Shoto Kata Time

After watching Alex Gardner clinch the BUCS Dan grade Kata Gold for the third consecutive year with a superb rendition of Unsu, I was inspired to do a little bit of Shoto of my own in my usual stint in the steam room on Monday night at Burleigh Court Gym & Spa in Loughborough. 

Unfortunately Alex was not on my Tatami at BUCS so I missed all five or six of his qualifying kata to get to the final.  He was up against Chris Kawacinsci the brother of Kate Kawacinsci who got Bronze in Kumite in the Cadet/Junior Europeans (see previous reports).  I also missed all of Chris’ elimination katas, other than for his Semi-final bout against Lloyd Birt which I think he won 3-2 to get to the final.

Chris did a cracking rendition of Gankaku in the final against Alex.  The bout could quite easily have gone either way but for my money Alex’s Unsu was the better kata on the day.  The result was 4-1 with the very experienced panel of Euro Kata Judges Peter Bibby, Rab McQueen, Brian Jarvis, Mair Phillips & myself. 

In the steam room I therefore blitzed through Sochin, Gojushiho Sho, Nijushiho, Enpi, Gankaku, Kanku Sho & Unsu like a mad-man.  Steam room Kata or SRK is a technique I use 3-5x per week to give myself a blitz of a work-out in a short time period.  The stress put on the body at the elevated temp and humidity is profound and makes thinking really quite difficult.  I used the technique in preparation for my Euro Kata Exams in June 2012 doing all eight Shitei Kata one after the other in the hot steam & also in June 2013 – doing Unsu, Chatanyara Kushanku, Enpi, Paiku & Anan which were my potential kata for the exam. 

On Monday after being quite pleased with myself for managing to do all seven Shoto ‘Big Gun’ Kata without any mistakes, I then tried to finish with Asai-Ryu kata Roshu and totally bombed out – just could not recall the next moves – Agh! - However, back at room temperature no problem.  Quite a dramatic effect the elevated temperature has on the mind - why, I'm not sure but this does not bode well for the England Football team in Brazil this summer! 

On Sunday I will be going to Brian Jarvis’s KSE7 Champs in Gloucester, followed by Monday night training at James Martin’s Shoto Club in West Bridgford, Nottingham with Sensei Simon Bligh 5th dan WTKO Chair.  Hopefully we will do a bit of Asai-ryu kata to help reinforce those neural pathways for the steam room and maybe England will win the World Cup after all?