Every year in each area, T-UK hold seminars taught by Master Archer and Master Ridley to help ensure techniques are standardised across the Association and to allow students in all areas to get the chance to train with our Masters.

On Sunday 18th February it was the turn of the northern area. The day was split into two halves, with colour belts training in the morning and black belts in the afternoon. This meant the Masters could concentrate on the patterns most relevant to each grade.

Master Ridley kicked off the day with some warm up exercises, which I'm sure everyone enjoyed. Master Archer then commenced going through some basic techniques before starting on the patterns. As each grade had done their pattern they moved through to work on specific aspects of the patterns with Master Ridley.

It was good to see an excellent turn out for this seminar, especially amongst Red Belt and Black Tag students who are obviously looking towards taking Black Belt Gradings in the not too distant future. All students seemed to be enjoying themselves and working hard. The session was rounded off with some self-defence techniques with Master Archer taking the Juniors and Adults through some take downs and Master Ridley working with the younger students on some basic self-defence drills.

After a short break it was the turn of the Black Belts to be put through their paces. After a rigorous warm up by Master Ridley, Master Archer made a start again with some basic techniques before moving on to the patterns. All students performed the 1st Degree patterns move by move before the 3rd and 4th Degree students watched as the 1st and 2nd Degrees performed them all the way through. It is always good to try and perform patterns under a little pressure like this as obviously it makes it a little closer to how it would be at a tournament or grading.

After running through all the 1st and 2nd Degree patterns they were sent through to Master Ridley to work on their kicks and some of the pattern techniques in more detail whilst Master Archer was able to concentrate on some of the 3rd and 4th Degree students who were hoping to be taking International Gradings this year. As a mid-term 3rd Degree myself it was inspiring to see the patterns done by students who are close to a grading and gave me an idea of what I need to be aiming for and working towards. We also went through the step sparring requirements and worked on some of those techniques before the session came to a close.

As always with these seminars, the time went far too quick and I'm sure we could all have spent many more hours working on our techniques and asking questions of the Masters. I, for one, really enjoyed the day and it was good to sharpen up my knowledge of some of the techniques.

I would like to say thank you to Master Archer and Master Ridley for travelling to us to teach this session in our area so we didn't have to travel; thanks to Mr Miley and his team for hosting the session; and thanks to everyone who put in the effort and turned up. We had great attendance for both sessions and it's always nice to have a large group to train together and have fun at the same time.

Jayne Heywood III

Publicity Officer for the Northern Area

T-UK Area Seminar in the Northwest !