Always keenly looked forward to, Sensei Mark Case took a combined Senior Class on Thursday 17th March at Blackfriars Priory School. Centrally located, this large venue is ideal for combined classes as it does reduce travelling time for the visiting region. Following the bow in and welcome by Sensei Joe, Sensei Mark got the class off to a different start with some light sparring as a warm up. Next the students lined up opposite each other, and went through some basics. A swap of partners for some more sparring was followed again by basics. The next set of sparring was close in work, alternating which partner attacked or defended. Some combination work followed before a break.
Next was some kata work as a group, going through Saifa and Bassai-dai as a group, before breaking up into three groups. Sensei Joe took the lower grades through some Bunkai work on Kata Saifa, while Sensei James took the Brown Belts through Seiunchin, Sanseru and Sepei. The Black Belts worked mainly on Kururunfa with Sensei Mark, with plenty of emphasis on the more technical side of the kata. Following the bow out, Sensei Mark spoke for a few moments on further planned visits later this year. It was a humid night but all students thoroughly enjoyed the session, always a bit different to a normal class but always so informative and a good workout.
