The annual Ishinryu Open Summer Course remains a unique event in the UK karate calender. Running each year since the mid-seventies, the summer course continues to attract top instructors, led by Ishinryu head Ticky Donovan O.B.E. Good weather, great enthusiasm and a willingness by all attendees to give 100% made 2009 a truly memorable year. These pages provide a pictorial overview of the week.

Day Five - Thursday

After partying the night before, Thursday bought a well earned lie-in with no early morning session. The days activities began with junior kumite at 11:00 out on the green. Two areas were established and some entertaing kumite commenced, with competitors supported and cheered on by the rest of the course attendees as well as family and friends. To see a list of award winners go to the results page.

For those suffering withdrawal from training, Gavin Foster and Tony Spinks ran another pad session at 1pm.

Last training session of the day ran from 4pm in Gis. With one more day to go the course is far from over - especially for those planning to take a grading.

Day Six - Friday

The final day...and another 7:30 am start in track gear....
Overnight news had broken of Michael Jackson's death - Sesei Donovan asked for one minutes silence in tribute before training commenced.

Some intensive work for those anticipating taking a grading later today - the last chance to iron out any problems.

Gradings took place at 10:30 - with Kyu grades grading on the green while the black belt gradings were performed inside.

The final training session of the day (and week) started at 14:30. After the warm up, we split into groups to work on fighting combinations. The session finished with all summer course students coming together for a mass sparring session, with lower grades encouraged to pair up with a black-belt where possible. This extended sparring bought included a number of stretching and conditioning exercises to keep everyone warm and well-stretched.

The Final Bow

In the traditional manner the course ended with awards and some announcements.

Gavin Foster and Fallon Rayman were awarded Summer Course Student of the week and Junior Summer Course student of the week respectively:

Tony Dean, Gavin Foster and Tony Spinks were thanked for all their help and assistance in making the 2009 Open Summer Course a success.

Congratulations to Nicole Taylor who graded to Shodan (Black Belt) on the course, and to Sarah Kemp who was awarded 4th Dan by Sensei.

Congratulations also to Chris Wilson and Michael Wilson who were upgraded to Referee 'A' and Referee 'B' respectively after passing the course officials exam.

Thus ended the 33rd Open Summer Course. All that remained was to collect course certificates; get licenses signed; and take end-of-course photos. Some students celebrated by making use of the new open air pool to cool down.