Having done karate at the Buntingford Karate Club for the best part of 4 years myself naturally the kids see me practicing at home and all want to do the same, so today was the first day Kyler got to hit the DOJO to start the Karate basic training course!

So we had a few kits already and after a fitting session the day before with a little guidance on how to wear it properly and tie the belt, Kyler was pretty eager tonight and when I got home he was dressed and ready to go, it must be the most eager I have seen him for quite a while.

On the way there I think he was quite nervous, he didn’t really know what to expect, I think he thought Sensei Bill was a mean guy that was just going to shout at him, but actually before he started Bill sat him down and explained everything to him and said that if after 5 weeks he didn’t want to carry on that was OK so I think that put Kyler at ease.

First things first are exercise to get warmed up, Kyler stepped inline alongside the rest of the club and he participated in the warm-up with a little guidance here and there, once the warm-up was complete Kyler split off from the rest of the club and went to basic training.

So Sensei Sue takes the beginner course and she it extremely amiable and this put Kyler at ease even further, before long he was standing inline and performing “Yoi” which is a preparatory position ready to move to the next position whatever is called by the sensei taking the class.

Kyler was a natural and picked this up VERY quickly, no doubt all of his dancing skills were very helpful, he actually moved with amazing grace considering it was his first time he looked more in control than some of the adult white belts I have seen come through the club, including myself, before long he was moving across the floor with the standard sweeping karate walk, performing gedan barai (downward block), mawat-te (turning), tsuki (punch) and age-uke (rising block).

Kyler loved his first session in the DOJO and was really keen to show his Mum all the cool things he learned, he even managed to perform the moves respond to the Japanese instructions, pretty impressive, roll on the next lesson you will be black belt before you know it… Os!!