Holistic Karate recently held its quarterly grading, with 12 children and adults ranging from 6 to 76 years being promoted in grade.
Instructor Charlie Wildish, 4th Dan, said: “Everybody did very well and truly deserved to pass their gradings. They all worked very hard to reach the high standards that we require.”
It was especially nice to see people coming from other martial arts to train at Holistic Karate. James, who is black belt in Taekwondo, came straight in at green belt, and Tom, who has done a lot of Jeet Kune Do and boxing, came in at yellow belt.
Charlie said, “These grades belie James and Tom’s knowledge and experience as martial artists, but they’ve only had a relatively short time to learn our syllabus. I expect them both to move up the grades quickly, and it’s always nice when you get people from other martial arts that recognise the value, what you teach!”
Julie did exceptionally well to get her red belt at the sprightly age of just 76, everybody was so pleased for her and she deserved it.
Mark was awarded his brown and white belt (2nd Kyu) and Dawn got her advance brown and white belt (1st Kyu), one grade below black.
Charlie added, “Holistic Karate keeps going from strength to strength. Within a year, I anticipate that we’ll have four new black belts, including Dawn and Mark (both adults). They will join two juniors, Charlotte and Joe, who passed 1st Kyu a while ago and we aim to have ready by Easter. Seeing people progress and get higher belts is one of the nicest bits about teaching. However, that is secondary to personal development that you see people go through as their confidence increases and they realise they can do things that they’ve worked hard to achieve and in some cases, never thought they’d be able to do!”
Charlie Wildish