History Made

Members of both the junior and senior Wakefield Tomiki Aikido Club attended the BAA International Summer School held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield between 31st July and 3rd August.

The 4 day event consisted of a number of different training sessions lead by the countrys top aikido instructors on aspects of aikido such as Jo, Bokken, Goshin-ho, Koryu Dai San and Traditional Aikido.

This popular school was attended by Aikidoka from throughout the UK and Europe, who shared their knowledge and experience in order

to further improve and develop their understanding of the art of aikido.

The friendly atmosphere of the classes meant that everyone was made to feel welcome no matter what their age or level of ability. This year was attended by a range of grades from red belt to senior dan grades and a lot of the sessions were also attended by members of the Great Britain squad.

A special demonstration by the Great Britain squad was held on the Saturday evening in memory of Mark Watson who was recently killed in a tragic accident. An entrance charge was made in aid of cancer research and DVDs of Mark in action were also sold to support the charity.

The popularity of the demonstration overwhelmed the organisers and extra chairs had to be drafted in at the last minute to provide seating for the 100+ crowd. The evening, also attended by Marks family was highly emotional and culminated in a video presentation of Mark in action (available to purchase for £8.00. All donations go to cancer research. See Brent). Mark will be sorely missed by anyone who knew him and thoughts are with his family.

After 3 and a half days and 21 different one hour sessions of aikido a number of the exhausted and aching aikidoka gathered enough energy for the final challenge of the school, a full kyu and dan grading session, before returning home for some well earned rest.

The school was attended by 4 senior members and 5 junior members of the Wakefield Tomiki Aikido club, 7 of which chose to atempt to grade. After the incredibly tense and nervewracking grading all Wakefield entrants managed to successfully improve their grade judged by notoriously strict panels.

The highlight of the grading was when Head Coach Adrian Tipling was awarded his 5th dan to the applause and cheers of the whole room.

Assistant junior coach Shane Barker successfully obtained his black belt 1st dan and Jade Barraclough successfully converted from a junior 1st Kyu (brown belt) to senior brown belt (1st Kyu). Steve Fountain successfully obtained 3rd Kyu (green belt).

The junior members who graded were Luke Fountain who obtained 2nd Kyu, 2 mon (blue belt with 2 tags), Charlotte Fountain who obtained 3rd Kyu, 3 mon (Green Belt with 3 tags) and Megan Owen who obtained 5th Kyu (Yellow Belt). The judging panel commented on the extremely high quality of the junior members aikido and urged them to continue practising. Could this be future members of the Great Britain squad in the making? only time will tell?