The 8th of May 2011 saw a very important event in the CFTS calendar and in the karate career of Sensei Eddie McClagish; it was the culmination of his 5th Dan grading by taking a course at the Bunyan Centre in Bedford.
“Kyoda-Kara-Gijutsu – Strength from Technique”
Just over 80 CFTS students squeezed into the gymnasium to take part in the innovative and traditional course. The content covered 5 main areas: kime, leverage, speed, body evasion and taking opponents strength and using it against them.
Each area had a practical demonstration led by Sensei McClagish before we all got to have a go for ourselves and it soon became apparent that even a simple understanding of each of the areas could make a considerable difference to how effective our technique could be. Add in the correct application of hips, something that was reiterated throughout the afternoon and it was clear some students were clearly surprised at their own abilities!
After practicing each area individually we had a short break after which it was time to put everything together in some self defence applications. Due to the number of people in a small dojo it was not possible to throw people quite as far as some would have liked but everyone had a good time trying to get the sometimes tricky combinations to work.
At the end of the afternoon it is fair to say that everyone had learnt something new and many of the adults probably didn’t expect to be able to walk the next morning! It was then that Sensei Kidby, to considerable applause, presented Sensei McClagish with his 5th Dan diploma.
Hopefully since the course students have been able to apply some of what they learned to improve their dojo training and make their karate more effective and congratulations and thanks must go to Sensei McClagish from all in CFTS.
Also on the afternoon Sensei Judy Morgan-Jones was presented with her Nidan diploma and Sensei Liam O’Reilly received a special gift from Sensei Kidby to mark his 25th year of training with him. Congratulations from all in CFTS to Sensei Morgan Jones and Sensei O’Reilly for their achievements.