On Sunday 28^th June around 20 Instructors ranging from 7th Dan to 1st Kyu and from a number of British Zen Judo Family Association Clubs attended a course at Basford Zen Judo Club in Nottingham, hosted by Shihan Gordon Lawson and his Club Instructors. Clubs from Nottingham, Manchester, London, Trowbridge, Portsmouth and Bognor Regis made the hot and humid trip up for four hours of Judo Instruction by Shihan Andrew Millard B.E.M 7th Dan BZJFA.

The intention of the course was to go over the complete BZJFA syllabus and to pass on to more recent instructors some of the rationel behind the Zen Syllabus. The session started with a warm up which was to set the standard for the rest of the day (I'm still recovering), after this we moved onto ukemi and Shihan Millard described how this was always taught for at least fifteen minutes at the start of every session. We then moved on to the standing techniques, both right and left handed. After a very short break to take on badly needed water, we moved on to cover technique fives, again right and left handed, counter ones and two's and counter two by two's. The course was finished off by some very, at times "spirited" randori. Before the course came to an end, Shihan Millard presented David Bennigton (Portsmouth Zen Judo Club) and Yvonne Robertson (Bognor Regis Zen Judo Club) with there BZJFA 1st Dan Licences.

For more details on this course and future events visit the British Zen Judo Family Association website or see this site for announcements.