greefy

There is a Keysi dojo about 3 minutes walk away from my house in Willerby, which is just outside Hull (East Riding of Yorkshire, England). Its run by a guy called Andy Norman, who one or two of my instructors have trained with in the past or graded many years back. Some of their instructors and students regulary come into the supermarket opposite which is where I work

Took me 5 years to achieve my dan grade, but I missed quite a few classes for a while for various reasons. So I was a black belt by the time I was 13 and teaching adults and large classes in general which was very daunting at first but in time it got easier. Then when I became 16 (or just before I was 16, cant quite remember) I had to drop down a grade for a bit, and go through knife and stick defences, leg sweeps, imobilising holds and bone dislocations to earn my senior dan grade. For the next 7 years I stayed a 1st dan, purely for the reason I had no interest in grading anymore. Then I was told I was grading (even though I didnt want to), and I achieved my 2nd dan, and it was because of that grading that I really got into bunkai and learning about other arts, and I know so much more because of it, so I'm glad they made me do it

I've has the pleasure of training with Professor Rick Clark twice when he was last in the UK and the stuff he showed was very effective, and I would highly recommend going to one of his seminars. The idea of hitting a pressure point in an intense situation seems difficult but if you have spent years practising kysho jutsu (or any art for that matter) it would make it easier in those pressure situations to exucute moves or hit those specific points. An instructor in my association practices them every opportunity he gets and pressure situations, and I can say from experience both attacking and defending that they do have their place and can be used in conjunction with self defence

Wado Ryu, we have... 1 5th Dan (also a 4th Dan Ju Jitsu, 1st Dan Aikido) 1 3rd Dan (also 1st Dan Ju Jitsu) 3 2nd Dan's 2 1st Dan's The association we are part of has around 10+more black belts

Hey, I just found this forum today. Looks pretty good! I have done Wado Ryu since I was 8, so I'd be happy to try answer any questions you have. I like the fact that there are many kata's, I enjoy trying to figure out and find new bunkai for the kata's. Plus our sylabus isnt restricted to just techniques and kata, the higher kyu grades have to show knowledge of such things as bone dislocations, immobilising holds, knife and stick defences and more