Newsletter 23.03
Well, I hope everyone had a fantastic monsoon!
Maybe it wasn’t quite the summers we have been use to but a break from the normal routine of rushing around is always most welcome, and hopefully it brought chance to spend a little more time with those nearest and dearest with a few memories too.
Well its time to get back to it all, as sessions start back tomorrow (Monday 11th September).
All info of fees, dates and times are on the slides at the bottom of this newsletter.
Also, time to dig out that Gi as we are back on the road of gearing up for gradings towards the end of the year and also a couple of competitions.
After last years successful Gi Grappling competition we will be looking to put that on along with our Karate Kumite comp.
My intention last year with the Gi grappling comp was for students of either Judo, Karate or even Strike to compete. A way to make this competition slightly different to the Judo one but also a chance to bring the group together. Therefore, if this sounds like fun and you don’t do Judo then please do shout and I will look to put on some bespoke Gi grappling sessions.
The Warriors continue to do well, and although there isn’t a plan to take over the world I do look to hold high standards. Continue reading to see a few extra things to consider from this week…
Standards
One area I would like to improve this term is the professionalism of the club (no I won’t be getting back to messages any faster), I think for an independent martial arts association most things are covered but I did notice that towards the tail end of last term some standards had slipped. Summer is hot, manic and a time to relax. So I get it. Below is a polite reminder of the expectations and even a few new ones to take on board.
1) Please attend in a clean Gi?training clothing.
Obviously, if you fall over etc on the way to class then I won’t be throwing you out of the session but do look to keep your training gear clean.
2) Ensure you are clean and tidy and that finger/toe nails are trimmed.
3) Long hair needs to be tied.
4) You don’t need to wear socks.
Martial arts is generally practised barefoot. If you have a foot issue, injury then I do understand and am happy to accommodate this but I think many students just can’t be bothered to take their socks off. If you are needing to wear socks please look to wear plain black or white ones, no fluffy rainbow ones please.
5) Suitable clothing under the Gi.
I understand that students may wish to wear something under their gi but could we please ensure it is not school uniform. A clean tee shirt/base layer top or leggings/base layer trousers are all acceptable.
6) Phones…
I fully understand that students may need to bring their phone to training as its the way of the world, but unless you are an adult who may need to be contacted during the session with an emergency, then all phones should be off and not looked at during training - even when getting a drink. You're one hour of training a week is a chance to be fully focused on yourself rather than who is messaging you.
I myself need to be aware of this, as sometimes I have parents message during class to say a child isn’t training etc, but I shouldn’t feel the p[ressure to get back to them until all my classes have finished. Or even the next day, as I often finish late.
7) Bring a water bottle.
Wherever possible please bring your own water bottle, students do need a drink when working hard. Otherwise I find myself nipping to the kitchen to get cups of water for them.
8) Pee Wee classes, can we not arrive super early.
I love that students are keen but you don’t need to be at the dojo mat side with 15 minutes to wait, 5 is more than adequate. The dojo door will be open from 4:50pm come rain or shine, therefore if you are early and its raining you may get wet. The time between myself finishing work and getting training ready is very short, and sometimes that head space of the Dojo being quiet for those extra 5-10 minutes is very helpful to me, and to prepare the nights classes.
9) Parents watching please let the Warriors just train!
I get it, if my kid was messing about, not paying attention, not doing their best I would want to say something. Though, you speaking to them in the lesson means they misunderstand who the authority figure is - it’s me by the way. My approach has always been gentle and let them learn for themsleves. So if your Warrior isn’t listening while I am talking, when they don’t know what to do a few times they may think to listen. It also gives you a chance to take a break from moaning at them, so take that chance. Lastly, unless you are a black belt, or any reasonable grade in martial arts I doubt (I mean this nicely), I doubt you know what to do and maybe they do, they just might not be able to express that how I want at the moment but they will. So in the nicest of ways, please let them and myself get on with it.
If you can’t, we have adult classes so get to a few and then you may have a good reason to say something.
Just a few things to ponder on, as I do believe your standards around your training do affect the standards of your training!
sensei’s thought
This is the bit you can happily skip.
For myself, as always I had huge expectations of what I would do and achieve over the summer - I mean six weeks to improve! Hours upon hours to hone skills!
But I chose to take a massive step away from my martial arts, I chose not to go and train with anyone, I chose not to improve.
So often we see everyone on social media telling us to seek improvement, push for that 1% each day but by doing that we can forget to feel.
We end up living outside ourselves.
But what will others think? They won’t! They are too busy worrying about what you think of them.
I still did bits of training but I had no focus on doing them to get better, just for the enjoyment of doing them, for the love of movement. Which is something I have always adored and probably lost in the expectation of improvement!
Hell, wack your back with thorny bushes each morning if you will, but is that for your own peace of mind or for others? Metaphorically that is! Well hopefully it isn’t for OnlyFans.
Our movement, thoughts, gestures and habits should energise us and not just drain us! A true life will see us tired, but make sure that what tires you also energises when you think about it. Being drained is life but so is being energised.
We must fill the cup, not just pour from it.
Right, I am off to do a thousand push ups to post them on social media!
See you this week.
Newsletter 23.02
Summer Term 1
Blimey, it’s the summer term already! Yeah did you hear that weather, it’s the SUMMER term!
I hope everyone had as good of an Easter as this pooch did!
So I missed the Spring term 3 newsletter, well I say missed, I did what all great artists do. I delayed the release of that third newsletter after two very successful ones, to heighten the suspense of its release - most probably to create a greater disappointment when it’s not quite what you were looking for, but here we go anyway!
Over the half term you may have seen I popped out to train at a few differences places, and I am so glad I did.
No Gi BJJ with Ross Cameron over at Absolute MMA in Bugle, followed by some Gi BJJ with the Death Rock crew over at the Point at Polzeath and a Kickboxing class with Liam Smith at Camelford Leisure centre.
I highly recommend all of these clubs, so if you ever get the chance to go along then please do so - training with a different instructor, different pupils and in a new setting will only enhance your martial arts journey. Liam also runs a Boxing session too, which I haven’t made it to yet but I will be.
Check out a more detailed write up on these clubs in my blog.
Tap to read the blogs.
The Easter Break
Over this Easter break I haven’t actually made it out to train anywhere, though I did get a few rounds in with these Warriors on the bank holiday. For this holiday I decided to take a break from not just training martial arts but all my training, which my body and mind are very glad of.
Grading Celebrations
The half term just gone saw plenty of hard work from the Warriors, none more so than our Pee Wee Karate students, as several of them who have been training since last year were graded up to their 1st Mon belt. A Mon grade is a step towards the whole coloured belt, a Kyu grade, and their are 3 Mon grades per belt. It is always one of the hardest belts as you are generally starting with no skills and very little understanding of martial arts. Now it is time to develop these skills further as we explore the other areas of Karate.
They all worked very hard and I was really pleased with their grading.
Hopefully their legs have recovered and they are ready to get back to training this week!
More Congratulations
And well done to Aaron and Bren on passing their next belts in Aikido. Both have done the hardest part of martial arts, consistently shown up to class. They are a testament to their art and the dedication required.
See, adults do martial arts too!
What for this Half term?
I am hoping to put on a competition of Judo and then Karate Kata, full details of this will be out soon but the general idea is it will be happing on a Saturday in May with the Judo element in the morning and the Karate Kata in the afternoon.
Therefore a lot of our sessions will be focusing on these elements along with a key skill/self defence section and getting some more students ready for a summer grading.
So it will be all go, go, go as usual! Just the way we all like it.
Last half term saw us add in an element of fitness, toughness, grit with some of our elements of training. No matter what you call it, I think they worked to help “Toughen up Teath” meaning we will keep dropping them in as well! YAY, I hear you say!
Training sessions are as usual this half term and the price for the block payments are below, please put on the reference for block payments online as ‘SUM T 1”.
You may notice that I have the bank holidays as training nights, the reason for this is, if we didn’t we wouldn’t get a lot of Judo in. At the moment my plan is to run one kids class for all pee week and juniors to teens, unless I hear that lots intend on making both bank holidays. I’ll put more details out nearer the time.
As for the adult’s class on a Monday we will be on as usual.
Hoodies
Also, this Easter break saw me add another page for you to not read on our website ;-)
We now have a MERCH page with all the details about our hoodies on there, so be sure to check it out. I also hope to get tee shirts and even rash guards in the pipe line. Soon I’ll be selling rulers and lunch boxes with ‘Traditional Warriors’ on.
16th May NO Training
Please note Karateka that this is not a mistake from the above block bookings.
We will only have a 5 week block even though it is a 6 week term.
As on Tuesday 16th May there will be no training as I have a prior work engagement which will mean I won’t be back in time to run the sessions.
Resolutions
I don’t know about you but now Spring has sprung and summer is just around the corner I often think, “how are those resolutions” or “expectations” of 2023 coming along.
Number 4 on my list for the club was to grow our STRIKE class, and this has steadily happened. We’ve had a few come try the sessions and not return but now we seem to have a core of regulars! Which is great, there’s still plenty to do in growing the class but it is on its way!
My other aspects; more adults, more women/younger girls finding their way in to martial arts and growing the ‘community feel’ we have may not quite have happened but there’s still a long way to go in the year.
Not all goals need to happen at once, nor do they need to happen quickly but the key is to stay mindful of them and keep checking in that they are still goals you want to proceed towards.
Our community is a strong one, but some sessions which bring us all together more often would be a place to start.
And we can work on the rest.
My goals to train more are coming along with an extra session or two a month with some of the Warriors where we just spar, no teaching just time to see if what we are learning is working. And chance to punch Sensei in the head. I really appreciate Dan Washer for helping me fit my own training in.
Plus, now I’ve trained a few other places the aim is to keep that going but all at a steady rate where I am coping with the extra volume of training and that those around me are as well.
And those are two key factors, the need and want to improve is always a good thing but it must be tailored so that you don’t lose yourself too much. Making time for others while improving is crucial, as well as making sure your training is building you up both mentally and physically and not depreciating your spirit.
We generally all want to improve, and social media and celebrities often show it to be quite easy but when you have other commitments such as families, kids, work (and the list can go on) the progress we make may not be like those we see. Therefore it is crucial to remember that many of us have multiple roles and unlike the afore mentioned, slow progress is progress no matter how small. No progress is even fine as long as the intention is still with us.
As I said before, do check in regularly that your goals still aline with you, it’s “ok” to change them.
Anyway, it’s now time to ascend back in to Sensei Jack after a wonderful break.
“If only I had his hair!”
Anyway, see you this week.
Me last week!
Newsletter 23.01
Spring Term 1
As I said before “Happy 2023 to you all”, I hope everyone enjoyed the break and has been able to get back in to the swing of school, college and work.
I must say, I do feel ready to be back. I think last week would have been that touch to early, and my picture shows that!
But now….I’m ready!
I hope you are as well.
Sessions start back on Monday 9th January, all advanced payment blocks are below. Do remember, if you/your Warrior does more than one block of training in the half term, the second block is at a discounted rate of £5 less than the stated price.
You may have noticed that all our previous newsletters have gone, well out with the old and all that. But I do know they were scintillating reads, so you can find them under the newsletter drop down menu called “2022”.
So 2023….
As always I was thinking, what does the new year bring for the Warriors?
What’s the “NEXT BIG THING?”
And then I saw a post on social media by “Wild Bake”. (I don’t know them and have never used them, but I did like their post!)
They said they could expand with a new premises and build a chain but what they are at the moment is “enough”, it gives them the right work life balance - and I thought, I feel that!
Obviously we will take on new members, but that will organically happen but for the moment what we are is enough.
So, my big thing this year is to keep up the consistency of good quality sessions and developing students in to high quality martial artists and humans. As the two should go hand in hand!
There is easily the chance to put on another training night and grow that way, but for me, at the moment three nights is enough. Maybe in the far future.
Some classes may change slightly across the year, and we are looking at starting an adults Karate class on a Tuesday evening but time will tell.
I still have ways of improving the club though, it doesn’t always need to be with glitz and glamour of new things. Three areas I would like to improve are…
1) I would like to create a greater community feel about the club.
I have no idea how to do this yet, but the visualisation of this is in my head.
2) Grow the adults numbers training with us on a regular basis.
3) Create a place where women both young and older feel they can step in to martial arts.
This has mainly been spurred on by a couple of conversations with people at the end of last year.
4) Grow our STRIKE (MMA) class.
This one is simple, get the word out that the Warriors have this session running, maybe there’s even call for an adult STRIKE group?
Again, I have no real plan yet but the ideas are there.
Any thoughts on these, then do give me a shout.
As you can see from the picture it is time to descend the Christmas mountain of solitude and put oneself back in the fray. This half term is a nice quiet one, where we will be focusing on new techniques and katas as many graded before the break. Plus developing a few more self defence areas.
While we are less busy, it is also chance for me to teach you any aspects (if I can) that you would like to be taught. If you have any thoughts, once again do shout.
The Spring term 2 will see us back to a few events.
Resolutions
I am sure we all have them, I have loads. Lots of little ones, which I will share across the year but I have a couple which will affect the Warriors. Although I am often someone who likes to work in the shadows and not worry about people knowing what I am doing, sometimes putting them out there does make you accountable for them actually happening.
write more
Yeah sorry! But I do enjoy blogging and putting out posts on social media as it is a great way to collect your thoughts. This is an area I find difficult from a time perspective and writing is not my strong point but it challenges me, hence looking to do it more.
You don’t need to read them but they may be of interest.
Train More
Hopefully over 2023 you will see me out and about more often training at other dojos, as the whole pandemic made it too easy to not. Then it was all about getting training up and running for the Warriors, then it was lets get back to normal with events. Meaning my own training has been neglected.
I have bought myself some new kit and am ready to go out and be humbled by many others, hopefully along the way I’ll learn a few things to bring back to the club. It also shows you that martial arts can be a life long pursuit (if you so wish) and that even black belts can lose and learn. My aim is once a month, to pop out on a night off or even during the holidays to a dojo to learn and not teach.
Well there’s more on “Resolutions” on the Sensei Jack social media page or check out our blog on this here website. Hit the buttons below.
Apart from that, I look forward to seeing you all back at training from the 9th January.