Karatedo Shitokai New Zealand

 

Three important Senior Dan Gradings were recently held in Palmerston North and in Whangarei.

 

On the 17th July 2013, Sensei Bob visited our Palmerston North Dojo, where he graded Dave Nuku, the Palmerston North Head Instructor to Yondan, and later on 24th August 2013 at the Honbu Dojo in Whangarei he graded Murray Burns, the Kamo Head Instructor to Yondan, and Sempai Matthew Baird to Sandan. All the grades were well earned, with obviously much hard work done pre-grading.

 

Of particular interest is that both Dave and Murray are from "Karate families”, with Dave’s son, Kieran Nuku holding a Nidan, and his wife Ann working up for a Shodan grading in December later this year.

 

Murray’s sons Matt and Daniel Burns hold a Nidan and Shodan respectively, and in both cases, were the gradees’ "punch bags” in the bunkai and self defence sections of the gradings. It is certainly great to see families becoming involved in this way, and our organisation has several more families who train and learn together.

 

SenseiBob was especially pleased with the standard of Kihon and Kata shown, and the bunkai and self defence applications of the kata were hard and efficiently demonstrated, as all gradees opponents in these sections will probably confirm. Matthew Baird showed all his excellent Kihon and Kata with his bunkai and knife defence as equally as efficient as the two Yondans. Matthew is showing the maturity of many years training and learning with Karatedo Shitokai, who has been a student of Sensei Bob’s since he was 10 years old, and is now nearly 22. Mathew has also had the benefit of several years "one on one” training with Hasegawa Sensei.

 

All gradees are excellent instructors at their respective clubs, and their continued search for excellence is most heartening. Our organisation is maturing very nicely, and we have a further "batch” of young people coming up through the ranks, so the future for Karatedo Shitokai New Zealand is indeed bright.

 

Congratulations to all the gradees, an excellent effort.

 

Sensei Bob Dalton.