KIMAA Kobudo black belts: Sempai Alex Lloyd, Sensei Jon Ellis, Sensei Mark McFadden, Shihan Rick Cunningham, Sensei Ian Holdaway, Sensei Paul Finnerty & Sensei Mark Shelmerdine.
Sensei Mark and Sensei Jon from the North Coast with Shihan Cunningham.
Sensei Mark and Trish from Lismore Dojo with Shihan Cunningham.
Amanda and Sempai Rob from North Brisbane Dojo with Shihan Cunningham.
An extended and intensive Kobudo class was held revising various weapons and katas. Turramurra student Jonathan Lee attended the class to do some photography.
Shihan Rick Cunningham with the Eeku.
Sensei Mark Shelmerdine with the Bo.
Partner work: Sensei Jon with Sensei Mark.
Partner work: Sensei Jon blocks Sensei Mark.
Sempai Rob James with the Sai.
Sensei Ian Holdaway with the Bo.
Sensei Jon Ellis with the Sai.
The class perform the Eeku kata.
Partner work: Amanda with Sempai Alex.
Sensei Mark McFadden with the Bo.
Amanda Bolger with the Eeku.
Partner work: Will with Amanda.
Sempai Alex Lloyd and class perform a Bo kata.
Patricia Tan with the Sai.
Will Brook with the Bo.
Sensei Paul Finnerty with the Bo.
Sempai Alex Lloyd with the Eeku.
Thank you to Shihan Cunningham for taking the class, Jonathan for doing the photos and everyone who came along to train.
KIMAA Kobudo class: Sempai Alex Lloyd, Sensei Jon Ellis, Patricia Tan, Will Brook, Sensei Mark McFadden, Shihan Rick Cunningham, Sensei Ian Holdaway, Amanda Bolger, Sensei Paul Finnerty, Sempai Rob James & Sensei Mark Shelmerdine.
Some of the students grading from Turramurra included Jasper Choi, Bernard Wilson and Elia Parsanejad. They kept pace well with the senior grades, Will and Trish, from up the coast.
Will performed admirably in his 20 fights for 1st Kyu (Senior Brown Belt).
Amanda sparring for her grading.
Sempai Rob sparring.
Will Brook with Sensei Jon after his 20th fight.
Results decided upon by Shihan Lipman will be announced by the various dojo head instructors. Congratulations to all who passed, and well done on everyone for attempting.
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Group photo of those who attempted the grading and supporting black belts.Shihan Rick Cunningham, Sensei Jon Ellis, Will Brook, Patricia Tan, Shihan Howard Lipman & Sensei Mark McFadden.
Shihan Howard Lipman corrects technique for Tensho kata.
Basic techniques, breathing and teaching imperatives were revised, before moving onto partner work, bunkai and senior grade katas.
Sensei Paul Finnerty
Sensei James Sidwell
Sempai Alex Lloyd
Sensei Paul & Sensei James
The KIMAA black belts always enjoy coming together for training, learning new skills, checking each others’ technique and pushing towards new goals. Thank you to all who came.
Victor and Angus Sweeney with Sensei James Sidwell and Sensei Mark Shelmerdine.
Sempai Jason, Angus and Victor all fought in the COLTs heavy weight division while Christian fought in the COLTs light weight division.
Sempai Jason and Victor were up against each other for their first fight. Victor lost to Jason by a half-point due to a solid kick to the ribs, but the round still went to completion.
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Angus was up against a black belt in his first round. Angus lost by a half-point when he took a jodan mae geri to the face, but continued the fight to completion.
Sempai Jason then went up against the black belt who had bested Angus. Sempai Jason fought well but also lost by a half-point due to a head kick, yet he finished the round all the same.
These three had fought in the AKKA state titles last year and in others, but for Christian, it was his second tournament. He fought well for his second time, but ultimately lost his round due to an ushiro geri kick.
Well done to all competitors for turning up and representing KIMAA.
Sempai Jason Lambe, Victor Sweeney, Sensei James Sidwell, Shihan Rick Cunningham, Angus Sweeney, Sensei Mark Shelmerdine & Christian Girdham.
Sunday May 15 saw another KIMAA Black Belt Class held at Annangrove Dojo. The session was an extension of normal the normal Sydney Kobudo (weapons) training schedule.
A number of katas were covered in the class to revise basics, finesse and correct timings. Some were kyu-grade katas, such as Sanchin or the Pinans, as well as dan-grade, such as Seienchin or Garyu. The Kyokushin Bo kata, Chion, was also practised.
The Black Belt class: Sempai Alex Lloyd, Patricia Tan, Sensei Ben Ng, Sensei James Sidwell, Sensei Don Cheong, Sensei Mark Shelmerdine, Shihan Rick Cunningham, Sensei Peter Olive, Sensei Paul Finnerty, Sensei Ian Holdaway, Sensei Mark McFadden and Sempai Jason Lambe.
After the black belt session finished, the bulk of students participated in a Kobudo class.
Weapons revised included the Bo, Sai and Kama.
The Kobudo class: Sempai Alex, Sensei Mark, Patricia, Sensei James, Shihan Cunningham, Sensei Paul, Sensei Peter, Sensei Ian, Sensei Mark and Sensei Ben.
At the end of the class, Shihan Cunningham presented Trish Tan with her 3rd Kyu in Kobudo, having been graded in the April KIMAA Lismore Seminar.
Trish Tan receives her 3rd Kyu in Kobudo from Shihan Rick Cunningham.
Attendees included adults and kids from local dojos Annangrove and Turramurra. Students also came from the Far North Coast dojos, Lismore and Ballina, led by Sensei Jon Ellis (3rd Dan Kyokushin, 2nd Dan Kobudo). Young Jarryd Close represented Brisbane’s Aspley Dojo.
Shihan Howard Lipman extended his apologies but was unable to attend due to work commitments.
An afternoon class was held on the Saturday, attended by the North Coast and Brisbane students, along with senior grades from Sydney. The session focused on Kobudo, specifically the Kali sticks and Bo. This was followed by bunkai from the Kyokushin Karate kata Pinan sono Ichi.
Guests from the other dojos and Sydney seniors then enjoyed a dinner at Shihan Cunningham’s home, prepared by Shihan and his wife Kirsti.
The main part of the seminar took place on the Sunday, beginning at 9 am. The first session ran students through basics, which included a lot of partner and contact work. This was followed by sanbon kumite and bunkai from Pinan sono Ichi & Ni.
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For the next session, students were broken up into groups based on belt grade and experience with Kobudo.
Sensei Ian Holdaway (3rd Dan Kyokushin, 1st Dan Kobudo) took some junior kyu grades through the Pinan sono Ni kata and bunkai. Sensei Paul Finnerty (4th Dan Kyokushin, 3rd Dan Kobudo) took other kyu grades with little prior Kobudo experience through the Bo, specifically the Kihon kata. Sensei Mark Shelmerdine (4th Dan Kyokushin, 4th Dan Kobudo) took a more experienced group of kyu grades through the Bo, including the Kihon kata and the partner contact work.
Kobudo at the Sydney Seminar.
Senior grades remained inside with Sensei Peter Olive (4th Dan Kyokushin, 1st Dan Kobudo). Sensei Peter took students through various Karate kata, including Pinan sono Yon & Go, Yantsu, and Gekusai Dai & Sho.
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A BBQ lunch was then served by Sensei Ian.
Students were then broken up into groups again based on which weapon they wanted to work on. Sensei Mark took students through the Eeku kata; Sensei Paul taught the first Sai kata, Chibana no Sai; and Sempai Alex Lloyd (2nd Dan Kyokushin, 1st Dan Kobudo) ran the Kali stick group through a partner drill and multiple combat drills.
Sempai Alex teaches kali sticks
Sensei Peter & Sensei Don with Eeku
Chibana no Sai kata
Sensei Paul teaches Sai
All students came back together for the final session, which was fitness and fight training. Students did full-contact work in rotating pairs. It was a hot weekend with high-intensity cardio, allowing the karateka to demonstrate their fitness and determination.
Kumite at the Sydney Seminar.
Students enjoyed the thorough stretch and warm-down at the end of the class!
Thanks go to all guests from the North Coast and Queensland dojos for making the trip to Sydney, as always; thanks to Shihan Lipman and Shihan Cunningham for organising the weekend; and to Shihan Cunningham once again for running an excellent seminar.
The next KIMAA Seminar will be held at Lismore Dojo in April.
The first KIMAAÂ black belt weekend class of 2016 was held at Turramurra Dojo on Saturday February 27th.
This class continued on from the Kyokushin black belt sessions last year in August and October. They are now scheduled shortly before the twice-yearly KIMAA seminars, designed to both consolidate knowledge among the seniors to ensure their students’ preparation is correct, as well as being advanced training for any seniors attempting a grading.
Three katas were practised: Saiha, Seienchin and Okinawan Seipai. Students then worked in pairs to go through the bunkai.
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There were some sore bodies at the end of class from all the throws and takedowns – not to mention the wrist locks – but it was a successful class with a lot of focused content.
Senior Kobudo students fronted up to Annangrove Dojo the next morning for training, again with Sensei Mark and Sensei Jon in attendance. The Kobudo black belts revised Sakugawa No Kon (Bo), Arnis stick drill, Chatanyara No Sai (Sai) and Kudaka No Jo (Jo).
Sempai Alex Lloyd, Sensei Jon Ellis, Sensei Ian Holdaway, Sensei Mark McFadden, Shihan Rick Cunningham, Sensei Paul Finnerty, Sensei Mark Shelmerdine & Sempai James Campbell.
Kyokushin International Martial Arts Australia 