Busy time for local Karate clubs

Its been a busy year for the Midlands Shotokan Karate Clubs (MSKC) so far, from International instructors teaching in the clubs to competitions, gradings, summer camps and a trip to the beach.Sensei Basil Leeshue travelled to Kinnegad to teach the students of the MSKC. Sensei Basil is a 5th Dan in the JKS (Japan Karate Shotorenmei) and is one of the most respected instructors in Europe. He has a background in athletics, having represented the UK in the 80s and he held the British record for the high jump for 10 years. Students came from each club to train with Sensei Basil. His class reflected some of his training from years back, the students were amazed with his way of reading situations in kumite (fighting) and learned about twitch muscles and how to improve different areas of their karate. The students were also treated to a new kata which everyone enjoyed. Sensei Basil showed different kumite drills which helped him win the European Championships several times and earned him that possition British all styles kumite coach and the of Director of the JKS, the largest karate organisation in Europe today.Then it was off to Santry in Dublin for the MSKC to take part in the JKS Nationals. Teams from England, Italy, Scotland and more travelled to the competition. With over 400 compeditors all the students from the MSKC were fantastic and did really well and especially Dylan Horkan from Longford who came second in his first major championships.Sensei Alan Smith, the Technical Director of the MSKC, would like to say well done and congratulations to everyone in the Ballymore Youth Club for taking part and completing a six week course on the basics of Shotokan karate, Self Defence and Japanese. There were just over 20 kids on the course and they all showed a keen interest in their lessons. Sensei Alan would also like to thank Sensei Lane Orme from Mullingar for teaching the Mullingar Karate Club while the classes were on in Ballymore.Sensei Pat Murtagh from Collinstown is Alan's Doki (training partner) was invited to teach and grade the tips (beginner grades) in Mullingar, His class was enjoyable for all the younger members of the MSKC and they trained really hard and Sensei Pat did a great job keeping everyone motivated and kept the whole class concentrating on what they had to do the following week Sensei Scott Langley who is Alan's Sensei (teacher) came to Rochfortbridge, which is the newest club in the MSKC to give a technical seminar and do a Grading. The Grading was a great success and all the students passed. Sensei Scott was very happy with the progress being made by all the students in the MSKC.Scott Langley is the Technical Director of the JKS and is one of five people outside Japan to complete the famous instructors course (kenshusei). He moved to Japan and was quickly asked to take part in the course. For over two years he trained almost to the point of exhaustion until the course was completed. After this he moved to Ireland and set up his full time Dojo in Dublin. When he was teaching in Rochfortbridge he taught some exercises that he practised daily in Japan and everyone on the class benifitted greatly from this training. Sensei Pat (Athboy and Moylagh) Sensei Scott (Dublin) and Sensei Alan (MSKC) wish all the students who graded continued success.As usual the MSKC finished for the holidays with their annual trip to Bettystown Beach. All the clubs travelled to the beach to enjoy the day out, once again we were blessed with the weather, the students had a great time on the three hour class which had a Dan grade Kata Kanku-sho (black belt) that was new for everyone and to finish the class they did take down techniques in the water.While evening classes were finished for a summer break, the MSKC ran a summer camp. It wasn't just a karate camp - it was a camp with a Japanese theme from learning basic Japanese, karaoke, quizzes, Bingo, a Japanese movie and more. The students were kept very busy. As well as doing all these activitise they trained very hard over the week. They all outdid themselves and completing the camp was a great achievment. Sensei Alan would like to thank his wife, Alacoque and John McDonnell for all their help running the summer camp. They both worked very hard to make the camp an enjoyable and memorable one.Holidays are over and training is back in all the clubs around the Midlands with more competitions, courses and gradings ahead. For more info contact Alan at 087-9012447 or go to our website www.mskc.ie