The USKFI recently held its first course of 2010, a black and brown belt course under the instruction of the USKFI’s Chief Instructor Michael Sherlock and Technical Advisor Sensei David Royle. The course was extremely well-attended, with students from all clubs making the effort to attend and get back into training after the Christmas break.

The class was divided in two, with Sensei Sherlock taking the black belts and Sensei Royle the brown belts. Sensei Sherlock took the black belt through a selection of dynamic kumite combinations which were then tried out against a partner. Sensei made sure students worked on their attitude while still maintaining the technicalities of their techniques. Sensei Royle worked on completion of technique, hikate and co-ordination with the brown belts, many of whom have dan gradings coming up in the near future. Sensei Royle broke several of the required grading combinations down into their component parts to improve on them, before putting them back together.

After a short break, the Senseis changed groups and worked on kata. Students worked on katas relevant to their own grades, and also worked on compulsory katas for their next grading. To make sense of some of the movements for the brown belts, Sensei Sherlock also worked on some kata bunkai, leaving the group in no doubt as to how some of the kata moves could be used in real life!

There was a charged atmosphere to the day and both Senseis Sherlock and Royle hope that the attitude and determination set by the students has set the scene for the upcoming year.