This being the famous ‘Jubilee long bank holiday weekend saw a quieter start to the Wisewarrior week with Combat Class and Japanese Sword not being run. But with the national gradings this Sunday, Wednesday night was as full on as always!
Please try and check out the ‘Whats On’ blog regularly as there is a lot coming up, including;
A brand new Holistic Martial Arts class starting late June.
Another Leisure @ Cheltenham launch weekend 14th July.
Plus a Wisewarrior workshop event on the 21st of July (subject to be confirmed)
Maybe even a Wisewarrior Summer day: training and social with BBQ!! (Date to be confirmed.)
So this was our week:
Ken-Kai-Ryu Mondays, 7,45pm
Stability of cut, stance and re-sheath was the thrust of Richard San’s class this week, as two of the class hope to be taking Blue belts soon, and stability is the cornerstone of their new grade! You can’t be that level in sword and waver in your cut, wobble in your stance, or fumble in a re-sheath!! Hence this tough lesson, but by the end of practicing new sword drills the students looked sharp!
BAMA Advanced Class, Mondays, 7.45pm
Close quarter defence (attack) was Tim San’s advanced subject this week. Dealing with surprise attacks at close range is always a tricky subject but under his guidance the guys were working well at ‘modifying’ their more traditional approaches to meet the needs of these ‘gorilla’ style attacks.
Reflective Aikido, Tuesdays, 8.30p.m
Quite a challenging session this week for those attending the reflective aikido class. The locks and holds were coming thick and fast as Richard san had them moving and progressing smoothly from wrist locks through to arm locks then further still to shoulder and neck locks as well. Finishing in a spirited ‘free-for-all’ as instructors and students alike moved between opponents finding an ever increasing number of locks and holds. An excellent grounding in the knowledge of aikido, coupled with motion, posture and focus. The whole class were looking very fluid and at ease with their aikido.
BAMA Karate and Aikido-Te class, Wednesdays 6.45p.m
Being the last lesson before the BAMA national gradings it was no surprise then that the class on Wednesday was split into two groups, those working hard for their grading this weekend, (stay tuned for an Update on how the gradings went!) and those going for grades later in the year. What was a nice surprise for the students this week was that Sensei Nick
and Sensei John joined us to help out! 
Nick San began his Bushido Karate career some twenty years ago and has some great insights into the self defence/street combat side of karate (although he also holds a brown belt grade in Sword.) and Sensie John has been a personal student of Sensie Richard Trafford now for over fifteen years, and during this time he has studied and graded in Karate, Sword and Aikido-Te. It was great to see both of them helping to teach on a Wednesday, and we hope that the students enjoyed their wealth of experience and knowledge. Stay tuned for their profiles in future ‘Lounge’ posts! Certainly looking at their students after they had been teaching them for an hour showed their instructional quality!
So another very physical Wednesday and great BAMA syllabus work being done by all, be it ready for grading this weekend or later in the year. Good luck to all those going on Sunday.
Philosophy Group
To explain the nature of ‘uniqueness’ through the subject of ‘Greater Knowledge’, was Richard San’s challenge this week. Luckily he had help from the great ancient poet and sage ‘Chaung Tzu’ and his useless tree!!! The group loved the idea that these classic lessons from the past just keep on giving!
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