|
Keigo Abe sensei’s visit to the UK May 2007
 The JSKA (Great Britain) were hosts for a week to their headmaster, Keigo Abe sensei 8th Dan, Chief Instructor to the Japan Shotokan Karate Association.
The courses were run in the Manchester area in the west and the Lincoln area in the east and sensei was assisted by the JSKA-GB Technical Director Charles Gidley 7th Dan and the JSKA-GB Chairman George Carruthers 7th Dan with over 300 students and instructors training with Abe sensei during his time here.
During the courses Abe sensei covered the concepts of go-no-sen (taking the late initiative), tai-sabaki (swivelling) and sen-no-sen (taking the early initiative) working on the importance of good stances and posture in all techniques to ensure proper delivery and stability.
He emphasised the need to ensure all blocking techniques should be based on the area chosen to block e.g. chudan blocks should block chudan, where the fist lies in line with the solar plexus and not the shoulder. His teachings covered the concepts that all techniques should be light and natural until the point of impact where kime is brought to play. This ensures speed of delivery and solid controlled contact with the opponent. He then covered the brown belt kata of Bassai-dai and Jion where the concepts taught in his kihon teaching were utilised in the kata movement, blocks and strikes.
The JSKA-GB were honoured to be taught by Abe sensei who is one of the most senior Shotokan karate-ka alive today. His teachings reflect his 35 years as a JKA honbu instructor and one of the few who could claim to be a direct student of Masatoshi Nakayama. A formidable fighter in his younger days, his reputation as an instructor in Japan is such that he is the only Shotokan stylists ever to have performed before the current emperor and only one of 10 karateka ever to have refereed in front of him, both are seen as a great personal honour by the Japanese people.
The JSKA-GB would like to thank the visitors who attended the courses and extend their best wishes to Abe, Gidley and Carruthers sensei for their time and knowledge and congratulate those who have attained their JSKA dan grades; Rokkudan: Marc Leacock, Godan: Fred Jones, Alison Grundy, Albert Timothy, Steve Palmer and David Grice, Yondan: Patrick Bishop, Sandan: Antony Davy and John Robins, Nidan: Darren Payne and Lee Power, Shodan: Dave Hall, Samuel Browne, Hannah Richards and John Simmonds, with a special mention to sensei Marc Leacock who successfully graded to Rokudan and has since been asked to join the JSKA-GB executive. We look forward to seeing you all at the JSKA World Championships to be held at Manchester Velodrome, August 22-24, 2008, an ippon shobu tournament open to all traditional Shotokan karate-ka.
The JSKA-GB’s list of senior UK instructors currently includes:
|
