Opening of Catfield Higashi Karate Club

Simon Mills
2 days ago
2 min read

A motley crew of karateka from Maldon and an extra special guest all the way from Bracknell Higashi (Tony Sergent) made the journey north and east to a place very close to Great Yarmouth known as Catfield, the new home of ex-Maldon club member Dave Collins, to support him on the opening day of his new club in his new home town!

We all had fun training alongside his raw recruits from the town and then we retired to Dave's new homestead for a most excellent barbecue!

There is a Facebook reel showing highlights of the day.

In his own words, Sensei Dave has this to say about the day...

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Catfield Higashi Karate Kai officially opened its doors on Saturday 10 January, and I’m really pleased to say the day was a great success.

We welcomed several enthusiastic new starters who showed fantastic focus and determination throughout the session.

I was incredibly grateful for the support from the wider Higashi Karate community. Twelve people made the 200-mile round trip from my old club in Maldon, Essex, and one very brave soul, Tony, travelled an amazing 340-mile round trip from Bracknell Higashi in Berkshire just to support the opening day.

We filled the four hours easily with a mix of basics, kata, games to help develop strength, stamina, coordination and balance, and some pad work. The time flew by and everyone stayed fully engaged from start to finish.

With a few experienced instructors in attendance, I asked Richard Bartley, Tony Sergent and John Spurgeon to take short stints at the front of the class. We also had a brilliant kata demonstration from Phebe Quinton-Holt, who performed one of her competition katas, Chatanyara no Kushanku, which everyone really enjoyed.

The feedback from the day was extremely positive, with many people saying how much they enjoyed it and that they’ll be visiting and training with us again soon. I honestly can’t express how grateful I am for the encouragement, support and effort everyone put in to help make the opening day what it was.