Well done to Sean and Quentin who passed their Level4 assessments yesterday at a quiet Summer Kobudo. Well done Richard Tipping for passing his Level 5. These are pre-requisite assessments before grading for a black belt so full steam ahead for all three as they train for their next upgrades in December: Sean and Quentin will be taking their second dan and Richard will be going for black.

Well done also to Sensei Simon who showed off two new kata he has been working on to Sensei Herbert. Sensei Herbert has decided to incorporate them into the Jikishin Syllabus. Quite an honour.

Sensei Simon

David Salisbury is a member of Ishigaki who we do not see very often because his work has meant that he'd been living in New York and Iraq over the past few years. David is one of our brown belts - well he was. He took up another form of Ju Jitsu when he moved to New York and today I was really pleased to hear that he has been graded to Black Belt in Danzan Ryu Jujitsu, and is now a member of the American Judo and Jujitsu Association (AJJF). He was able to do this in less time than they would normally allow because of his time and experience with Ishigaki.

David will be returning to us as a Black Belt later in the year so let's all make sure we congratulate him and treat him with the respect he deserves.

Well Done David!!!

Sensei Simon

Day 2 started with the sparring divisions. Only a few Ishigaki people have ventured into the
sparring ring and this event saw only 4 entrants.
Our 2 men in the intermediate men's divisions battled but lost their semi-finals with Rainer
narrowly outscoring Ronan 3-2 to win the bronze medal.
Wayne was in the next division only to discover he was drawn against the person he had
dreaded facing. He overcame Etienne (Niji Kan Paris) before losing the semi-final 3-2.
Another closely fought play-off ended with Wayne victorious to claim the bronze medal.
The afternoon became an Ishigaki festival of celebration with medals in every division.
Beginners : Gold-Ian
Intermediate/Advanced U40 : Gold-Omar, Silver-Rainer, Bronze-Nigel
Intermediate/Advanced 40+ : Silver-Randon, Bronze-SimonB
Black U40 : Silver-Lee
Black 40-45 : Gold-SimonP
Black 46-48 : Gold-Sandy :) , Silver-Roger
Black 49+ : Silver-Brian, Bronze-Quentin

Is somebody keeping count?
Sensei Sandy

17 ishigaki members have travelled to Cologne to compete in Gay Games VIII.

The first day of martial arts competition saw the completion of the weapons forms, empty hand forms and musical forms.

5 ishigaki students competed in weapons with Randon winning gold in the intermediate division with a ton fa kata with Ronan winning the silver with the same weapon. Omar won gold in the advanced division with a sai kata.
All 8 ishigaki black belts competed in the weapons with Simon winning bronze with a bo kata.
All the students and black belts performed well with most not far from the medals positions.

3 ishigaki students entered the empty hand kata and Ian won silver in the beginners division with the 3rd blocking kata. 5 ishigaki black belts competed with Simon picking up another bronze after losing the tie-breaker for silver medal.

Hannah was our only entrant in the musical forms and collected a well deserved bronze medal in her division.

Day 2 will test our 4 sparring competitors in the m,orning with all 17 ishigaki participant in the afternoon self defence competition.

Sensei Sandy

Due to instructors (and students) away at the Cologne Gay Games, Monday classes on August 2 and 9 have been cancelled. Monday classes resume on August 16. All other classes continue as scheduled.

Sensei Sandy

This video and link will help competitors entering the Gay Games to understand the rules.

Sensei Sandy

Many congratulations are due today to our four new Black Belts: Sue Shaw, Steve Nurrish, Brian Hicks and Lee Williams.

They have done the club proud putting in really strong performances - all of which earned comments of praise from the assessors and senior senseis grading them. It's hard to single out anyone but a special mention has to go to Lee for earning the only credit of the day.

Thanks also to Hannah and Keith for the time, effort and skill they have put in to support Sue and Lee.

Well done Ishigaki!!! We are Proud!!!!

Congratulations to all who graded today at East Tilbury.
I was sat at the officials table (for the first time!) on one of the two grading areas and called out the throws for Lee K, Jonathan D, Shona, Fabrizio and Evan to grade to Orange and then again for Kevin's grading to Blue (with our Sensei Sean as Uke), They all did a good, confident job. Regrettably I couldn't see the gradings on the other area of Ronan, David. C and Jordan to Green. (with Sensei Quentin and Wayne K. as Ukes). But all our students successfully passed. Many thanks for those students who also helped put the mats away.
Sensei Roger

On May 30 at the London Seni Show 2010 Sandy, Roger and Omar went to meet the director and star of the movie "The Sensei". Diana Lee Inosanto has produced a highly acclaimed movie with a martial arts theme which tackles several forms of prejudice.
The movie has been distributed in the USA and hopefully will reach the UK soon.
In the picture are Sandy, Diana Lee Inosanto, Omar, Gina Scalzi, Roger.

Well done Lee, Sue, Brian and Steve on their fine performances at the pre-dan grading today. All have been told they are good to go for their dan grading in June.

Well done Brian for scoring 100% on the anatomy test. Steve and Lee would have done too but the marking sensei got one of their answers wrong. Ooops.

Thanks too to Gareth for stepping in to be Sue's uke at the last minute. And well done Ishigaki for having the biggest turn out at the revision course.

Please support all these ever-so-nearly-black-belts over the next month. They are nearing the end of a very long journey that requires a lot of sacrifice and commitment. Please help make it easier for them.

Well done All!!

Sensei Simon

Well done to Ian C who performed well last Thursday, April 8, to grade to yellow belt with strong throws and good breakfalls (as Richard slammed him into the mats).
He has already attended classes wearing his new belt with pride and working through the orange belt syllabus.
Sensei Sandy

Congratulations to Shona who passed with an excellent yellow belt grading yesterday. Clear techniques demonstrated with great control.
Well Done.

Sensei Roger

Congratulations to the eleven members of Ishigaki who showed off their jujitsu skills to earn new belts today. Well done to: Dominic, Thomas, Darren, Mai, Natalie, Nigel, Randon, Will, Rainer, Omar and Wayne. Apparently they are all rather good. And thanks also to Sensei Sean for being the stunt man.

Thanks for doing us proud.

Simon

Scores to follow shortly.

I wanted to share how honoured I feel to be part of Jikishin. We are very lucky to have such great people as role models leading this association.

Today I learned that Terry Parker, the man who personally supported Ishigaki and all it represents when we were setting up, has been awarded his 10th Dan, the highest grade possible within martial arts. His wife Janet has also been awarded her 7th dan.

These people are two of the warmest and wisest people I have ever met and I feel very proud of their personal achievements and everything they have achieved for thousands of jujitsu students all across the World.

Many congratulations.
Simon

Just days before the arctic weather took hold of Britain's nether regions, and hours only aftger the Ishigaki Christmas Party in London, some of our brave lads and a lass made their way to East Tilbury in deepest darkest Essex.

A clutch of nervous white belts from Brighton were attending their very first grading and jolly well they did too. Good performances from Helen, Darren, Evan and Mai who collected their new Yellow belts with no hitches and only a little grading confusion.

Mark, brought the Brighton grading contingent up to five and he cruised through to earn his blue belt, ably assisted by Sensei Hannah who acted as uke on the day.

Finally just two of the London crew were grading this time around and a very good job they did too. Ed and Ben's hard work stood out amongst the other blues aiming for their purple belt and put in a good, solid performance.

Well done to all. Enjoy your Christmas and see you all (and your new belts) in the New Year.

Simon

A group from Isahigaki met up at Hyde Park for an evening of ice skating at the Winter Wonderland. After an exhilerating time skating, we had a beer in the Bavarian village. Kevin was also there but never made it for the beer, or for the skating!

Omar, Wayne, Rainer, William, Nigel and Gareth all joined me and several hundred others at Southend on Sunday as we attended the National Championships and Seminars.
The morning was taken up with new and various techniques demonstrated and taught to us by to us high grade senseis from Great Britain and abroad, not just Jujitsu but other mixed martial arts techniques too. (Very inspiring!)
After a short break for lunch the 8 judging areas were prepared for the competitions. I was judging for the entire afternoon and sadly didn’t get to see our lads competing in the open hand and weapons kata. I did get to see glimpses of the Orange belt Random attacks and was impressed with what I saw from both defenders and their ukes. I am delighted to report that, in Random attacks, medals were won by Rainer- Silver and Nigel- bronze (orange belts category) and Gareth- Bronze (Brown belt category). In the weapons Kata Wayne won a bronze (purple belt).
Congratulations!! - All at Ishigaki can be very proud indeed!

Sensei Roger

Thanks to everyone who attended the Brighton 10th Birthday celebration weekend. It was a great (if rather drunken) night and the weather was even kind for those who attended the the zombie parade in the aftrenoon. The sight of 800 zombies walkthrough brighton centre is quite memorable! Potent green punch, vodka jellies and ghoulish gastronomy was provided at Brighton Tavern as they welcomed various jujitsu monsters including, the Mummy, the Grim Reeper, Morticia Adams, Davina McCall, an intestine spewing zombie and a even more fabulous zombie who one first prize - (who COULD that be?)
Here's to the next 10 years at Brighton!
Sensei Roger

Congratulations to Thomas who graded to Yellow tonight in class.
Well done!

And also to Joe and Chris who followed on at Thursday's class.

Sensei Roger

Congratulations to Randon who graded to Orange in class last night.
A splendid grading, great effort!

Sensei Roger