Ballina Dojo has seen great growth under Sensei Jon Ellis, especially in its Little Lions cohort, over the last few months. KIMAA extends a warm welcome to all its new students, including the latest additions of James, Conrad, Cooper and the Kelly siblings.
Sensei Mark McFadden and Patricia Tan were placed First in the Creative Weapons division of the Queensland National All Styles Martial Arts Championships. Sensei Mark and Trish performed a combination of Kobudo exercises and kata, first Bo against Bo and then Bo against Sai.
In the Kata section, Trish placed Third in her division performing Seienchin kata. Wes did very well, coming fourth in his kata division.
Congratulations to all the participants, especially to Sensei Mark and Patricia for their success in the Creative Weapons division.
Sensei Mark McFadden hosted a fundraiser event for Blue September on Saturday September 27. The fundraiser was held at Lismore Dojo and participants came from a range of martial arts backgrounds.
Sensei Jon Ellis and students from Ballina Dojo attended. Sempai Rob James brought some of his Aspley Dojo students down from Brisbane for the day as well.
Richard Marlin from Success Martial Arts and Barry Potts from Shukokai were welcomed to participate with the KIMAA karateka. Darcy McFadden also came out of retirement to photograph the day.
The day included two hours of inter-style sparring and a BBQ.
All the martial artists involved got black and blue for Blue September and partook in the fundraising. Thanks to all who helped organise to make the day such a success.
A Kyokushin Karate grading was held on Saturday September 13 at Turramurra Dojo.
Shihan Howard Lipman assessed KIMAA students from Sydney, the NSW Far North Coast and Brisbane. A number of Little Lions and adults participated in the grading for kyu and dan (black belt) grades. The black belts who attempted the grading included:
Photos from the day
Kata
Fitness & Kumite (sparring)
All attempting the grading performed to a high standard. Congratulations to everyone who participated. Special mention goes to the new black belt grades: Jon Ellis received his Sandan (3rd Dan) and the title of Sensei; while Rob James, Alex Lloyd and Todd Murphy were graded to Nidan (2nd Dan). Jeremy Gray fought an admirable 20 fights for his 1st Kyu (Senior Brown Belt) and Joshua Darley was graded to 2nd Kyu (Brown Belt). Will Brook also was graded to 2nd Kyu, despite having to attempt the grading with a broken hand!
Click here for the full list of September 2014 Grading Results
The second of the biannual KIMAA Kyokushin seminars for 2014 was held on the weekend of August 16-17.
There was a special Kobduo training session on the Saturday afternoon at Annangrove Dojo. Sydney Kobudo practitioners and guests from the Brisbane and North Coast dojos then enjoyed a dinner at Shihan Rick Cunningham‘s after training.
The Sunday session began promptly at 9 am. Before training commenced, Shihan Howard Lipman awarded some new grades. In Kobudo, Sempai Todd Murphy and Sempai Alex Lloyd were promoted to 1st Kyu, and Trish Tan was promoted to 5th Kyu. In addition, after years of dedication to Kyokushin and teaching at Annangrove Dojo, Sempai Ian Holdaway was promoted to 3rd Dan (Sandan) and to the title of ‘Sensei’. Congratulations to these KIMAA members on their new grades.
After these grades were awarded, training began, continuing on from the ground covered in the April seminar. Bunkai – the application of practical self-defence techniques derived from kata – from Pinan Yon and Pinan Go were studied. Sempai Jon Ellis and Sempai James Campbell demonstrated bunkai throughout the day under the instruction of Shihan Lipman and Shihan Cunningham. Students worked in pairs, constantly swapping partners to work with a range of karateka from the various KIMAA dojos.
After working through the bunkai in great depth, Pinan Yon was demonstrated by Sempai Jon, Sempai Ben Ng and Sempai Don Cheong, and young Josh Darley; and Pinan Go by Sempai Don.
The group took a break for a BBQ lunch, kindly prepared by Shihan Cunningham’s wife, Kirsti, Shihan Lipman’s wife, Masumi, and Sempai Rob James‘s partner, Kerry. Sensei Ian Holdaway took up his usual post at the BBQ, of which he is a master.
Following lunch, the seminar was split up. Junior grades were taken by Sensei Paul Finnerty and Sensei Peter Olive to run through kyu level katas and their bunkai, while seniors practised Saiha and its bunkai.
The groups then recombined for tameshiwari. This literally means ‘trial by breaking’ and is the Kyokushin term used for board breaking. Breaking techniques for sokuto (knife-foot), hiji (elbow), shuto (knifehand) and seiken (forefist) were used to break the wood. Adults broke one to three pieces, depending on their grade level. Little Lions and Knox students broke one, or a ‘kids board’ depending on their age. After this, 2nd Dans (or those attempting that grade soon) performed a ‘multi-break’, as demonstrated in the video footage below.
Click here for more Tameshiwari footage.
As always, the KIMAA students were grateful for the time and effort put into the weekend by Shihan Lipman and Shihan Cunningham to further their understanding of Kyokushin and the techniques and kata they do in everyday training. The tameshiwari was particularly enjoyed. Special mention also goes to those from Lismore, Ballina and Aspley dojos who made the effort to fly down to Sydney.
Following this seminar will be the senior grading at Turramurra Dojo in September.
On Sunday August 3, four KIMAA students entered the 38th annual Australian Open Full Contact Karate Tournament. Sempai Ben Ng, Sempai Don Cheong and Sempai James Campbell from Shihan Howard Lipman‘s Turramurra Dojo and Daniel Williams from Shihan Rick Cunningham‘s Annangrove Dojo competed in the tournament.
The standard of the competition was very high, and KIMAA’s four entries did the organisation proud. Ben, Don and James all fought against opponents who ended up winning their respective divisions (medium, light and heavy), while Daniel won the 3rd and 4th Kyu Open Heavy Weight division.
Sempai Ben Ng
Sempai Don Cheong
Sempai James Campbell
Daniel Williams
Congratulations to all who competed and represented KIMAA, and again to Daniel on his excellent win.
On Tuesday July 22, Sempai Rob James held the first Aspley Little Lions Open Kata Tournament. Jermaine, Josh and Gen served as judges and scorekeepers for the competition.
The standard of kata was very high, with all the Little Lions motivated and training extra hard in the preceding weeks to be ready for this tournament.
Congratulations go to Ruben Maizey for taking first place in the competition. Sidney Murphy came second and Lucas Cook came third.
Kyokushin International Martial Arts Australia 