WIKF Leaders Course
London October 2011

The autumn leaders course of the W.I.K.F took place as usual on Saturday and Sunday 29th & 30th October 2011 at Lewis Sports Centre Maberley Road Crystal Palace.

There was a good attendance from the senior grades of the W.I.K.F worldwide; England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Sweden, Holland and Norway being represented. The course was led by Chief Instructor of the W.I.K.F. Sensei Jon Wicks 8th Dan.

Saturday afternoon began in earnest with a warm up led by Sandro Angolini of Italy, which got everybody sweating and in the mood for the training to come. This was followed by an in depth study of Kushanku Kata, with the moves broken down and performed again and again to try and remedy some of the many mistakes that we were all making.

After a short break this was followed by practice of Kihon Gumite number 5, Tanto Dori number 4, Idori number 3 and Tachi dori number 2. Everyone was working hard and pulling together to try and get it right.

Saturday evening as is traditional within our Wado family we had a meal together at a local restaurant for all who wanted to participate. Good company, good food and good wine was enjoyed by all.

We began again on Sunday morning with a warm up led by Pierre Camal from Belgium, which once again got us ready for the work to follow. We started with a practice of Jitte and after throwing the next part of training open to the vote there was an almost unanimous decision for more Kata practice so we moved on to Jion.

After a short break again we moved back to pair work and practiced, Kihon Gumite number 10, Tanto Dori number 1 and Idori number.

There then followed, a Dan grading and congratulations go to the following achievements:

Colin Jones 2nd Dan
Kenneth Miller 2nd Dan
David Coope 3rd Dan
Philip Smith 5th Dan


Throughout the course there was a spirit of friendship and family, enjoying each other’s company and training hard together covering many aspects of the W.I.K.F syllabus. Sensei Jon Wicks as usual drove everyone hard taking time to explain to each and everyone their faults they had to overcome.

After verifying that everyone was very happy with the venue and still wanting the two leaders courses per year, rough dates were given. These have now been confirmed and will be posted on the web site.

After a long and protracted goodbye with lots of hugs and kisses we all went our separate ways looking forward to the next meeting.