Bristol Karate Academy

Congratulations to Oli Hulbert, who was awarded his black belt on Sunday in Nottingham!

Oli travelled to the JKS England Summer Course, along with other Bristol Karate Academy members, where he was put through his paces by senior JKS instructors Nick Heald Sensei (7th Dan JKS) and Hans Rana Sensei (6th Dan JKS). After three hours of hard training later and Oli was ready to begin his assessment.

The examination panel was led by the Head of JKS England, Alan Campbell Sensei (7th Dan). Oli was on fine form, looking incredibly relaxed and composed. It was a pleasure to watch him find his flow, including solid performances of Bassai Dai, Junro Shodan and Heian Yondan.

Oli started training in January 2017 as a five year old on our Bushido Warriors programme before joining our progressing through the belts. Like many of our members, the COVID pandemic didn’t stop Oli’s progress, as he trained with us online from home and took gradings as soon as lockdown restrictions were eased. At the end of 2022, Oli demonstrated the great progress he’s made by winning his kumite category at the JKS England National Championships, which was the first kumite win at that particular tournament for anyone from the club.

Oli’s new shodan rank makes him the fifth member to progress to black belt from the Warriors programme, and we hope many others will follow in his footsteps in years to come.

Congratulations Oli! We look forward to seeing your continued progress as you develop your karate over the coming years!

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