An excellent brown and black belt kata course, taken by senior USKFI instructors Senseis Michael Sherlock and David Royle, took place on Saturday. The black belts, taken by Sensei Sherlock, began the class with kihon techniques which appear in several katas before moving on to kata Kanku Sho. Hip movement as well as correct technique and timing was emphasised. Next, the class learned the advanced Kata Gojushio Dai with senior black belts concentrating on perfecting techniqes and the timing of the kata. To finish, Sensei Sherlock took the class over the three Tekki katas. The structure of the class allowed for some participants to learn the moves of some of the katas for the first time while, again, senior grades worked on attention to detail and sequence of movements.

The brown belts, instructed by Sensei Royle, worked in detail on kata Bassai Dai. Sensei Royle dissected each tehnique emphasising hip rotation, timing and correct execution. Sensei spent time demonstrating and explaining techniques to the group as a whole to aid students' understanding of the movements and also worked with individual students to advance their overall performance of the kata. Once the individual techniques had been studied, the class worked on the sequencing and timing of the kata and finished with performances of the full kata, taking into account all they had learnt in the class.

Thanks go to both Senseis for an excellent course; the superb atmosphere during training was reflected in the very postitive feedback received after the class.

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