Hi
All!
Yet
another term has shot by and it’s time again to report on last terms
events.
Last
term was a very stressful time for me personally as I was in the process of
completing my Information Technology degree at The Waikato Polytechnic. I am
very happy to announce that I have successfully completed this degree and I
now have a job working for WEL Energy/Natural Gas as a Business Analyst.
I
found that re-educating, as an adult was very difficult and I could not have
completed this without the understanding and support from my family to whom
I am very very grateful.
I
am very pleased that the club has survived this ordeal, despite the fact
that the time that we have been able to devote to it was cut back to a bear
minimum out of necessity.
One
of the joys that we are now experiences is the fact that we now have a lot
more free time. Both Helena and I have been able to work on our own personal
training again – one of the things that we have had to sacrifice over the
past couple of years.
Helena,
Jake and Sam are going to be on holiday in Sweden for the majority of the
next term, so it is the bachelor life for me for the next couple of months.
I shall be taking this opportunity to conduct some research into whether the
human body can survive on a diet of beer and pizza alone. I shall keep you
all informed! J
Please also note that
the term is going to be a couple of weeks shorter next term as the school is
planning a production towards the end of next term and we won’t have
access to the hall during this time.
The Junior Group
Both Helena and I feel
that the new junior syllabus has been very successful. It has been far
easier to teach from and it is quite clear from the progress that has been
made, that the junior group has found it easier to learn.
In Sweden, when we ran
the club with the same syllabus for both juniors and seniors alike: we had a
far greater turnover of students and no juniors ever achieved a grade higher
than green belt (even after seven years of running that club).
We now have a very
respectable spread of grades, which pleases us immensely. It is partly for
this reason that we are still struggling to find a good routine to
re-implement our merit badges. In the past, I have assessed each junior
personally every couple of weeks but as we are now having to split the class
into so many different groups, I have had to take a more active roll in
instructing instead.
We are working on a
solution to this, but we are putting merit badges on ice during the majority
of next term until we are satisfied that the new routines that we are
developing are workable.
Well done to all those
that graded last term: Wayne, Gareth, Rhea and Ben achieved red belts; David
got his yellow belt; Kent and Jess got their greens; Andrew, Keegan, Roydon
and Gretta got their blue belts; Romelli was graded to 1st brown
belt and Ocean was graded to 2nd brown belt. These are fantastic
achievements: well done to you all!
The end of term kata
competition went very well and the results of those were as follows:
Green
belts & below:
·
Gold medal – David
·
Silver medal – Jess
·
Bronze medal – Kent
Blue
belts & above:
·
Gold medal – Ocean
·
Silver medal – Romelli
·
Bronze medal – Gretta
A great standard!
The end of term
sparring was as exciting as normal with the blue team winning.
The Senior Group
The
senior group is developing very nicely. I am particularly satisfied to see
how the blue belts and above have very clearly taken over responsibility for
their own progress. This is a realisation that needs to happen in order to
reach a black belt grade. I am now very confident that you guys have what it
takes! Keep it up.
I am really going to
need some you guys to help out with the junior classes while Helena is in
Sweden, Nick is in Australia and Claire is in England. I will be ringing
some of you up before the start of next term to have a chat about how we can
organise things. Claire returns in the end of July, Nick returns in the
beginning of August and Helena returns in the beginning of September.
Helena has suggested
that we start concentrate more on sparring for the higher grades (7th
Kyu and above). To this effect, we will be devoting the last ten minutes of
each session to spar. We will have to draw up a rotor for who will take the
lower grade warm down during these periods so that I can also join in.
Remember to bring fist pads and gum shields to each session!
The other change is
that we will not conduct any more of the senior gradings during class time.
We are finding it very hard to fit the gradings in and we are loosing too
much tuition time as a result. From now on, we will arrange for gradings to
be held during a Saturday or a Sunday as and when necessary. This will allow
us to let the grades take the time that they need. Some of the higher senior
grades do take a very long time – so don’t neglect your fitness!
Well done to those who
graded last term:
Shalleen, Mat, Stephen
and Rino achieved 9th Kyu; Yvonne, Amy and Daniel go their 8th
Kyu; Jody and Leighton got 7th Kyu; Nick, Claire and Bashar got
their 4th Kyu. Great stuff!
That’s enough from me
for this time – I am looking forward to another great term. See you all
there!
Guss & Helena