Yet another term has passed and yet another year has passed – time really flies!!

This year is a special year for us as the Hamilton Bugeikan Karate Club is 5-years old.

We intend to celebrate by having a barbecue for adult students and other halves sometime during the next term – we will announce when during one of the classes.

We are also intending to have a weekend training camp for adults during the next term.

This year is special in other ways too: In September of this year, I celebrate 30-years of martial arts training and Helena celebrates 21-years of training. It is 15-years since Helena and I graded to black belt and we have been running our own Karate clubs for 16-years.

Also, at the end of this year: I am turning the big 40.

Next term will also be big in that we will be grading several adults and juniors to black belt, so the next couple of terms is going to see a lot of hard work.

Kevin will be coming down shortly and will be holding some extra courses for the adult group. Kevin has spent a lot of time researching and practising the original Goju techniques as taught by Ichikawa and, probably, Kanyo Higaonna – the person who is famous for bringing what is now known as Goju Ryu Karate from China to Okinawa.

Both his Kata and the Bunkai look vastly different to what is considered to be the current official Goju Ryu Katas and Bunkai – even more different to what we train in the Hamilton Bugeikan.

Kevin is a superb martial artist with incredible technique and I am sure that you will all enjoy meeting and training with him. We will get back to you with training times.

As at the start of every year, we would like to have an intake of new adult and junior students. Even though we do accept people who wish to start at other times during the year, we prefer to have one larger intake at the beginning of the year. It is easier for students to learn that way and it is certainly easier for the instructors to teach.

So if you know of anyone who might be interested in starting – drag them along!!

The dates for next term are Wednesday 5^th February until Wednesday 9^th April.

Congratulations go to the following who graded successfully last term:

Junior Red Belts:

·         Thomas Monk

·         Ashley Rose

Junior Orange Belts:

·         Kaden Meehan

·         Sarinah Archer

Junior Purple Belts:

·         Haylee Hutton

·         Emma Corbin

·         Terri Hutton

·         Rhea Petersen

·         Wayne Crump

Junior 3^rd Brown Belts:

·         Kent Petersen

·         Keegan Downey

·         Gretta Rodriques-Jolly

Here are the results of the junior kata competition:

Green belts and below

·         Sarinah Archer – Gold

·         Steven Hawes – Silver

·         Kaden Meehan – Bronze

Blue belts and above

·         Kent Petersen – Gold

·         Rhea Petersen – Silver

·         Haylee Hutton – Bronze

Also, the end of term junior team sparring competition ended in a draw between the red and the blue team.

Helena and I are really pleased with your efforts as the standards are just getting higher and higher!

Congratulations go to the following who graded successfully:

6^th Kyu Green Belts:

·         Jack Akker

·         Robert McGregor

·         Dale Hutton

·         Jonathan Hopkins

·         Alex van der Wettering

…Self defence is like any skill set: it has to be built on very sturdy foundations. It needs to be learned slowly: taking the time that it needs to take and it needs to be practised regularly, relentlessly, continuously and diligently. The moment you stop practising – the sills will start to deteriorate and you will get rusty.

So now we have established the fact that any journey in the pursuit of gaining knowledge and skills in self defence is going to require an investment of some considerable time: most people already know this.

And knowing this, you then have to ask yourself – is self defence important enough for me to warrant an investment of this magnitude? For most people, the answer is no – they would rather be doing something else – and that is fine!

Most self defence courses market themselves to the people who want a quick fix and who are not prepared to invest their time to learn a martial art. The advertisers will tell you that you don’t need to invest a lot of time because they have access to secret knowledge that is so superior that anyone with this knowledge will not need put in the hours to learn it and they will not need to practise. Some advertisers will even spice things up with a little supernatural flavouring – a recipe that will always attract some punters!

Are all self-defence courses a waste of time then, I hear you ask? Well, no: not if you are aware of what you have paid for. Some courses are very worth while as they teach preventative behaviour such as how to take out money from an ATM, how to use a public telephone booth, how to dress less provocatively or how to scream and shout at someone molesting you at an office party.

Preventative behaviour based courses build on the premise that the best form of self defence is not to be there in the first place: to minimise the risk of every day activities. They are absolutely right and this is very worth while knowledge – but it still needs to be practised!

Some self defence courses teach techniques in the use of everyday items such as pens, combs and keys as weapons. They build on the premise that any weapon used in self defence can be used against the person defending themselves: so it would be quite useful to learn how to use items that are not normally considered as weapons to maximise effectiveness and surprise and to minimise the risk of that weapon being used against the defender. This premise is also absolutely right and these are skills that are also well worth knowing – but they still need to be practised!

The rest of the bunch of self defence courses may not be a waste of time either. You get to meet people, have a bit of fun, learn some basic falls, some basic holds, some basic throws, some basic kicks, strikes, blocks and some basic strategy. These courses can be a lot of fun and very useful if they are marketed as being basic introductions to martial skills.

But very often they are not. They are marketed as being the ultimate solution because ultimate solutions attract more people and more money than introductions to basic skills.

The major problem is that these courses often do not expose the students to aggression, fear or pain and the student is not made aware of the fact that even if they practise these basic techniques religiously – they may well fall apart when confronted very aggressively.

There is a huge danger that a student may walk away with a false confidence that will cause that student to lower their natural guard and thus expose that student to greater risk than before they attended their course – a scenario that, potentially, could have very unfortunate consequences. This is my argument as to why self defence courses are not always better than no self defence courses.

I have often been asked to run such courses, but my answer has always been no. I already teach self defence – come along to our Karate club and have a look, or try it out if you like. They never come!...Keep a watch on our web site as this is the first of three articles that I intend to write on this subject.

Lastly, a reminder for anybody that wishes to purchase karate suits or other karate equipment, I recommend that you do so through Robbie Smith:

17 Edwin Street

St. Andrews