Thanks all for a great term and thanks for your efforts and your enthusiasm. It is so much more fun teaching students who are eager to learn and we really do appreciate all the good feedback that we have been getting.

I would also like to say how touched I am by the concern that has been shown over my health. I am glad to be able to report that my chest x-rays are completely clear and that my lung function is back up to 75%.

The prognosis is for a full recovery and the next few months for me will see a lot of effort reducing the weight gained and regaining the fitness lost as a result of the side-effects of the medication – ouch, it hurts just thinking about it!!

I would also like to apologise for the disruptions resulting from the construction of the stage for the school production. It was a big stage that robbed us of nearly half the hall space (something that I was not informed about) and we were not at all pleased. The school production itself was great and we sat there as two very proud parents watching our kids perform in what (to us) is clearly the beginning of their road to stardom!!

We managed to work around it though, but it did put a bit of a spanner in the works regarding end of term competitions etc. We had to sacrifice this terms Kata competition to make room for the junior brown belt grading and congratulations go to:

Junior Second Brown Belt:

·         Andrew Lanyon

·         Kent Petersen

·         Keegan Downey

Helena and I were very pleased by the very high standard of this grade and we are looking forward to guiding you guys through to the next stage of your learning – well done!

For those parents that are not aware, the junior syllabus is a much slimmed down version of the senior syllabus where all bunkai (applications of the katas) and some of the more complex drills have been removed.

We separated the junior from the senior syllabus when we opened our NZ club nearly 5-years ago. We were never happy teaching kids some of the nastier techniques found in the senior syllabus and we found that some of the more complex principles were beyond the grasp of the younger minds.

The real benefits of these changes have been that kids have not been held back in their grades and retention has improved considerably as a result.

The draw back has been that when kids reach the stage where they are ready to cross over to the adult group – the amount of catch up learning has proven to be enormous – not many have survived this transition.

Congratulations to the red team who won the end of term sparring competition!

Congratulations go to the following who graded successfully:

7^th Kyu Orange Belts:

·         Jack Akker

·         Robert McGregor

·         Dale Hutton

·         Jonathan Hopkins

·         Alex van der Wettering

·         Peter van der Wettering

This is the fastest we have graded any beginners group and your success is entirely due to the hard work and enthusiasm that you are investing in your training – we are actually well on course for green belts next term.

You are now at the stage were we are going to introduce sparring into your training. I am a great believer in not introducing sparring too early on, preferring instead to build a strong foundation in basic technique and physical control. Confidence comes from knowing you have the tools at your finger-tips 

Please invest in gum shields and sparring mitts and bring them to every session (that goes for green belts and above as well please). There will be no sparring if you don’t bring them

I thought that I would write a bit about how we approach sparring in our style:

For many clubs, sparring is the end goal or end-product of training – it is what they aspire to be good at and it is how they judge themselves.

For us, sparring is a drill – an exercise for learning.

When you spar with a partner, it should be ego-less (not entirely – you are entitled to feel good if you do well), acknowledge the points that are scored against you. If you feel that a scoring technique was unacknowledged by your partner, so what! You know. Maybe your partner is not good enough to recognise what you did. It doesn’t matter and certainly nothing to get angry about – we will absolutely not tolerated any loss of temper!

If you feel unable to deal with a technique that keeps scoring against you – ask your partner to repeat it until you have worked out how to deal with it. Learn from each other.

Here are some technique tips: be relaxed in your body, but sharp in your mind. Techniques should be explosive (that does not mean they can be wild – be controlled).

Remember to breathe (it is so common to hold your breath when under extreme stress).

Don’t step backwards to avoid a technique unless there is not choice (step forwards or to the side). If you can close the gap, keep it closed.

Never attack with a major kick (kicks are too slow). Never kick high (above the waist): you expose yourself by being on one leg and there is always a better alternative.

Kicks should be low, against low targets, explosive and part of a counter attack or combination.

Use both hands – westerners are very prone to throwing just one punch at a time. If you can control your opponent’s elbows and shoulders – you will pretty much control your entire opponent.

Sparring is a very useful exercise and teaches you to apply dynamics into your karate and gets you out of the static mindset. It teaches you to function despite the fear of getting hurt and it teaches you to function efficiently under stress.

Sparring is not fighting, especially if it conforms to competition rules. It is far too limiting – don’t get me wrong: people that are good at competition sparring will be very capable at defending themselves (but only as a bi-product of their sport).

If you have ever watched videos of the idiots that are stupid enough to enter no-holds-barred competition or no-rules fighting: it becomes very apparent that the style and discipline of “normal” competition sparrers breaks down very. It quickly and turns into brawling where luck plays a very large part in determining a winner.

If you ask yourself why bunkai does not work in your sparring, the answer is probably because you are limiting what you are doing and the way that you spar.

If you consider self-defence to be the goal of your training, then sparring, bunkai and kata are actually component parts of the same thing and it is that link (and truly understanding that link) that defines our style.

Nick and Claire have declared that they are going to be taking a break from karate. Nick is working very hard to finish his degree – he has taken on a full time course load on top of a full time job. He will have finished his degree after the summer break and they will be looking to return sometime after that.

Tony and Jocelyn are now full steam ahead towards their black-belts and we would hope to see that happen within the first half of next year.

Kevin Fox (Helena’s and Guss’ teacher) will be visiting us in Feb 03 and will be holding some courses at our club for our students at that time. He is an outstanding martial artist and well worth listening to.

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