National Wadokai Squad Selections - report

Despite only arriving back in the UK on Wednesday 1st July, Amy and I were eager to head on down to Birmingham for the Wadokai England Squad training session on Saturday 4th July.

The squad session was also selections for the 2009 FEW European Championships which will be held in Dublin, Ireland in October. The session was split into different time slots for Kata (12:00-14:00) & Kumite (14:00-16:00)

Kata
Amy and I decided to use the Kata session as a warm up for the Kumite. Sensei' Peter May & Lee Minion put us all through our paces in basics and Chinto. The instructors spent time going over the finer points of the WKF Kata rules and what the referees are looking for. Also, we were all asked to perform our favourite kata in front of everyone and some of us were also asked to perform Seishan which is the compulsory Kata for the European Championships.

After the individual training, we were put into teams of 3. I was paired up with two lads who are used to competing in Kata at a high level. We decided to do Seishan because the speed of the Kata gave us all chance to synchronise.

The Kata session was really good, and I personally felt that it was tailored completely to what I needed to make my Kata even better - this is obvioulsy the sign of a great coach!

Kumite
We had a few minutes and then we went straight into the Kumite session. We were put through a warm up by Sensei Andy Genery 7th Dan which included a few pairs drills. We then formed lines to do a few minutes of fight drills and then went onto the selections which basically meant that we were sat around for hours and then called up to fight. I remember thinking that the only two people I didn't want to fight were Matt and Dale...

My first fight was against Mat Hubber, a fellow Aiwakai guy who until very recently was training with Sensei Keith Walker, Matt also took the mens title at the Aiwakai National Championships in May. It was a good fight, but sometimes a little scrappy though I managed to secure the win.

My Second fight was against Dale from Sensei Lee Minions Derby Karate Academy. This was another close fight, Dale started well with a solid lead hand punch to my right eye socket. The fight went right down to the wire with me lagging by one point, I managed to equalise right on the buzzer. The fight then went to Sai Shiai which is a new change to the rules, all points and penalties are wiped from the board and a completely new fight takes place for one minute (the old rules was - first to score). This is was my first experience with this rule change and it certainly got the adrenalin going because you have to dominate for the full minute rather than simply getting a cheaky point in the first few seconds. I went onto win this fight though I can't remember the score.

Amy was moving well, but she needed to be more clear with her techniques. She ended up winning one fight and losing one fight, but her performances were good in both cases.

We were informed on Saturday (11th) that both Amy and I have been selected for the England Squad. I've been selected for Kumite and Kata (which was a huuuuge surprise!) and Amy has been selected for Kumite and is a reserve for the Kata team.

Overall not a bad result for the club...