2008 Shitokai New Zealand DAN Grading - Saturday 13th December 2008

            Shitokai Black Belts - Shodan and Nidan                                 Shitokai Dan members

                            Palmerston North                              Instructors Sensei Bob Dalton and Dave Nuku

Karatedo Shitokai held a very successful grading day on 13th December, with two club members from the Palmerston North club, Jenny Nixey and Kieran Nuku, travelling to Whangarei with their Instructor Dave Nuku, to undergo their Shodan (1st dan) gradings.

In total there were two attempting 2nd Kyu, one attempting 1st Kyu, three attempting Shodan, and two attempting Nidan (2nd dan). It was a long and hard day for everyone and special thanks to Murray & Matt Burns, Matt Redwood and Aaron Springford for their help in the kumite sections of the grading.

Matt Redwood and Aaron Springford who both successfully graded to 2nd Kyu, then stayed on for the entire day and took a lot of knocks helping in the dan grading lineups.

Ian Reihana successfully graded to 1st Kyu.

Jenny Nixey, Kieran Nuku & Lucy Andrews all successfully graded to Shodan with a good exhibition of Kihon and spirit, especially in the kumite section where they had to fight a succession of others in a non stop series of fights, followed by a very hard "abs" and pushups session. They had obviously put in a lot of hard work and it showed, with their Kata Bunkai demonstrations looking quite impressive.

The Nidan gradings were the highlight of the day, with Andrew Parker and Matthew Baird putting on a great show. Nidan is a huge step up from Shodan, with a very high level of bunkai and self defence applications being required. They did not disappoint, with the intensity and standard of these applications being some of the best Sensei Bob Dalton had seen, and at the end, when, totally exhausted, they had to defend themselves against knife and club attacks in a totally unrehearsed series of attacks, was especially impressive.

Congratulations to all students.