Happy New Year to all our members! There will be a BSKA meeting on Sunday February 10th at the Samurai Centre, Kidderminster. The meeting will commence at 10.00am. At this meeting we will compile our calendar of events for 2019. Following the meeting there will be a weapons course, instructor John Nelson. The course will run from 11.00am – 2.00pm.

The weapons course and meeting due to take place on Sunday December 9th have been postponed. The meeting will now be in January and the course in February.

This year we had another enjoyable course with Sensei Tsukada . A theme of the weekend was relaxed blocking using ‘barate’ open hand techniques. The katas covered over the weekend were Senseru and an update on the changes in Matsumura Bassai. We had an enjoyable evening meal and drinks in Worcester on the Saturday. The Sunday session concentrated on basic technique showing some of the differences in approach between Shitoryu and Shotokan. Thanks to all those who supported the course and trained hard, specially those who travelled from Scotland and Guernsey. And of course a very big thank you to Sensei Tsukada for another great weekend.

Congratulations to Steve Evans who was awarded the grade of yondan at the BSKA AGM in March. This was awarded in recognition of both his technical ability and also his years of commitment and support of the association. Congratulations, also to Abbie Davis who recently passed her Nidan grading.

There will be an all grade course on Sunday 16th September at The Samurai Centre, Kidderminster, 10am – 1pm. The course will be followed by a BSKA meeting.