Welcome to the Lewisham Shotokan Karate Centre

The annual Malta Gasshaku was held this year from the Friday 7th - Monday 10th November and organised by Sensei Roy Tomlin - technical director for Malta and Sensei Dario Chirop - the chief instructor for Malta. Friday evenings’s lesson provided the perfect introduction to the weekend’s training. After a thorough warm up, Sensei Dario took us through a series of combinations combining karate techniques with forward stretches and lunges. Sensei Roy completed the session with some absorbing exercises focusing on balance.

The following morning London and the dreary late Autumn weather couldn’t have seemed further away as we stretched on the warm sand, and gazed out at the blue Mediterranean sea. Our beach training session began with a study of the kata empi. Then Sensei Dario introduced us to his special beach kata - a mixture of all the ‘hard bits’ /jumps from katas such as meikio, gankaku and empi….I’ll leave you to imagine how we coped with that! Though challenging there is something wonderfully satisfying about performing kata with the feel of sand between your toes. After a simple lunch of salad and fresh pasta washed down with ice cold beer and some sight-seeing at the ancient city of M’dina, we returned to the dojo. We began with a study of the kata tekki-nidan. This kata was thought to have been created by Master Itosu .Master Itosu was famous for his amazing physical strength and incredible grip and the kata and its applications reflected these attributes. After training - another treat - members of the Malta Aikido Federation provided us with a wonderful insight into the japanese art of aikido. It was fascinating to watch as the students avoided their partner’s attacks and escaped their ruthless arm and wrist locks using graceful, flowing movements and ukemi (breakfalls).

On Sunday morning we studied footwork with Sensei Roy and Bassai Sho with Sensei Dario. After studying the form and the key points we performed the whole kata using jos. We finished this last session with some deep stretching and breathing exercises. After a relaxing harbour cruise in the afternoon, we joined our new friends from Malta for a final supper together at a restaurant further up the coast. We would like to thank Sensei Dario and his students for their warm welcome and hospitality and look forward to seeing them again next year. The Malta Gassaku is open to all JKA England students. If you would like to come next year please contact Sensei Roy Tomlin at karateinlewisham@aol.com

Past trips - Malta Visit 2007

Beach fight on the beach between Roy and Anas Jarboua ex EKGB champion

Malta and London students after training on the beach

Aikido training : working on a ukemi