Shihan Kanazawa once again honored Matsuba Kai, by visiting the City Limits Dojo in Romford on 9th April 2002.

Shihan Kanazawa taught two sessions, the first exclusively for Matsuba Kai Dan grades, with a few personal invites, the second at a local school close by for all SKKIF grades.

Session one was started with the usual warm up exercises followed by an example of Yondan grading basics. Shihan explained that many Yodan gradings are failed because of the inability to perform Mawashi Uke (like the hand movements at the end of Unsu). Due to the fact that there was a Nidan grading, Shihan Kanazawa then went over the Nidan basics from his syllabus pointing out important points for each technique.

Particular emphasis was made on keeping the Age Uke arm position whilst performing the Mawashi Geri. This was particularly difficult and felt completely unnatural. We then moved on to Kata starting with Chinte and then moving onto Gankaku.

 
Following a short break Shihan demonstrated some timing exercises from the Jiyu-Kumite section of the syllabus.

We then moved on to Jiyu Ippon. Sensei explained that he had noticed that most people were very good at attacking and defending in Hidari Stance (left foot forward), but need a lot of practice in Migi Stance (right foot forward). To this end we went through all attacks with the first defence, and then number two for Jodan, Chudan and Maegeri.

This ended an excellent session leaving us all looking forward to the next session.

Between the two sessions Shihan Kanazawa held a Nidan grading for two Matsuba Kai members, Hayley Mitchell and Paul Willmott who were both successful. 

The evening session again started with the usual warm up session. This class was all grades so tended to be biased towards lower grades.
We started with some general basics: Oi Zuki, Gyaku Zuki both Sanbon for seniors), Age Uke (Gyaku Zuki for seniors), Soto Ude Uke, Mae Geri, Mawashi Geri and Yoko Geri Keage. This was followed by the first kata Heian Shodan, with emphasis on junior students.

There then followed a short break for seniors whilst Shihan Kanazawa played a few games and Gohon kumite with the children. It was very a humbling experience to see such a great karateka playing with the children, with all the black belts watching, especially as he had such a wide smile on his face!

Now it was time for the children to rest whilst the adults performed katas Bassai Dai, Enpi and Chinte.

It was as usual a memorable course for many reasons. Sensei was on top form as usual and this spilled over to the classes.
 

 
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