Photo of Andrew who successfully passed Shodan (Black Belt) last night. A VERY, VERY, VERY special evening. What I initially thought was impossible, turned out to be not only possible, but AMAZING. Andrew successfully graded Shodan (Black Belt). He started his Karate journey at BSGI (Inverness Gaelic School) 8 years ago at the age of 6. He moved to Texas, America 2 years ago when his lovely dad Scott secured a career promotion. They took Andrew to various Karate clubs in their area but Andrew was not impressed so he continued training with Karate Alba online. It was not always easy as I could not grade him Shodan without assessing his fighting ability - virtual Kumite would simply not suffice for Shodan level. Luckily, the family befriended Dave, a former Scotsman who trained Shotokan Karate. I trained Dave and Andrew on Jyu and Ippon Kumite... they were VERY good tonight. RESULT!! Andrew is a former junior Kata champion, with many medals under his belt, including Scottish, British and Irish International titles. Andrew's grading was EXCEPTIONAL. We are incredibly proud of him. Oss!!
