Strangford hosts international training programme in karate

Strangford hosts international training programme in karate

STRANGFORD may seem an unlikely place for a major martial arts event but last weekend the tranquil hosted the inaugural Spring Training Intensive for Shotokan Karate-Do International Federation Northern Ireland.

The organisation welcomed a special guest instructor Sensei Jim Palmer (7th Dan SKIF), chief instructor of Kanazawa Shotokan Ryu in Scotland, and three other senior Scottish instructors.

Sensei Palmer began his martial arts career in 1959, practising Judo until his early teens. At the age of 22 he began his study of Shotokan Karate-do and traditional aikido. During the ensuing 30 years he has been fortunate to train with many notable Japanese Instructors, such as Kanazawa, Asano, Enoeda, Kato, Ichihara, Tsuyama, Kase, Shirai and Kawasoe to name only a few.

A student of the legendary Hirokazu Kanazawa (10th Dan) for well in excess of 30 years, Sensei Palmer currently holds the grade of Nanadan (7th Dan SKIF) personally awarded by Kanazawa Kancho.

The course began with a traditional Japanese-style warm-up and moved on to refining basic techniques. There followed some “bunkai” (analysis of kata) which opened everyone’s eyes to the real meaning of traditional kata.

Participants on the course experienced a demonstration of the use of the Japanese ‘bo’ — a six feet long wooden staff — given by Sensei Callum Russell (3rd Dan SKIF) and a demonstration of defences against knife attacks by Sensei Jim Palmer.

Everyone who took part felt they learned something new, regardless of whether they were a beginner or a 4th Dan (4th degree black belt).

SKIF NI is an organisation still in its infancy and is honoured to have already hosted such a prestigious event. Next month Mike Russell, chief instructor SKIF NI, and Noeleen Breen, assistant chief instructor, will travel to Dublin to train with Kanazawa Kancho.

The association are hopeful that Kanazawa Kancho’s first visit to the province will soon follow.

Readers can follow the organisations development on www.skifni.co.uk.