And a very happy New Year to all of you! I hope that you all survived the silly season with minimum psychological & financial damage.

Yes, it’s that time of year again; time to go from a couple of months of lethargy to regular training again. Ouch, I can feel it hurting already.

And yet another year has gone!! It is 2005 already!! I can’t believe that the NZ club is already 7-years old…I could really use time slowing down a little – just a little.

Last term was action packed with most of you going up another grade, Jocelyn had her 50^th Birthday, Bashar came back to train with us after 3-years at Uni and then there was that summer camp.

It was a great camp and we all got to practise and learn some very interesting stuff. John also taught us some fascinating police techniques – damned those handcuffs hurt. And then we all ate and drank…well, I can’t really remember that bit. Same again next year?

It was an absolutely fantastic feeling to be able to grade Emma, Haylee and Terri to Junior Black Belt. Everybody that was there to watch will surely agree that they put together a performance that did us all very proud – well done. They will now begin along the difficult path of learning and perfecting all they need to learn for an adult black belt.

They need to learn all the applications to all the katas that they have learned – the nasty stuff, in other words. To make this task more manageable of all involved, we have added a couple of intermediate junior grades between junior black belt and 1^st Dan. The first new grade will be a junior black belt with a blue stripe on one tip and will indicate that they have learned all the bunkai that is required for the adult 5^th Kyu. The next intermediate grade will be the junior black belt with a brown stripe and will indicate that they have learned all the bunkai that is required for the adult 1^st Kyu. The grade after that will, of course, will be the adult 1^st Dan including all that is required for that grade. We envisage that this process will take in the region of about a year or two.

It is very likely that we will see a number of Adults, in the senior group, grading to black belt this year – I can’t wait guys and girls…I really hope it happens.

Helena and I have decided that it is time that the club renewed itself again. We have only ever advertised for new members twice – the first time was when we  started and the second time was just over three years ago.

We are looking for about 15 - 20 new adult members and about the same number of junior members. So if you know of anybody who would like change their lives a little, make new friends and get a bit fitter…then bring them along, either to try or to watch. That also goes for you parents who have sneaky secret desires to be able to outshine Bruce Lee…or at the very least, be able to defend yourselves against your children – come along!!! You really are most welcome. Everyone who expresses an interest is allowed two free training sessions before you are asked to join – and if you still are not sure after that, I am sure we can allow an extra couple of free trial lessons.

Helena and I have also decided to raise the training fees for the first time since we opened the club. Adult classes will cost $100 per term and junior classes will cost $70 per term – for two sessions per week.

If you only wish to train once a week (which we don’t recommend) training will only cost half that amount.

We will no longer be charging the one off membership fee for new members. Club badges will cost $20 each, but will be completely optional.

There are absolutely no other hidden costs…all gradings are free; grading certificates are free; extra training sessions (only when we have time) are free, term newsletters are free and training camps will only ever be charged at cost price.

Instructors pay ½ price and families with more that two family members training, pay only ½ price for the additional members.

We need to raise fees due to rising admin costs and hall hire costs. I think that you will all find that our fees are still extremely competitive.

We are the only genuine self-defence orientate karate club in New Zealand that we are aware of. All others are either competition orientated or, so called, traditional (for further comment please read the articles on our web site).

Well done all.

 The sparring competition was as exciting as ever with some really good technique being displayed. This year we had a boy’s vs. a girl’s team. Well done to the boy’s team who won 5-matches to 4.

 Cheers and see you soon!