26/08/2024
24 August 2024 was a very special day for the Perth Seido Karate dojo. Two of our students, Ollianda Clinton-Watts and Geoff Leggatt, undertook their Shodan grading, ie their grading to become first degree black belts.
In fact, their grading started many months ago. Olli and Geoff have been training hard for the promotion for most of the year, together with their training partners Kate Colleran and Senpai Ryan Leggatt. They have been preparing their bodies relentlessly, and have also been developing a deep understanding of the martial art they practice.
We were very fortunate to have Kyoshi Cheryl Porter from Seido Karate Christchurch Shibu come to Perth for the grading. Kyoshi Cheryl taught Olli as a child, and Olli is the 25th of her students to go for either Shodan promotion, an extraordinary record.
The grading took nearly 4 hours. During that time the physical and mental stamina of the candidates was rigorously tested. They were also asked to reflect on the many aspects of Seido karate, including its philosophical foundations, and the application of each part of the syllabus. Among many other things, Olli and Geoff also demonstrated defenses they had developed themselves against armed and unarmed attackers.
The last part of the grading was 40 rounds of sparring, with fresh opponents. This has been deferred for Geoff on medical grounds; Olli was able to complete the sparring on the day and demonstrated tenacious fighting spirit throughout.
We are enormously proud of Senpai Olli and Geoff and what they achieved on Saturday. They demonstrated great expertise, composure, strength and warrior spirit and their performance was quite inspiring.
I thank the instructors at the Perth Dojo, the training partners and everyone else who supported Senpai Olli and Geoff through their journey, in particular their families. Geoff will complete his promotion in the next few weeks once he is cleared to spar. I can’t wait to see what Senpai Olli and Geoff achieve in the next steps of their karate journey.