Kyu grading

Probably one of the biggest gradings of the year, this was mainly due to myself not been able to prepare students correctly in the previous month and telling quite a few to defer. These circumstances came about because of all the commotion surrounding the set up of the Manchester Youth Open as well as preparing over seventy of our students to compete at that event.

Despite the numbers and a relatively late finish on Friday evening, once again our club members didn’t disappoint with solid performances in both sets of gradings. Special mention to all our students who past with a first, Claire Gwyer, Zac Spence, Freddie Hopkins and Arjun Mallya.

Well done to all who passed their grades.

Next grading date,

Friday 22nd December 2019
6.00 till 7.00 9th- 7th kyu
7.00 till 8.15 6th- 1st kyu

Central England International Open

Reece, George & Jannat – team kumite gold

Fantastic results for the Yanagi Kai squad at the Central England International Open, finishing forth in the over all medal table with six gold, nine silver and nine bronze. This was a great effort considering that we didn’t have our full squad in attendance and with a little more luck we might have been able to convert a couple of the silvers to gold and finished slightly higher.

Most encouragingly our medals haul was spread throughout our squad, from our younger members through to our more experience campaigners in both kata and kumite.

It’s always very difficult to point-out Individuals in such brilliant team performance but I feel I have to mention Jannat Farhan taking silver in the girls 10-11 years and going on and winning the 10-11 years mixed team event with Reece Allen and George Malone. Such a quiet and placid young lady when training at the dojo but we certainly saw a different side to her this weekend and that excites me for her future.

Eve & Tahlia – Pair kata gold

Competitor of the day has to be Eve Holdsworth with two gold and a silver, closely followed by Jed Thompson one gold and two silver as well as £100 cheque for wining one of the blue ribbon events.

Well done all.

Brilliant day of competition and a huge thank you to Sensei Stennett Harvey and his team for a well organised competition.

The days results are as follows;

Kata
Gold – Ellie Payne 14-15 years
Gold – Sam Eagle 12-13 years
Gold – Eve Holdsworth 12-13 years
Gold – Eve Holdsworth, Tahlia Blake 12 -13 years pair
Silver – Eve Holdswoth 14-15 years
Silver – George Malone 12-13 years
Silver – Liberty Blake 12-13 years
Bronze – Lydia Bevan Senior
Bronze – Ellie Costin 14-15 years
Bronze – Lydia Bevan, Ellie Costin 14 plus pair
Bronze – Tahlia Blake 12-13 years

Kumite
Gold – Jed Thompson – Senior
Gold – Reece Allen, Jannat Farhan, George Malone 11-12 years team
Silver – Jed Thompson Open
Silver – Jed Thompson -21 years
Silver – Daniel Bartoletta 14-15 year
Silver – Rhys Daly 14-15 years
Silver – Reece Allen 10 -11 years
Silver – Jannat Farhan 10-11 years
Bronze – Joshua Combers -21years
Bronze – Esther Beales -21 years
Bronze – Aiden Docherty 14-15 years
Bronze – George Malone 10-11 years

Dan Grade

A huge congratulations to Sarah Whittaker, Tahlia Blake, Sam Eagle, Liberty Blake and Ellie Costin who all achieved their Shodan black belts at the dojo on Sunday. This is a huge testament to all the hard work and dedication they have shown, with hours of training over the past twelve months.

A massive thank you to all of the Instructors involved in preparing the guys for the big day, especially Sensei Haley and Sensei Andy. I know at times it’s been a little challenging but definitely worth while.

I’d also like to congratulate Cara Quine and Ben Gwyer who both passed their assessment and will be returning in six months time to attempt their Shodan.