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Shotokan Karate is normally typified by "the way of the empty hand", but Saturday 3 February 2024 was different for Andover Karate Club as the dojo clattered with the sound of the bō, the hanbo and the tanto.  This was all very new to us, so what happened?  

We were very honoured to have Sensei Steve and some of his students visit and train at our Washinkai dojo.   
Sensei Steve runs a traditional Japanese style Jujitsu club which I'm fortunate to be part of.  We started  the evening with a brief outline of Washinkai Karate before a very enjoyable  collaboration  moving occasionally from Washinkai techniques into a jujitsu technique, You can see some jujitsu techniques are already in the Washinkai syllabus in various pairs.                 

The final event for many of the Washinkai Instructors was our annual dinner held for the second year running in Surrey.

It was a lovely event and a chance for all tutors of Washinkai to bid farewell to Sensei Neville Smith, 8th Da, who moves to Scotland in the New Year.  He has not completely retired from the group and plans to return regularly for special events, as well as our Summer Gasshuku.

After another successful year with a lot of growth, we are looking forward to another strong year in 2024.

On Saturday, 9th December, the final event for the Association was held at Lionel Zeffert's club in Andover.

The course was held prior to two students of Andover Club attempting Shodan grade.

After a vigorous warm up, both Ana-Maria Apostol and Ian Gee graded.  Both were successful.  Many congratulations!

The photos below show Sensei Lionel Zeffert receiving his Godan certificate from his successful grading at this year's Summer Gasshuku at Milton Abbey.