Bristol Karate Academy

One more step back to normality for Karate yesterday as Bristol Karate Academy hosted a special seminar and coloured belt grading with the world renowned Sensei Frank Brennan (8th Dan).

While everyone was delighted to be back to the dojo, social distancing was the order of the day as members and visitors made sure they followed all the safety steps of this COVID-secure event. Temperatures were checked, hands and floors were sanitised and members were able to train in their own marked out spaces. And while restrictions meant that normal sparring was not possible, everyone that took part wore face coverings for some limited face-to-face work at distances of several metres apart.

Although there was necessarily a focus on making sure the event was safe, there was most definitely a focus on precision and dynamic movement by Sensei Brennan, for whom this was his first indoor seminar since lockdown began and his first indoor grading, other than at his home dojo - the world famous Liverpool Red Triangle Karate Club.

To keep numbers to safe levels, the first of the two classes held on the day was exclusively for Academy members. Sensei focused on the correct development of technique and also coordination to make sure all strikes would be delivered with devastating effectiveness.

Before we welcomed our brown and black belts for their separate seminar it was grading time, where 22 Academy members demonstrated that anything is possible if you put your mind to it - 100% pass record (no temporary grades) despite the majority of their training over the last few months being through online classes. In fact it was a delight to see some of our members face-to-face for the first time since our last grading in March!

We were delighted to open up our brown and black belt seminar to friends from across the region, where Sensei Brennan took us through katas Jion and Jitte in detail. Not only was it great to receive such expert instruction it was also nice to hear that Sensei was as pleased as we were to be back to the dojo, training hard. He was also reassured by how smoothly the day ran, even with the extra measures put in place to keep us as safe as possible. We are all hugely grateful to Dan Salter and Ian Connell, for all their support in making sure the day ran without a hitch.

Thank you to Sensei Brennan for making the long trip from Liverpool to teach us all. Thank you to our members for supporting the event and following all the safety guidelines. Thanks also to our visitors from Basingstoke, Bristol Shotokan, Bath SKC, Cullompton, Exmouth, Tiverton and Tsuta Hashi for your support - it was fantastic to see everyone after such a long time!

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