Hi all

Thanks for a good term last term - it was a somewhat longer term than usual to make up for the very short term last term.

Everyone made good progress and it was great to see the level of effort shown by everybody - keep it up! As far as karate was concerned, last term was fairly uneventful but as for our other commitments, last term was a very busy one indeed for Helena and I:

Helena is now working full-time at the Sir George Seymour College of Tourism and Travel, after nearly 6-years of working part-time.

I still have my full-time job as an analyst at Te Wananga o Aotearoa; I am still contracting 8-hours a week for the Te Wai o Rona Diabetes Prevention Strategy study run by the University of Auckland Clinical School at the Waikato Hospital. Additionally, I was honoured to be elected to the Board of Trustees at Melville High School and I was very surprised to find myself becoming Chairman of that Board - a position that has shown itself to be a very demanding and challenging role. Melville High School is showing huge promise and potential to become one of the leading secondary schools in Hamilton and it is very exciting to be part of that development (I am always available if any parents wish to contact me with questions, queries or concerns regarding MHS - so don't hesitate to contact me).

I have also started to study again at the University of Waikato School of Management (I must be a masochist!!) - I am studying towards a Management PhD.

The point being, really, that we are nearly over-committed, so any help with running the club and instructing would be greatly appreciated. The last thing we want is for our commitments to negatively impact on what is a very successful karate club. Dale and Jon are doing an outstanding job as senior instructors as are Walter and Jake as support instructors.

Anybody, Green belt and above can instruct (at an appropriate level). It is something that we recommend for anybody wishing to progress within Karate. Karate is far from just a physical activity - one of the things that first attracted me to karate was the intelligence behind the knowledge. Karate requires an in-depth understanding of human anatomy and body mechanics. It also requires an understanding of strategy and human psychology and therefore it really is a thinking person's activity. It is only when you find yourself in a position where you have to explain and put across these concepts to other people, that you find yourself putting in the sort of analysis required to understand these facets yourself. Instructing is an outstanding way of learning.

People can start karate for any number of reasons. For some it is for fitness and health; for some it is about self-defence; for some it is for the social interaction; for others it is a distraction from their everyday stressful and emotional private and professional lives and for some, it is the sporting aspect that attracts people.

Karate is not everybody's cup of tea and many people who discover what it is all about don't last all that long - and that is fine. Others that do stick it out, come to a point where it is all the facets within karate that start to fascinate participants -  to the extent that it is the learning that motivates. Karate is a long apprenticeship that requires a significant degree of ambition and commitment. For many, the amount of learning required is very daunting and there is a very high level of turn-over of students and the retention rate is low.

But those that are left are, generally, like minded people who are great fun to mix with and this is something that Helena and I try very hard to promote. We think that we have a great group of people.

Right now, we don't have enough instructors to expand the club more that at our current level. But, if there are more of you that are prepared to help out (and if that is what you want), then we can have a drive to attract more people...but, it is up to you - it is your club.

Congratulations go to the following people who successfully passed their grades last term:

• Alice Dines - Junior Red Belt
• Nathan Carrasco - Junior Red Belt
• Gracie Luo - 9th Kyu Red Belt

Those that missed out on a grading last term may be given a chance to grade next term if the required standards have been reached.

Congratulations also go to the following people who won medals at the club kata competition last term:

Yello Belt & Below:

• Gold - Nicke Bonning
• Silver - Jared Kelman
• Bronze - Nathan Carrasco

• Gold - Jelena Downey
• Silver - Maysell Downey
• Bronze - Ben Smith

And lastly congratulations to the blue team who won the kid's sparring competition by 7-matches to 3...well done!

Unfortunately, there is no news on the progress of our appeal against the decision of our own grading. As most of you know, we were not successful at our last grading held by Karate New Zealand. We felt that the grading was a complete sham and the grounds for our appeal are as follows:

1. The grading panel did not follow an agreed upon grading protocol and we were not given the opportunity to show what we knew.
2. Our lack of experience with performing on mats was not taken into account and those mats impacted greatly on our ability to show our true standard.
3. We were judged purely on sport karate criteria - sport karate and self-defence oriented karate are very different things indeed.

We are still very angry over the way we were treated and there seemed to be a total lack of respect or interest shown by the grading panel over the huge amount of development and perfection that we had achieved in our karate. We will continue to pester them for either a reversal of their decision, or a chance to show what it is we do in front of a grading panel that has sufficient intelligence to understand our stuff. After all, they call themselves Karate New Zealand, not Sport Karate New Zealand! We will keep you posted.

Health wise, I continue to improve. I am almost completely symptom free now and it feels as if I have been given a whole new set of lungs. I am very grateful to the research undertaken by Dr Trevor Marshall and his team at the Auto-Immune Foundation based at Thousand Oaks in California. Without them and their experimental treatment protocol, I might not have been around today. For anybody suffering from any Auto-Immune disorder, I urge you to check out www.marshallprotocol.com and see whether you too can become part of this clinical trial.

Just a reminder, if you want to buy uniforms or equipment, we suggest that you do so using a Hamilton based retailer at www.bushido.co.nz – (the contact phone number and address can be found on our website www.bugeikan.com) you can go along there and try uniforms on for size – something that we highly recommend.

Remember; if you are an orange belt or above, you must purchase mouth guards and fist mitts in order be allowed to spar.

The dates for next term are as follows:

Wednesday 18^th July – Wednesday 19^th September. (We don’t train on statutory holidays).

There are also a couple of dates next term where Deanwell School will require the hall for the school production - I am not sure of the exact dates yet, but we will let you know.

Anybody, green belt and above, who is interested and willing to commit to instructing next term – we will have an instructor’s meeting on Monday 16^th July at 6:30 PM – please attend!

See you soon

Cheers