André Bertel course report. Germany, February 2012.

As always, click pictures to enlarge.

Well, we have almost recovered from a very tough but absolutely fantastic course with Sensei André Bertel, 6th dan. Sensei André was a personal student of the legendary Tetsushiko Asai Shihan, the late head of the IJKA and is one of the world's foremost experts on IJKA Karate. The course was hosted by Oliver and Yan Schoemburg of Yawara Dojo, in Ahrensburg, a half hour outside Hamburg city centre and attended by Karateka from all over Europe, including Italy, Holland, Denmark, Switzerland and more.

The course focused on Asai-ha Shotokan Bujutsu Karate, designed to be highly efficent for self protection. From the outset it was clear that the course was going to be something special, with Sensei André offering a whole new perspective on even the most basic of kihon techniques and really bringing everyone's Karate to life.

Working primarily on those core principles required to make ones' Karate real-world effective, such as correct distancing - always making contact with our enemy at 75% of full extension in order to ensure maximum transfer of impact - leading all our punches from the hips, with maximum body contraction and expansion as key for generating a fight stopping blow and much, much more, it really was a fantastic and highly informative (if at times painful!) seminar.

Two very happy Karateka from Tuam with Sensei André.

There were a great many highlights for those of us from IJKA Ireland who attended,including performing the Asai kata Meikyo Nidan in a car park in the snow in the middle of the night after a really enjoyable dinner with Sensei Bertel and our German hosts!

Sensei André is surely one of the world's best Karateka and yet is humble, friendly and enormously helpful both in and out of the dojo, yet he always makes sure to push everyone and brings out the best in all those who train with him.

It really was a wonderful to meet and stay in the dojo with so many friendly and enthusiastic Karateka and we look forward to training together at the next course.

Needless to say, we have absolutely loads of great new material and information which will be our focus in the dojo for the next while. Looking forward to it :) OSU!!


Here are some excellent videos of the course made and posted by Oliver Schoemburg. Thanks also to both him and Yan for their immense hospitality and assistance.

Course with Andre Bertel in Germany!

Several members of IJKA Ireland - including several from the Tuam Dojo - will be travelling to Germany this weekend to train with the world famous Sensei André Bertel, 6th Dan. Sensei Bertel was for many years the personal student of the late head of the IJKA, Tetsushiko Asai Shihan, 10th dan, and is a wealth of knowledge on Asai-ha Shotokan Karate and one of the most respected Karateka in the world, with thousands following his blog every month.

Sempai Ben trained with Bertel Sensei in Japan in 2007 and is very much looking forward to some of the same gruelling but extremely educational training. Best of luck to all attending. Course report to follow!!
OSU!

Sensei Bertel's excellent blog:
http://andrebertel.blogspot.com/

Some footage from last years course in Germany:

Christmas Holidays.

After a particularly tough final weekend of training to conclude 2011, the club now has two weekends off to rest and recuperate before resuming training in early January.

There will be no training the weekends of the 23rd - 25th or 30th - 1st January.

Training will resume as normal from Friday the 6th of January with classes for beginners, intermediate and advanced students taking place every weekend.

We would like to thank all our members and their families for being so supportive of the club over the last year and everyone who has made such a huge effort to attend on a regular basis. All the effort from everyone has really paid off and 2011 has seen the club go from strength to strength and the standard of our students improve immeasurably.

We wish everyone an enjoyable and peaceful christmas and new year and hope the club continues to grow and develop in 2012. Onwards and upwards!
OSU!

Well done everyone!

A huge congratulations to all who passed their grading on Friday last under Sensei Brian Toomey, 6th dan and head of IJKA Ireland. With almost 50 students attending the pre-grading class and every one who underwent examination (about 25 students) passing, it was a very successful night for the club.

All members who tested on the day did the club proud and the whole event was representative of the quality of students we have training with us and the high standard the club has reached. All the students' hard work and preparation clearly held them in very good stead and everyone performed fantastically throughout their gradings - even those going for red belt, who were given a particularly tough time! :)

Senesei Toomey taught a tough two hour class before the grading which focused on the 3rd dan black belt kata "Sochin", a wonderful kata that all the junior grades can look forward to learning in the future and that the club instructors have to struggle with in the present! Many thanks to Sensei Toomey for the class and grading and to all those from the Galway club who attended the event.

OSU!

Upcoming grading and class.

Sensei Brian Toomey, 6th Dan IJKA world secretary and Irish chief instructor, will be teaching at Tuam Karate Club next Friday, December 9th. The class will be from 6pm to 8pm and costs 10 euro to help us cover travel and teaching costs. We ask all students to really make an effort to attend this class, as it is a great opportunity to train with a very highly ranked professional Karate instructor here in our dojo.

A grading will take place after the class. All Karateka from clubs in the surrounding area are, as always, more than welcome to attend the class and grade if they wish. Don't forget your grading books! Hope to see ye all there!

Classes for beginners are also continuing every Saturday from 11.30 - 12.30. Feel free to attend :)
OSU!

IJKA trip to Japan

Here's a cool report that students might enjoy reading from the recent IJKA trip to Japan with Shihan Kato written by Sensei Steve Cameron of IJKA Worcestershire. It's quite long but has lots of cool information about what would surely be a dream come true for the vast majority of Karateka around the world.






See here for the introduction:
http://www.ijka.net/index.php?page=the-dragons-tour-2011

and here for part one:
http://www.ijka.net/index.php?page=chapter-1.

All of us at Tuam Karate Club are very jealous we couldn't attend this time, but maybe next year hopefully. :) OSU!

Training in one of the many dojos that were visited.

Osaka Castle. Photos courtesy of Mark Watts, 4th dan.

IJKA Ireland Autumn Seminar in Tuam: Course Report

Sensei Brian Toomey, 6th Dan and Sensei Milena Galabova, 3rd dan demonstrate for the class under Sensei's watchful eye.

Tuam Karate Club was honoured last weekend to host Shihan Sadashige Kato, 9th dan and IJKA world chief instructor, for the sixth year in a row for the IJKA Ireland Autumn seminar. After the free classes of normal Friday night training in the dojo which were attended by Karateka from several different clubs, the course with Kato Sensei began on Saturday morning in the spacious Milltown community centre. In his usual form, Sensei spent the first class putting all those attending through their paces with some tough kihon drills which challenged everyone technically and physically.


Saturday afternoon involved lots of partner work, especially for the senior grades as Kato Sensei delved into many fundamental Karate concepts such as “ma-ai” (distancing), tai sabaki (body evasion), “zanshin” (awareness/“remaining spirit”), timing, and feigning an opening in one’s guard to lure an enemy in before a counter attack. Just as Sun Tzu said in The art of War over 2,500 years ago – all warfare is based on deception! Kato Sensei's assistant Sensei Milena Galabova, 3rd Dan IJKA Bulgaria and IJKA Kenshusei (trainee instructor) then took some of the juniors for a separate session while the black and brown belts were trained hard as ever by Shihan.


The Sunday morning instructors’ class had the black and brown belts partnered off in groups of three to perform various speed drills involving evasion, defence, and counter attacks as well as dissecting the Asai-Ryu Ha kata, Kakuyoku Shodan with Sensei offering several very important technical details about the Asai style Bujutsu Karate the IJKA promotes. He was also anxious to point out the responsibility that comes with being a senior grade and how important it is that senior grade Karateka not be “too soft” on themselves but rather continue to push themselves hard to attain high levels of ability and understanding. Wise words indeed!


In the all grades class that followed, Kato Sensei had the junior grades partnered off with the black and brown belts for some more partner work and instruction from a senior grade, this time working on defending and countering against various common attacks. Shihan Kato also made some interesting points about the proper mental attitude of a Karateka and how to do the often unexamined ready stance, yoi, correctly. As ever, Sensei kept the pressure on and made sure everyone was giving everything their best throughout another rewarding and educational lesson. The second half of the session dealt with the first two heian katas and took groups of three Karateka at a time out in front of the class to offer corrections and advice on their kata, giving many students a great opportunity to have their katas assessed by a 9th dan master.

As always with Kato Sensei, a similar level of attention was given throughout the weekend and Sensei was quick to offer all participants corrections where needed. Often heard were instructions to “Ree-lax”, move with “more speed” etc. etc. A great weekend of world class tuition from a world renowned master. Tuam Karate Club is really honoured to host such an event and plans are already afoot for next year’s seminar as well as attending the Spring seminar in the IJKA Ireland Hombu (HQ) dojo in Fermoy. Sincere thanks to everyone who attended and who helped organise and run the course. Well done to those who underwent gradings during the course as well. We look forward to training together again soon! OSU!!!

Ben.


Some of the many highlights from the weekend. More photos will be added to the photo gallery page as soon as possible. Lots have already been added to our facebook account.

Seminar with Kato Sensei, 9th dan in Tuam!!!

Click to enlarge poster. Feel free to print one out for your dojo!

Tuam Karate Club is hosting our annual seminar with the world renowned Karate master Sadashige Kato, (9th Dan, IJKA world chief instructor). This is a great opportunity for Karate students in Ireland to train with an extremely senior Japanese instructor. Kato Sensei is a graduate of both the legendary Takushoku University - famed for it's gruelling dojo and many exceptional Karateka - and the infamous JKA instructors course. He is the only person ever to have passed an eight dan exam with the late Sensei Tetsushiko Asai, 10th dan. For more about Kato Sensei, see the instructors profile page linked to the right of this page.

As a club we are hugely honoured to host such a master and hope it will be as good a course as last year. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any queries about the event.

Class times are as follows:

Saturday:
11.30 - 13.30
14.30 - 16.30

Sunday:
10.30 - 11.30 - instructors' class
11.30 - 13.00 - all grades
13.00 - Kyu and dan grading

The whole course costs only €60 for senior grades & adults and €30 for children.

The course cost will also include training in our club's regular Friday night session at our dojo in the Scout Hall, Old Road, Tuam from 6-7.30 for junior grades and 7.30-9.00 for seniors students for anyone who may wish to attend. :) OSU!!

*IJKA students are reminded to bring their grading books ("IJKA International Budo passport") to the course to have Kato Sensei sign and date it on the "Courses attended" page.

Tuam Karate Club - New Classes starting!!

Tuam Karate Club is pleased to announce that a brand new course for beginners will be starting on Saturday October 1st from 11.30 - 13.00. If you want to learn to defend yourself, get fit, improve your confidence and have fun - why not give it a try?! The club is one of the oldest in the country, being founded in 1974. We currently have four black belts training at the club and a wide variety of mixed grades. The club accepts adults and students aged eight years and above. Class costs 5 euro and all classes are pay as you go. Your first class is free, so why not give it a try?! :-) To register for this class just turn up any Saturday from October 1st at about 11.25 to give it a go. Details are as follows:
Tuam Karate Club
Scout Hall, Old Road, Tuam.
Beginners' class every Saturday 11:30 – 12:30pm.
Adults and students eight years and above welcome.
Cost: 5 euro pay as you go. First class is free.


Further useful information for new members can be found in the FAQ section of our site - link on right of page. We have also just added some photos of our dojo to the photo gallery page so beginners have some idea of what to expect!


*Please also note that classes for junior grades continue to take place in the hall every Friday from 6:00 - 7:30pm. Students are welcome to attend both classes if they wish to gain extra practice, but there is no obligation whatsoever to do so.

Enter the Dojo!

Here's a little video to give all our newest students a flavour of what to expect from training in our club...

Only joking! This is the first episode of a hilarious new martial arts spoof online series. There are several other episodes and clips elsewhere on youtube. Well worth a watch! Enjoy! :)