Grading – February 29th 2024

Thursday 29th February saw Stevenage Karate Club hold its first grading of the year at the Dojo. We were delighted to welcome Sensei Martyn King (5th Dan) to the club to oversee the examination and teach the first two lessons. Sensei Martyn travelled to us from his club in Oxford. 

The evening started with a lesson for our higher grades. Sensei Martyn covered a range of techniques focussing on basics and kumite. The higher grades particularly enjoyed the game of “grab the belt”, which was designed to train reactions and reflexes. Sensei Steve Deal certainly seemed to enjoy it, however there were calls for an independent referee to look into allegations of cheating! 

At 6:45, we welcomed our lower grades in to enjoy their lesson. Similar to the first lesson, Sensei Martyn covered a range of techniques and focussed on basics and kata. He emphasised the importance of spirit when performing a kata and some of our students certainly showed this later on when the time for the grading came. 

Gradings are always anxiety-inducing, although it seemed the parents and relatives in the audience were more nervous than the students. Not that there was any need, as all of our students gave an excellent account of themselves and showed the weeks of hard work they had put in during the lead up was worth it. We were delighted with how well they all did and would like to congratulate them all for their achievements. 

We were also delighted to welcome students from Harpenden and Ataru and thank them for their support in making the evening such a success.

Our next grading will be held at the club in July and more details will follow shortly. In the meantime, please enjoy a selection of images from the evening in the gallery below.

Thank you,

Instructors of Stevenage Karate Club