Shiro-no Zen Judokwai received a most welcome visitor on Thursday, 12 February. Jim Dart 4th Dan (BZJFA) was on business in Wakefield and came across to Bury with the intention of attending both the junior and senior sessions. However, the club wasn't’t about to miss such a golden opportunity to learn Zen Judo techniques from someone who’d been trained by Shihan Dominick McCarthy himself – and so Jim agreed to take the sessions!

Everyone was absolutely delighted with the evening, so much so that we’ve invited Jim back again at a date to be arranged. The club was still on a high over last Saturday’s Budo Course and the visit of Shihan Millard and Shihan Lawson and his team. Having Jim join us so soon after was a real bonus and a boost to the club’s use of the Zen Judo syllabus.

Just as we did with Shihan Millard & Lawson, we filmed Jim giving instruction and demonstrations. To be able to view these judoka on video time and again is undoubtedly going to prove invaluable to the club. Looking at pictures and reading about technique is one thing, but to actually see those techniques being performed correctly by masters cannot be overstated. Save for having the masters actually in the dojo itself, it is the best means we have for our own sensei to absorb the techniques and to inculcate the art into others.

Shiro-no Zen Judokwai has come a long way in such a short period of time and this could not have been achieved without the dedication and altruism displayed by the masters of Zen Judo. Sensei George Launders 3rd Dan leads the applause in thanking everyone connected with the club’s transition to Zen Judo. It is plainly obvious that we are amongst a true family indeed.

Ian Hinze