Dear All,

from April 12th for 6 weeks we will be running a course on Sundays learning the Kime no Kata. The Kime no Kata is really interesting think to learn as it is somewhat of a historical archive of the effective fighting methods of Japan prevalent in the late 1800s in Japan.

It includes striking and kicking attacks as well as knife and sword attacks. So is quite unusual for Judo people.

We will be using the Kodokan guidebook and IJF criteria as our primary reference material, but will also be using other resources we are able to find. This will include the videos of people doing the kata as well as guest instructors.

We have already reached out to some well regarded practitioners of the kata. Even more excitingly we hope to also have some expertise shared with us by members of the Southampton Kendo Club (who are starting a beginners course on the 20th, see http://southamptonkendo.co.uk/beginners/ for more details).

The Kime no Kata includes very few throws and as we are all novices, it is a great time to invite friends, wives, husbands, work colleagues along to join us on the tatami.

Lance