TOTAL Shotokan Karate

It was an honour to be part of a grading panel today to promote my Karate brother Daniel White Sensei to 5th Dan!

Dan passed his 4th Dan in 2012 and has always stated he wanted to take physical grading for 5th Dan, so it was important for us to find the right kind of physical grading and panel to match.

Therefore, there was no one I could think of better placed to head up that panel than Simon Staples Sensei (7th Dan), supported by another friend in Darren Jumnoodoo Sensei (7th Dan). It was made even more special to be surrounded by our friends from various different associations and the Kumite Kai crew (if you know you know!)

The grading took the format of an instructors class, with everyone training together but the three grading under the most focus and pressure. All three performed amazingly well and their grades really well earned! Well done to the other two, Chris (1st Dan) and Rik Rutherford Sensei to 4th Dan!

Dan and I have been friends and training partners for about 25 years and his influence on me and my Karate has been massive and our shared ethos on Karate is what Total Shotokan came to be. Therefore it was a pleasure to see him graded to Godan! Congratulations Dan, I'm proud of you and this grade was fully deserved!

One certificate designed and produced by the amazing Dojo Emporium and also honoured to have the grade recognised by the BCKA!

Great training last night even if it was a little warm in the dojo 🥵. We worked on applications from the first three heian kata as it’s been a while and I wanted to show the similarities to some of those found in the Tekkie kata which we’ve spent some time working lately.

About 6 years in the making but we finally had some professional photos done to help promote our group!

We were lucky enough to be photographed by Paul Ives, a professional photographer and long time Karateka. Paul was really knowledgable and knew how to get the best images both from a professional perspective and a Karate one. Thank you! If you're a martial artist looking to get photos done, I would massively recommend talking to Paul!

We are delighted with the outcome of the images and will slowly start updating our website, social media and promotional materials!

A reminder of this Sunday's Karate-Kali connection course.

It's being organised by Dave from Kings Cross Shotokan Karate Club and is open to all Martial Artists.

It will be a great course and Dan Sensei and I will both be training.

Hi all,

Please see below for details of a course that Dave is helping to organise. It sounds like it will be an excellent course and I will be attending.

The Karate – Kali Connection

A seminar to introduce applicable Kali principles and drills to karate-ka and other martial arts practitioners.

Many karate-ka will have seen Sensei Jesse Enkamp’s Youtube video on the similarities and crossover between Karate and Filipino Kali. This seminar offers a chance to experience this yourself.

Sensei Lee Taylor 6th Dan Sh*to Ryu (British Combat Karate Association and JKD/ Kali Instructor under G**o Rick Faye Minnesota Kali Group) will be teaching Kali limb trapping and Hubud drills that will offer the potential to improve karate technique and help with Kata Bunkai exploration.

Cost: £30.00

Venue: ARK Academy Bridge Road, London, HA9 9JP

Date/Time: Sunday 6th October 2024 11:00 – 15:00

Contact: Glen at [email protected]

https://www.britishcombatkarate.co.uk/event-details/The-Karate-Kali-Connection

Hi all,

Please see below for details of a course that Dave is helping to organise. It sounds like it will be an excellent course and I will be attending.

The Karate – Kali Connection

A seminar to introduce applicable Kali principles and drills to karate-ka and other martial arts practitioners.

Many karate-ka will have seen Sensei Jesse Enkamp’s Youtube video on the similarities and crossover between Karate and Filipino Kali. This seminar offers a chance to experience this yourself.

Sensei Lee Taylor 6th Dan Sh*to Ryu (British Combat Karate Association and JKD/ Kali Instructor under G**o Rick Faye Minnesota Kali Group) will be teaching Kali limb trapping and Hubud drills that will offer the potential to improve karate technique and help with Kata Bunkai exploration.

Cost: £30.00

Venue: ARK Academy Bridge Road, London, HA9 9JP

Date/Time: Sunday 6th October 2024 11:00 – 15:00

Contact: Glen at [email protected]

https://www.britishcombatkarate.co.uk/event-details/The-Karate-Kali-Connection

Last Thursday I had the please of teach some Total Shotokan members from our club at the Berkhamsted dojo. They are all a credit to Adam Sensei which meant we were able to cover a lot of fun applications in a short period of time. 💪💪💪

Great to have Adam Sensei, Josh and Bobby from Kings Cross Shotokan come train with us tonight. Osu

Dan, Bobby and I had the pleasure of training with Rory Miller on Sunday. Dan & I had trained with him a couple of times before previously and have followed his work and books for a number of years and his approach has had a big impact on our approach to training around self-protection.

The theme of this course was "dealers choice" where Rory left the floor open to questions and he showed physical drills or researched talks to answer those questions. Overall we covered Rory's One-Step drill (it's excellent), situational awareness, knife attacks and group attacks.

Rory is a foundation of knowledge both practically (his experience is in the US Prison system) and theoretically and delivered in an engaging and easy to understand way.

If you haven't already, I really recommend you reading Rory's books, especially "Meditations on Violence" and "Conflict Communications".

More details can be found here - https://www.chirontraining.com/index.html

Haha this just came up in my personal feed. I think this must have been roughly my second Seishinkai tournament in the early 90’s (it’s not a black belt in the pic).