I don’t know about you guys, but for me: this term really seems to have shot by!

Maybe it is because there has been so much happening, or maybe it is because we have been spending all of our spare time on our house extension?

No really; it has been a great term which started with Kevin’s visit from the UK.

As always, I found his sessions fascinating and I believe that he shows a mastery of advanced bunkai that we would be very hard pressed to find an equal.

The really interesting thing for me is that even the smallest move has significance.

Back in the UK, Kevin teaches almost exclusively to instructors and he only has a couple of students lower than 1^st Dan. This really has allowed him to research and develop the style and ultimately – this is our goal too: to have a club that is run by a significant group of instructors whom we in turn train in an advanced group.

We are probably still around 6-years away from that goal, but judging by all of your standards: we are certainly getting there!

The nice thing about Kevin’s sessions here in NZ was that he pitched them as if you were all black belts. You may have felt that a lot of what he said went above your heads at times – but I think that you will all agree that it did give everyone a unique insight as to what is to come.

I hope that his visits become a regular feature!

I am sorry that the promised camp did not materialise last term – we found a great place to stay, but we couldn’t find a suitable place to train.

We hope that we can fix a new date sometime in the next two terms – so watch this space!

The other interesting event was the visit last Monday to our club by Frank McKenzie and his club from Warnambool in Victoria, Australia.

He brought a team of 30-students on a tour of NZ that started with their participation in the NZ open championships in Auckland. They took home 27 medals for which they really deserve congratulations.

The sheer logistics of bringing over that many students must be a nightmare and they have our greatest admiration for that!

It was a very interesting session and we were able to give them a very good insight into self-defence orientated Karate – something to which they have never been exposed.

From the feed-back that we received, they were very impressed. Genuine self-defence orientated styles of Karate are very rare.

They were also able to give us a snapshot of how they train as a sport orientated club and I must say that I picked up a couple of good ideas that we will certainly incorporate into our own training.

Technically; one of the things I find fascinating about sport sparring is their need to maintain a distance and how they move back and forth all the time. This seems to work very well in competition but I can find no justification for it from a self-defence perspective.

What really struck me though was how non-macho and thoroughly pleasant everybody way and it was a great pleasure to have them here.

We have an open invitation to bring our group to their dojo and if you guys are interested – maybe we could get some ideas on how that could be made a reality.

Thank you very much to all those that turned up and supported our club – we really appreciated it. And a special thanks to my parents, Inga and Bill for helping out with providing lunch.

Congratulations go to the following who graded successfully last term:

Junior Red Belts:

Green belts and below

·         Jerome Hopgood – Gold

·         Sarinah Archer – Silver

·         Kaden Meehan – Bronze

Blue belts and above

·         Kent Petersen – Gold

·         Rhea Petersen – Silver

·         Keegan Downey – Bronze

Also, the end of term junior team sparring competition ended in a win for the Red team by 10 – 8.

Congratulations go to the following who graded successfully:

9^th Kyu Red Belts:

·         Ken Guo

·         Greg Jackson

·         Grant Van Der Wettering

·         Felix Rodriguez

4^th Kyu Purple Belt:

·         Shaleen Deo

2^nd Kyu Brown Belt:

·         Leighton Archer

1^st Kyu Brown Belt:

·         Romelli Rodriguez-Jolly

Both Helena and I are very pleased with the commitment and the standards shown last term!

Unfortunately, I am still being plagued by poor health. I am unable at this stage to lead by the kind of example that I am used to and I truly appreciate all the understanding and support that you have shown. The prognosis is for a full recovery but I have to be patient.

One note about term-fees: there will be no increase this term. We haven’t changed our fees in the last 5-years and we will continue to keep them as low as possible – but we would appreciate prompt payment at the start of term. If you need to defer payment it is no problem, but please let us know so that we don’t have to keep chasing people.

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

07-850 9390

Cheers and see you all soon