my teachers. The opportunity offered by my colleague flattered my vanity and appealed to my curiosity.

I turned up at the sports hall for the first class on a cold, dark, wet January evening. Wearing sweat pants and T-shirt I walked in on a group of people dressed in Karate Gis working through their warm-up routines. I immediately thought, "Oh no! I've made a mistake these people are serious. I'll never be able to do this." It was too late to run away, and fortunately my panic was lessened by the arrival of other beginners and by the need to work hard. I don't remember a great deal more about that class except that I sweated a lot but also enjoyed the workout. Tempted though I was by my shaky confidence not to go back the following week, I didn't really feel I could convincingly get out of it! I persuaded myself that, even if after eight weeks it came to nothing, the exercise would be good for me.

I quickly discovered through subsequent classes that I was stronger and more supple than an undisciplined middle-aged man had any right to be. I found I could do what I was being asked to do as long as I concentrated and forgot to be anxious about not being capable. The combination of art and physical power the Sensei demonstrated appealed to me strongly. I began to enjoy trying to practise the physical disciplines Karate entails. There were - there are - many times when I feel stupid, slow and frustrated by my apparent lack of ability. The most basic Kihon manoeuvres sometimes seem like highly complex and impossible tasks; the easy suppleness of other practitioners excites my envy. The friend whom I had now learned to call Sensei was mentally cursed by me more often than he knows, or might even guess. Several times I left that class angry at what I felt was my lack of skill and inability to remember simple sets of instructions. Sorting out what is left and what is right, especially when moving backwards, still causes me problems. But I responded to the Sensei's commitment and discovered that I could be stubborn in my effort to persevere and progress.

When the class ended in April, I wanted to continue training. I tried one local club but thought it undisciplined and unfocused. My former Sensei, who had plainly instilled high standards of expectation in me, recommended a local class and spoke to the Sensei on my behalf. Though not a club for beginners, he was happy to take me on. Since then I've been training twice a week and augmenting that by practising at home. It's been a different challenge from the beginners' class, tougher because it makes less allowance for my lack of experience. That's been good for me - I've had to quicken my responses. I have the belief that, with discipline and perseverance, I can do what is being asked of me which, after all is only that I make the maximum effort of which I'm capable.

At my recent grading I wore a Gi for the first time and felt both pleased and proud of my achievement. But I know that a lot of work lies ahead of me if I am to fulfil my wish to become a skilled Karate practitioner.

That's the story of how I got from absolute beginner to 9th Kyu, but there's more to say.

My self-consciousness of age and inexperience was not confirmed by my experience of training and grading with people I was meeting for the first time. It doesn't require complicated thinking to realise why the people I met were friendly and helpful. The long and honourable philosophy underpinning Karate requires that we respect one another. Karate gives me the opportunity to understand, develop, exercise and focus my physical power; it also requires that I impose those disciplines upon my conduct and character. If I simply wanted to be physically fit there are many ways of achieving this. Karate is more. My understanding is that the art and skills of Karate are accomplished through the development of trained physical aptitude and quick-witted mental responsiveness. The enjoyment comes from being wholly engaged, body and mind. Karate offers me the opportunity to develop a way of being that is disciplined, focused and responsive. The Dojo code goes beyond the Dojo into my daily life. It is encouraging to me that the techniques of Karate are not actually perfectible, that I am only as good as my practice today. I have the principles to hand to meet with others and to order my conduct in a respectful, sincere and controlled way. Through my own practice of Karate I know I am able to do this and, difficult as it sometimes feels (I've not given up mentally cursing my Sensei), the example of these more experienced practitioners I meet encourages me to greater effort in actual Karate practice and in my more general conduct. I may not be perfectible but I can try, and sometimes may do pretty well.

I undertake Karate practice as a lifelong discipline and I'm happy to say that it doesn't matter that I started at the age of forty-six. The enjoyment for me is that Karate requests I test and push my own limits. That's really the only standard I'm asked to measure myself by: do I show good spirit? The practice of my limited but developing abilities gratifies me and is celebrated and respected by my fellow practitioners.

I am pleased to have gained my orange belt. It's an achievement I owe to others as well as to my own efforts. Now I want a red one.

Stephen Lanigan - 21 July 2000 (Published 15/11/2000)

TRAIN WITH THE CHAMPIONS - SUMMER 1999
Take a look at some Summer School Pictures

The week of August 15th - 20th saw another successful "Train With The Champions" course at Lancaster University. This, now annual, event is in its 19th year and features a whole host of KUGB instructors who teach all throughout the week. Teaching on the course were: Sensei Andy Sherry, 7th Dan; Sensei Terry O'Neill, 6th Dan; Sensei Bob Poynton, 6th Dan, Sensei Bob Rhodes, 6th Dan; Sensei Billy Higgins, 6th Dan; and Sensei Frank Brennan, 6th Dan. To say that being taught by so many top instructors is a treat is definitely an understatement!

Although at the beginning of the week numbers seemed to be down on the previous years attendance there seemed to be a gradual increase throughout the week with a noticeable influx when Tekki club made their appearance! Included in the attendance were such noticeables as Sensei Jimmy Brennan, Sensei Randolph Williams and various other National and National Junior squad members.

This year the class was broken up into only three groups: dan grades, all levels of brown belts and below brown belts. This meant that there were usually three other instructors moving around the class generally giving assistance and getting the best out of those who were training. This was immensely beneficial as when I thought I was going at 100% and to the best of my ability there was regularly someone there to check that I was doing a kata or combination correctly or to push me up to another level and get 110% out of me.

For the dan grade class there was a definite emphasis on learning in order to take back ideas to home clubs and practice them further. I don't think that I would be able to count on one hand the number of times that this idea had been reinforced. Although we were told that the week was for learning and wasn't for tiring us out there were a number of times when I found that hard to believe...whilst training on Wednesday just after 8am for example!

As always Sensei Ian McLaren (4th Dan) was present on the course giving a number of lessons in bo-jutsu (bo being a 6 foot Japanese fighting staff). Every time he teaches on these courses he always attempts to teach us a basic bo kata so that we can practise it ourselves when we get back from the course. This is probably one of the biggest challenges of the course - although I can do the kata when I'm there, by the time the next course comes around I have completely forgotten it again! The bo classes are certainly something that I would recommend. Sensei McLaren uses his unique combination of friendly charisma and martail arts knowledge that seems second to none in the most helpful way, as well as having the patience of a saint when trying to teach some of us! The class was also an ideal opportunity to practise some kata bunki with some of the applications involving bo, including the mirrored move in Meikyo, which was a useful asset for understanding the kata during the rest of the course. Sensei McLaren also hosted a lecture on the history of karate, something that I also have a great personal interest in.

Throughout the week all of the sensei's were extremely helpful. At the end of a lesson I asked sensei Frank Brennan to go through my kata with me which he was quite happy to do. I would have been glad if that was the only help he gave me but at the end of that he told me to go away, practise the improvements that he had suggested and go and see him the next day to see how I was getting on.

The great benefit of going on a course with so many top instructors is that you gain a wide range of knowledge from the varying teaching styles. For example, whereas Sensei O'Neill might put a lot of emphasis on tae sabaki (body evasion) and the practicality of karate techniques, sensei Sherry might go into detail about the technical precision needed to achieve an improved technique and overall appearance of a move. Ultimately, by working like this, people training on the course gain by having a well-rounded view to their karate, something that someone who has only trained with very few instructors may not have the benefit of.

Almost every day saw the sensei's go over another kata. This was useful for making sure that everyone was up to date with the current versions of the kata and helped those people who didn't know them gain an introduction to a kata and allow them the chance to go away and learn them.

The week culminated in a lesson with Sensei Poynton going over Enpi, Niju Shiho, Tekki Nidan and Meikyo (the week's katas). With that came the familiar feeling of both everything coming together (technically) and a sense of relief - not that the course was over so much as relief that our bodies would have a chance to recover!

Tim Griffiths - 24/8/99

33RD KUGB NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
See National Championships Results

After a news rest-bite over the last couple of months the Backwell SKC website is proud to give you the rundown on the 33rd KUGB National championships - An event that is the yearly showpiece of this country's largest single style karate association.

Saturday May 29th - The day that many karateka had been waiting for was the KUGB Nationals. The National Indoor Arena in Birmingham again hosted the event, now a firm favourite as a venue after the competition being hosted there for the 8th consecutive year.

As always, expectations for the event were high and rightly so too. The elimination rounds were of a very high standard from the very beginning. The number of competitors taking part made it necessary to use all 12 competition mats at once. Competition was fierce to say the least.

The eliminations did throw up a few surprises. The mighty Red Triangle couldn't make it to the final two in Team kumite but, as is expected of most years still gained a respectable 3rd place. Aaisatsu, who came second last year in team kata, were drawn on 17 points with Gateshead in the eliminations after both put up excellent performances. It was Gateshead, however, that managed to seal their place in the final four as they won by 0.1 in a play-off between the two teams. It seems the same team that won 1st place in the children's Team Kata last year were able to re-adjust to the even higher standards of the adult event fro 1999.

After many hours of hard fought competition over 300 competitors were reduced to an elite group that were to take medals or trophies home after one last effort - the KUGB finals.

The start of the evenings entertainment saw the honouring of the KUGB's long standing members (karateka with over 20 years of service), a list that now includes 228 members with around 5000 years of combined service! Included in the new group of 30 was Bryan Evans (4th Dan), a local Bristol man who wrote the books 'Get to Grips with Karate' and 'Get to Grips with Competition Karate'. Both of these books were written with the assistance of one the KUGB's most successful kumite champions Ronnie Christopher. Sensei Christopher was also present to receive his award from the Chief instructor of the KUGB, Sensei Enoeda, 8th Dan.

As always there were demonstrations punctuating groups of events including an excellent demonstration from the children and sensei's of Gen'Dai karate club and, of course, Sensei Enoeda's famous 4-man defence. The first event to be decided was the Children's kata won by a happy looking Lucy Powell, with Liam Dermott winning 3rd place for the second year running. An interesting thing to note is that after years of success from the boys in this event, three different girls have gained first place making this event theirs after 1996.

An exciting group of children's kumite events followed, suggesting that there is a continual increase in standard from the KUGB's younger members. And in a group of under 16s it seems a surprise to see D. Stockie, who gained 3rd in 5'5"+ boys kumite, training at Manchester University!

The same 4 teams for female Team Kumite as last year seemed to continue their dominance over the event with Marshall St, Sendai, Leeds and St. Helens all being placed. St. Helens won (again!) to make it three years in a row whilst in the Male Team Kumite London University couldn't equal this record as Leeds took the final. Leeds, led by kata expert Sean Roberts, also regained "their" place as the number one group in the Adult Team Kata, although the 16 year olds from Gateshead showed that it was possible for the "new generation" to make an impact in the adult categories by taking 3rd ahead of Marshall St.

After coming first in boy's kumite in 1994, Greg Hegarty showed the KUGB that he was ready to regain a kumite top spot when he won the Male Junior Kumite. Julian Cunningham was able to continue his reign as KUGB Kumite Champion for the third year, but Collette Glynn could only take 2nd place after three years of winning Female Kumite when she was beaten in a dramatic final by the previous three times student nationals champion, Anna Parkin. Anna made her bid for a National squad place in the most exciting way possible.

Sean Roberts was noticeable in his absence for the Male kata final four. This brought the question to many people's lips, "Did he enter individual kata this year?" If he didn't then one thing is for sure, next year's eliminations are going to be made very difficult for some people! It was Ian Stopforth that took the Male Kata crown after coming second last year. This makes him only the 6th kata champion in 33 years of the KUGB Nationals and only the 3rd in the last 21 years. Julie Nicholson carried on her legendary success in the kata competition as she made it 14 years in a row.

Although not winning first place in the individual events, Matthew Price (Leeds and Great Britain) certainly had a big impact on the competition. He gained second place in kata, second in kumite, 1st in Team kata and 1st in Team kumite making him the most medal-laden competitor of the year. Matthew looks like he could be a potential KUGB grand champion of the future - The first since Frank Brennan in 1992. Take this as a warning for next year, he will definately be back for more medals in the future and, as our tip for the top, Matthew will be looking for a British goldrush!

Tim Griffiths - 29/5/99