Any news relating to ‘Haya-Ashi Jujutsu’, a WJJF sister club based in Norwich UK.
15 successful gradings, 15 brand new belts! And what a way to celebrate 15 years of classes as well!
Well done everyone!!
And many thanks to Kyōshi Howes for officiating!
We’ve also started ear-marking possible dates in May 2020 for our next grading…..
If you’re reading this you probably want to know how I got on at yesterdays grading. In short, I’m not a 2nd Dan quite yet.
The World Ju-Jitsu Federation holds a high and exacting standard for all of it’s gradings, to which no one is exempt. On this occasion I fell just short of the passing grade.
Now to clarify I have not failed, but I haven’t passed either. I have been deferred, which to most of means “resit the exam” so at some point I will have to attempt it again.
I won’t have to travel back up to the HQ in Liverpool but I will still do it in front of senior coaches, and at the moment the current plan sounds like I will travel to Norwich to do it at Haya-Ashi Ju-Jutsu who I trained with over the summer.
In the mean time I have been given excellent feedback on what I did well at and where I didn’t, which was given to me by 2 of the 3 senseis who sat on my adjudicating panel, namely Kyōshi Russ Walsh (7th Dan) and Shihan Simon Jones (7th Dan). I was also fortunate in that my Uke for the day was Sensei Paul Daley (6th Dan) who also gave his own advice.
On that note, I would like to thank all of the sensei’s mentioned above again, as well as Kyōshi Robert Howes (7th Dan), Sensei David Howard (5th Dan) and Kanchō Robert Hart (7th Dan), who had unpleasant job of breaking the news to me. Everyone I spoke to agreed that I can do it, it just needed more polish than I presented yesterday.
I never walked in expecting to pass. I knew I had to earn it and knew the standards were high, so also I knew there was a chance I could have failed. When it unfortunately happened, it wasn’t a crushing defeat. I don’t even consider it a setback because I haven’t lost anything that I need to regain.
People say you learn more from failure than success, and I plan to use myself as an example for our students. Sure you can train hard and still fail. But you take some time to assess what went wrong, work on those issues and you try again.
I’ll close out this post with a quote that’s served me well in the past and served me well yesterday:
If you’re not prepared to fail, you’re not prepared at all.
I will earn my 2nd Dan, it just hasn’t been quite yet.
For the last 6 weeks of the summer holidays, I’ve been travelling to Norwich to join the Haya-ashi Ju-Jutsu club twice a week for some extra weapons practice ahead of my 2nd Dan grading in October.
I would like give my thanks to Kyōshi Robert Howes (7th Dan), Senseis Jack Stapleton (3rd Dan), Martyn Webster (3rd Dan) and Jason King (2nd Dan), as well as everyone else at the club who took the time to help me and make me feel welcome at the club.
At the start of the summer I had ear-marked 6 dates I would be attending, in the end though it I attended 11 classes back to back! Even though I was just a visitor, by the end I didn’t feel like one, more a home away from home.
They are of course more than welcome to join in at our classes in Aylesbury should they ever be in the area!
Also finally, good luck to Steven Newson who is going for his 1st Dan black belt on the same day I’ll be doing my 2nd. Chances are one of us will end up playing Uke for the other at some point!
This Friday sees our last week of classes before the summer break. We all enjoy training, but it’s not quite as fun when it’s too hot!
After Fridays classes, we will reopen for lessons on Friday 6th September 2019.
That doesn’t mean it’s all stop for everyone though! Sensei Adam will be has a busy summer planned, with a Seminar in Manchester on the 3rd August being run by the highest ranked belt in the WJJF, Jūdan (10th Dan!) Shihan John Greenhalgh.
That’s on top of the 6 planned trips to Haya-Ashi Jujutsu in Norwich to attend classes run by Scichidan (7th Dan) Kyōshi Robert Howes, just as he did last year.
While this will be mostly for his own Nidan (2nd Dan) training, Adam will bring back more training methods and techniques for the rest of us to use!
It’s been a while since we did a news update, so here are a few items of news.
Grading Fee Changes
Part of the grading requirements for each belt is to have a specific sew on badge applied to your uniform, which previously we had not fully enforced. We are now going to start re-enforcing these standards by adding the price of a patch onto the grading fee, so that you automatically buy a patch at each grading. Previously we had been selling the patches separately.
As these patches need to be applied to the uniform before the grading itself, we are going to add the cost of the first patch to the price of the uniform itself so that you have the first patch ready for your first grading. When paying the grading fee you would also be paying for the next patch ready for the that grading.
For example, if you were doing your green belt grading then you will get the pair of ‘leg flashes’ which are the required patches for the blue + white belt. Subsequently at your blue + white belt grading you would get a leg patch, ready for the Blue belt grading.
Alternatively, a new student buying a uniform would receive the chest patch (the required for the white belt), then once they were ready to grade they would pay for the grading and the ‘WJJF back patch’, which is the required patch for yellow belt.
For reference, here is the list of patches required by the WJJF, and where each patch should be sewn onto the uniform:
We have also updated the “What are the costs?” page to reflect these changes.
WJJF Rules and Regulations
We have published a copy of the WJJF’s rules and regulations here on our website for all to see. This used to be included on the back of WJJF membership forms which students and/or parents would be able to take home and read, but the newer forms no longer have them listed, though the WJJF has a copy listed on their website.
It is important to note that there haven’t been any updates or changes to these rules and regulations. We are simply making them a bit easier to find. You can find our copy of them here – WJJF Members Rules 2016.pdf (110 kb)
Training with Haya Ashi, Norwich
Adam has been using our summer break to travel up to Norwich to attend the classes run by Kyōshi Robert Howes, who you may recall came to oversee our last two gradings.
This was primarily so he could practice for jis 2nd Dan black belt (Nidan), but also to see how different coaches teach their classes and to borrow new ideas. He has brought back extensive notes on move variations, different warm up routines and a couple new toys which you’ll have to see in class for yourself!
Glossary
Adam has also been working with some of the senior staff in the WJJF to compile a glossary of terms used within Ju-Jitsu and the WJJF. This started out as a follow up to the belt order guide we made last year, but ended up being something a lot more comprehensive!
If you would like to take a look, you can find it here – https://dragonspiritaylesbury.co.uk/education/glossary/
