Neath Valley Martial Arts

It’s been a busy weekend.
Yesterday we had the annual Neath Judo Kwai charity seminar to raise money for the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT). Then today some members of the club traveled to Basingstoke for a Tenjin Shin-yo Ryu Jujutsu seminar with Paul and Lee Masters.
It has been an excellent weekend of martial arts.

https://www.britishjudo.org.uk/cadby-morgan-kelly-shine-as-british-kata-continues-to-rise/?fbclid=IwZnRzaAQ7uH1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEerKys_TvFI3wOAn2-64WPFf6u0lWapzZV3pqaLOCcpdTWBUymFlJoAvE7qLA_aem_pSwXujzvkgGUlQz8xBhXJg

Cadby & Morgan-Kelly Shine as British Kata Continues to Rise - British Judo Association British Judo continues to make waves on the European stage with Ev Cadby and Kai Morgan-Kelly at the recent EJU Kata event in France & Poland

A quiet weekend for Kai, just popping over to Poland to represent Wales in a Judo kata competition. He, and his partner Evs Cadby, picked up the silver medal for their Ju No Kata. As can be seen, Kai literally bent over backwards to put on a good performance.

I am very pleased to say that we have three new black belts in the club.

Meriel, Elis and Kai have been awarded their 1st dans in combat jujutsu after a grading that took place over two consecutive evenings. I am very grateful to Ian Cardy 5th Dan, Sensei and Andrew Richards 3rd Dan, Sensei for their assistance with the assessments. Ian is the chief instructor at Neath Judo Kwai and a British Judo Association / Welsh Judo Association senior examiner. Andrew is the chief instructor at Neath Shotokan Karate. Both are extremely experienced and knowledgeable martial artists.

On the first evening the grading focused on various Taiho Jutsu and Judo katas. All three showed a high level of technical knowledge and proficiency.

The second evening focused more on combat / self defence. This included demonstrating pre-emptive striking combinations, defences against planned attacks, and defences against unplanned attacks / randori. Techniques were demonstrated against both unarmed attacks, and weapon defences attacks sticks and knives.

They all did extremely well and have definitely earned their new grades. This grading was, however, only the icing on the cake. They have all worked very hard to get this far.

Meriel started training in Jujutsu (Goshin Jujitsu) under Billy Doak 8th dan, Shihan in 2002. She took a number of years out due to having children before returning to train in Combat Jujutsu at Neath Valley Martial Arts.
In addition to jujutsu Meriel is an accomplished judoka and holds the grade of 1st kyu brown belt. Meriel has fought competitively in judo including the Welsh National Championships, and is a former member of the Welsh National Judo Squad. Meriel also holds several kata certificates and is a level one coach.
Meriel has been an assistant Jujutsu instructor for several years and is always willing to help and support fellow students.

Elis started training in jujutsu in 2013, age 5. He has trained consistently since then and also cross trains in judo (2nd dan), Shotokan karate (2nd kyu) and Taekwondo (2nd kup). Elis has also recently started training in Sambo.
Elis achieved both his 1st and 2nd dans in judo competitively by line up on the day before he turned 19. He competes regularly, and is a member of the Welsh National Judo Squad. Elis also holds several kata certificates and is a level one coach.

Kai started training in Jujutsu in 2019. He also trains in Shotokan karate (1st dan), judo (1st kyu) and Taekwondo (1st kup).
Kai has competed in all of the above arts and is a former member of the Welsh National Judo Squad.
Kai is passionate about kata and
has competed both nationally and internationally. He has picked up several gold and silver medals at the Welsh and British kata championships, and also a gold and bronze medal at a recent competition in France. Next week he’s off to Poland to represent Wales again.
Kai has also competed in various Taekwondo competitions both in sparring and patterns.
He holds judo kata certificates of various levels in all the judo katas and is also a level one coach.

The three of them have a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge, and are a real asset to the club. They have a wide knowledge base and I hope in the future they will focus on deepening this knowledge. Now the learning and hard work really begins.

Huge congratulations to Kai and Ev who along with a few other intrepid Welsh judoka have been accross to France this weekend to represent Wales in a kata competition. Kai and Ev won gold in Ju No Kata and bronze in Nage No Kata. A fantastic achievement!

A busy day for three of the members of NVMA. Meriel, Kai and Elis went up to the Welsh National Judo Grading at the Welsh Institute for Sport in Cardiff.
Meriel had 3 tough fights against larger, and dare I say it, younger opponents. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful but gave a very good account of herself.
Kai had several very tough fights and came away with a further 10 points towards his 1st dan.
Elis had 5 fights, won the 1st two convincingly by ippon which meant he then went through to the line up. The line up was 3 fights consecutively with no breaks between them, all against experienced black belts. Elis won all 3 fights by ippon to achieve his 2nd dan competitively by line up. Anyone familiar with judo grading requirements will understand how tough that is. It is a fantastic achievement for anyone to do that, but it is even more impressive when you consider that Elis is still 18.
Congratulations to all 3 of you!

Elis had a good day today at the Welsh National Dan Grading in Cardiff. He won his first two fights by ippon, first by hold down second by throw; a nice little counter. This qualified him for the line up where he won his first fight with an ippon throw but unfortunately lost the second. Unfortunately, this means he didn’t get his 2nd dan today, but he has picked up another 30 points giving him 60 in total. As always, he gave a very good account of himself and did very well. I’m very proud of him.
The next grading is 25 January so fingers crossed!
Elis also graded to 3rd kyu brown belt in Shotokan Karate on Friday. He has had a busy weekend!