Ronin Goju Karate Morley

Well done to those that graded today. As mentioned, it was a small grading day, which meant there was nowhere to hide.

Special well done to the two juniors (Seb & Poppy) who had to show their kata solo - something we usual don’t have the time for students to do. It’s a lot harder when you know all eyes are on you.

Thank you to all the students today for all their hard work and to be all the parents who supported not only their own kids a but everyone else’s.

Back to the grind tomorrow! See you all at class!

Best of luck to those grading tomorrow! It’s one of the smallest gradings we’ve ever had. Not because student numbers have dropped, but because we only invite those we are confident CAN pass. You still have to get it right on the day!

To those that didn’t quite make it, the next grading is 6 weeks away as we’re moving them around to avoid September and December which always proves to be a nightmare.

Get to class, crack on and get yourself ready for that next step!

Almost £600 online so far and £30 offline!

Wish us luck next Thursday!

Thank you all.

Tony and Sarah’s fundraiser for Tickled Pink - Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel! Help Tony Valentine raise money to support Tickled Pink - Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel!

More training for the Yorkshire three peaks challenge! Ingleborough conquered!

We’ve raised £265 for Tickled pink so far and I’m sure there is more to come! Thank you all for your donations!

Training has started with a stroll up Whernside. 3 hours 41 minutes - feet are sore but what an achievement.

Can’t imagine the struggle of doing all 3 in a day, but we will soon find out.

Thank you everyone for your donations - £130 raised so far plus the £60 Sarah and I put in. Not too shabby!

In a few weeks I’m doing the Yorkshire three peaks, with the Mrs and my ASDA homies!

All funds raised are for Tickled Pink and CoppaFeel. These charities are very much close to my heart and any donations would be much appreciated.

This is an extra tough challenge for me as my rather paggered hips need replacing - so achieving this is a big thing for me and I’d like to make it worth the effort.

If anyone can spare a few £££ it would be much appreciated.

Tony and Sarah’s fundraiser for Tickled Pink - Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel! Help Tony Valentine raise money to support Tickled Pink - Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel!

I read an interesting piece the other day, a club that seemed to lose students approaching their blue belt.

With us, over the years, it seems to have been brown belts, but that’s changed. More recently it’s been white belts and 1st Kyu’s (grade before black belt).

Karate is not a simple learning curve, especially when the syllabus covers as much as we do. EVERYONE struggles with one thing or another, that’s life! If you are not struggling you’re not learning!

We’re not here to make things comfortable for you and all rainbows and sunshine. We are here to have you feeling pushed to achieve and learn. So, we have a formula and that works:

Step 1 - Yellow and orange belt - build your confidence to try things, get them wrong, realise that’s ok and try again. But at the same time helping you realise you are not useless! You are focusing on the basics.

Step 2 - Green and blue belt - Start building your knowledge. Help you get stances and basics spot on, understand kata and why it’s there, basic sparring techniques and stock bunkai.

Step 3 - purple and brown belt - Help you realise that you don’t know everything, what you have been learning is just the start and each technique is much deeper than what you thought. We introduce takedowns and grappling into your lessons and gradings.

Step 4 - 2nd brown and 3rd brown belt - pain and suffering 🤷‍♂️. Stances should be right, kata smooth and powerful, 100% effort expected all the time. You should be able to regurgitate bunkai for all our Kata, demonstrate takedowns from various positions including the ground. We want to push you to the edge so you know your limits and can push past them when needed.

Step 5 - black belt and beyond. By now you should know the basics. You know and can perform seven kata, you know pieces of bunkai for each one, you can grapple, throw and can spar with a good level of skill. More importantly- you are humble and understand there is still a lot to learn and you are willing to put the effort in. Now, it’s not about regurgitating set techniques, it’s understand the theories behind them and being able to learn and think for yourself.

If you are struggling with anything we do - don’t just quit, talk to us! We can focus on it more if needed or perhaps it’s just the thing you struggle with and only time will fox it.

In short - the syllabus is designed to make you struggle. Don’t worry about it, you’re not on your own.