Back Issues

EDITORIAL.

Julie Nicholson was born in Jarrow, Tyne & Wear in the North East of England in November 1964. She began her Shotokan karate training in 1975. We featured an earlier interview with Julie in SKM Issue 66 February 2001. So, it’s interesting to now read her views and ideas after 24 more years of continuous training, plus her extensive teaching experience.

Many subscribers here in the UK and in Europe will know Julie Nicholson from her incredibly successful competition days where she had a fantastic career. She won 15 KUGB Kata titles and was a three-times European Kata Champion. Julie Nicholson made history in 2001 at the KUGB National Championships when she became the first woman to become Grand Champion. She won both the Individual Kata and Kumite events. Julie was an active member of the KUGB National Squad from 1983 until 2001 when she retired from International Competition. From the beginning of her career Julie was coached by her husband, John Holdsworth sensei 7th Dan, (he has an article in this issue) who provided the structure, guidance and encouragement to keep going in order to reach her goals. Both are now members of HDKI.

A quote from Julie... “The only natural talent I have in respect of Karate is my determination. This is a tremendous advantage, as I will never quit.”

A huge Thank You to SKM friend and contributor, Simon Bligh for the excellent job conducting this exclusive interview with Julie Nicholson.

Martin Hurley’s article and especially his application ideas from Naihanchi/Tekki Shodan are both interesting and thought provoking and are quite different from many of the usual Tekki Shodan kata applications we see by Shotokan karateka.

We had a very positive response to Graham Noble’s article in the last edition focusing on Graham’s extensive knowledge of Shotokan Karate’s history. This time, Graham details the birth of competition karate and how it developed to become a prominent part of Shotokan Karate. Don’t be confused by the title, this definitely is not an article glorifying competition karate. It’s merely explaining how the competition element originally came about and also how it expanded so rapidly in Japan.

I think it’s fair to say that SKM is more focused on featuring karateka who have passed the competition years of their own karate journey. Myself being a prime example. I loved competing in my younger days, right up until my late 30s. From the conversations I’ve had, that goes for many subscribers/readers of the magazine. It’s a period which many karateka go through.

l would like to conduct more interviews with younger karateka but the majority only want to talk about their competition career or tournament karate in general. A good example is in the ‘Letters’ section, by a young Ukrainian karateka based in Miami.

We are often sent articles which are too short to publish as a feature. However, when a short piece comes along which I feel is interesting and worth publishing, I’ll include it in ‘Letters’, as I’ve done this time, with the short story by Dr James M. Hatch.

Good Health, Good Training, Editor.