What’s the difference between a black belt and 3rd Dan in karate? After many years of working their way through a range of coloured belts, dedicated karate students will eventually reach Black Belt and are called a ‘1st Dan’. Karate Senseis (instructors) say that this is the point when you really begin to understand and learn karate. Several years later, you become eligible to grade to 2nd Dan and maybe fve to 10 years after that - a 3rd Dan awaits you. So, you can see that not so many people make it to 3rd Dan.

After years of training and dedication, and lots of bruises, some tendon strains, and even a couple of broken fingers Barrow’s karate club (Leicester & Loughborough Shotokan Karate - see details in the advert on page 10) now has three new 3rd Dans. This is quite an achievement.

They are the club Senseis, Danny and Chloe Spence (a father and daughter team); and one of the longest-training members of the club, Guy Silk who also writes for Barrow Voice about jam, blackouts in Spain and The Archers.

Their grading, in June, took around one- and-a-half hours and their examiners included 7th Dan Master Gordon Limmage; Phil Bonshor (5th Dan Master); and Ray Tursa (4th Dan Sensei). They were all exhausted and soaked in sweat by the time they finished (the candidates, not the examiners!) and then had to wait nervously to find out if their exertions merited the honour of ‘fulfilling all the requirements for physical and mental prowess and knowledge in the Martial arts as laid down by the NAKMAS® National Governing Body’.

They all did! Congratulations to all three.

Children, teenagers and adults all train at different times on Friday evenings in Barrow and newcomers of all ages are made very welcome – as well as those who have some knowledge of Karate and are returning to the fun, but disciplined, martial art of Shotokan Karate.

Karisa Krcmar