Thank you to all the students and Instructors who made it to our Kata Courses with Ady Gray Sensei. Ady Sensei is a 6th Dan Black Belt and the English Karate Federation Head Kata Coach.It was a privilege to host him and we hope that you all learned something and have plenty to go away and practise.Ady Sensei covered the following Kata - "Heian Shodan", "Heian Nidan" and "Heian Sandan" on course 1 and Kata "Unsu" on course 2.Both courses were well attended and the students were attentive and receptive to the ideas Ady Sensei was putting across.Ady Sensei emphasized the importance of a few basic principles which will improve your Kata and enhance them for competitive performance.

• When performing Kata, the shoulders should remain relaxed at all times and your breath should be controlled, coming from the diaphragm rather than then chest.
• Your jaw should remain relaxed.
• You should make every effort to ensure that your hands and feet finish at the same time.
• When moving through in stances, Sensei was advising the class to glide rather than stepping heavily and landing heel, then toe.
• Sharp head turns are very important.
• When performing Kata for competition, adjustments can be made to increase speed and power.
• Dropping your weight helps with speed, not going upwards to go down.
• When performing jumps, do a plyometric jump that goes down before going up.
• Pay attention to the finer details such as angles of attack and where you land when dropping your weight
• For non- competitors, you should adjust the way you perform your kata so it works for you.
• Competitors should not adjust Kata to make it easier, simply practise the harder bits more!

We may not have covered as much as we'd planned but following the points raised above will allow you to improve ever single kata you practise and in fact your overall karate! An afternoon well spent.Huge thanks to Ady Sensei for visting us, we really enjoyed your teaching.Paul Towler has kindly processed the images already so please follow the link below and have a look.They are fantastic, thank you very much for your time and great work!LINK: https://kickandflick.smugmug.com/Ady-Gray-Sensei-Course/n-w4fd3J/PASSWORD: grayBig thanks to Millie Stanley and Paul Stanley who travelled all the way from Wallsall to take part in the course. It was great to see you both.Fantastic dedication!!!