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A TRULY UNIQUE EVENT WITH SENSEI JIM BRENNAN
By Admin
07 December 2020 8:55 pm
On Sunday we hosted our fourth and final face-to-face seminar of the year, which incorporated our end of year kyu grading.

This was our third grading during the global pandemic, following all tier and social distancing rules and taking place after five weeks of online training, including a month of national lockdown. It was great to see everyone face-to-face again after so long!


The circumstances meant some significant changes to the planned event. A change of date and a change of venue were both needed in order to keep the event going. Phone calls were made and emails sent in order to arrange what was our first ever outdoor seminar and grading, with some of our under 18s able to train indoors afterwards.

A massive thank you to our members for being so flexible. We were determined to keep the opportunity to train and grade open in recognition of lengths that you’ve all gone to keep your training going throughout Lockdown 2 and the subsequent restrictions.

In all, 34 people were able to train under the guidance of Sensei Jimmy Brennan (8th Dan), split across our indoor and outdoor classes to comply with maximum allowable group sizes and social distancing requirements.

19 members were successful in reaching their next belt, with several members taking their first kyu grading and one reaching the final stop before black belt. Congratulations to you all!

A huge thank you to Sensei Jim Brennan for making the trip down to teach us and for his patience as government policy led to multiple changes to the event. Sensei flexed his seminar plans to make them work for the unique circumstances we all found ourselves in.

Thank you to Ian, Annette, Steven and Dan for making sure the event ran smoothly.

And a massive thank you to all of our dedicated members for training so hard and sticking with it even when things have been tough. All of you have shown that there’s always a way to keep pushing forward. Your determination to continue in the face of adversity is hugely admirable. We’re so proud of you all.

Tomorrow marks the first day of coronavirus vaccinations in the UK and we hope that our next grading will be one where we are able to return to some degree of normality. In the meantime we’re determined to help find ways to keep training hard while complying with all the latest rules, flexing our approach as the guidance evolves.