A pair of cool katas from Beaver Valley Recreation Karate Dojo joined 150 other participants from across B.C. and Alberta in the 2010 Chito-Ryu Friendship Tournament in Penticton on the weekend.
It was the first competition for Meagan Campsall and Macy Verigin, but the two young apprentices had an excellent showing, placing fourth and sixth place respectively.
“Macy and Meagan showed an enormous amount of courage to participate in their first ever karate tournament,” said Sensei Scott Hutcheson of the B. V. dojo. “They performed their best Kata for a judging panel . . . and while the girls never captured a medal they accomplished their goals they set for themselves and that is incredibly hard to do especially in their first competition.”
Chito-Ryu karate goes back to the eighth and ninth century to the Tang Dynasty in China and was first developed by Tsuyoshi Chitose and introduced to Canada in 1958 by Sensei Tsuruoka.
A kata is a series of approximately 20-70 karate movements, a sequence of motions steeped in a thousand-year tradition of self-defense, artistry, ethics and precision, that the practitioner attempts to execute with perfect form. Judging is based on the ability of a karate practitioner to perform these intricate movements with grace and fluidity.
The dynamic duo also had an opportunity to meet up with Sensei Chris Taneda and current ladies national Kumite champion, Clair Booth.
Taneda is a seventh-degree black belt, six-time Canadian Kumite champion and four-time World Chito-Ryu champion. Sensei Taneda is head of Chito-Ryu in Canada and a descendant of the Satsuma Samurai Clan depicted in the film “The Last Samurai.”
KarateBC and Karate Canada organize competitions throughout the year ranging from semi-contact to full-contact karate and has been named a trial sport in the upcoming Olympics.