Saturday 10th January 26 saw the Shikukai Karate International New Year training for all students being hosted by Kiku Wa Jyuku in Chippenham. Training was taken by myself and Pam Rawson Sensei 7th Dan. Sugasawa Sensei had to send his apologies due to him recovering from an eye procedure that was offered to him at very short notice.
Once the formalities and greetings were over it was recommended that all students set themselves an achievable goal for the year. That could be anything from taking a Dan Grade, to learning a new Kata etc. – stressing how important it is to strive to achieve their goal.
Pam set the theme of the training to be Seichisa. She went on to explain what each Kanji meant and how when they are put together it translates into “precision”. The example given was don’t just punch at the Chudan Area but try to be as precise as possible down to the last mm of accuracy.
The first half of training was back to basics, Junzuki, Gyakuzuki etc but with the added difference of changing the striking point. This made students have to think about their stances whilst punching a different target area.
After a short break “precision” was still evident in a practical sense as the students then worked on grade appropriate Kumite Gata. The students were also encouraged to explore for themselves how important it is to be able to adapt to different opponents. This stopped them from being comfortable with the same partner as they always work with.
To finish, the students were shown a non syllabus Kumite Gata where the importance of timing was paramount.
Once Karate training was finished Club Instructors were invited to Foxham to undertake their annual First Aid Training. Refreshments were very kindly provided by Carol Chatterton Sensei 6th Dan. This consisted of soup and a very nice Rum infused fruit cake!
Carol’s husband Ian then spent the next three hours instructing in his unique way the now updated ways of performing CPR and other life saving skills. Competition was fierce for the box of chocolates with three students achieving 99% efficiency on the electronic Chest compression dummy. Ian congratulated them on how well they had done, especially as he recently taught at a Doctors surgery to have a GP attain only 79% efficiency. The course culminated in the group being split into two teams and having to work together on two casualties who were clothed, wet and requiring defibrillators to be located and used. His final piece of instruction was to Pam Sensei and telling her when using an epipen she has to be positive but not so hard it breaks the casualty’s leg, as the bruising on my leg shows!!!!
Once again thank you to Carol and Ian for hosting the Shikukai Training and First Aid Course.
Steve Rawson
7th Dan
11th January 2026
Shikukai Karate-Do International 