Farndon and Holt Karate Club

Well this one has been a long time coming. If ever there was a student that embodies perseverance, dedication and sheer graft it is Ethan.

His original Shodan grading was rudely interrupted by Covid and lockdown - so a big gap, and a lot of growing, has meant his body has had to relearn technique and he has had to bide his time until everything was ready.

Just look at how tired he was immediately after grading, a lot of effort was put in and he has come out having achieved what he set out to do. Now he will continue along his path of advanced Karate and one day be a junior instructor.

Well done Ethan 👏👏

Also, well done to our other senior grades on their successful gradings too. Very high standard in their gradings all round. Really wonderful to see the hard work and dedication pay off. 👏👏

No better feeling than seeing your students flourish.

🥋

Found this, it is a good one. See you all at training this evening…

Get Your Gi Back On!

It seems inevitable for many students – after years of dedicated training (or even just months), the training begins to slow down.
Sometimes, it just stops suddenly, and there’s a conspicuous gap where a student used to be. A pocket of quiet where a karate practitioner used to stand and nodding away while listening to instructions. No student slips away unnoticed.

There are a thousand demands on our time, many beyond our control. Money must be earned, marks attained, Families require an investment of quality time, Sometimes, it’s as simple as an injury that dragged on and suddenly, it’s two months out the dojo (or more).
One missed class can easily become three. Three classes becomes a month. Then six. Then a year. And then there’s a day when you open your cupboard and there is your gi, hanging up and gathering dust. Waiting. (And silently judging you.)

“But what will Sensei think?” the student wonders, before slowly closing the door. “I can’t go back after so long.”

Oh, but you should. You can always come back. 99% of the time, your Sensei will be utterly delighted to see you return. All that matters is that you make the decision to put your gi on and get to the dojo. Oh, sure, there might be excuses, like…

“But I’m so unfit!”

So few people are genuinely fit anyway. If fitness was a precondition for martial arts, very few of us would get to start. It’s not that important.

“I never told Sensei why I left”

Look, few instructors are soft and fluffy. But your Sensei is human (very much so) and probably isn’t holding a grudge. Just come back, perhaps say sorry, and ask to train again. It sucks to ask, but it is also pretty hurtful when students disappear without any explanation.

“I can’t remember it all anymore”

You are not starting at the bottom – everything you learned is somewhere in your body. It just needs a gentle reminder and some dusting off, and things will start to flow back again.

Losing momentum is the cause of so many failed hobbies, talents, dreams and projects. In trying to get any major goal accomplished, we forget that it is made of a thousand little steps.

A black belt is only the sum of hundreds of hours, not always a special talent. You don’t have to do unworldly things: you just have to go to class every week. Every class you can, except when you really, really can’t.

If you have a virus, stay out the dojo.
If you have an exam tomorrow, then study.
Big family thing? (My family know not to arrange things on a dojo day, they all know what it means to me, and love and respect me enough to know that's where I will be)
Tired?
Busy?
But not so busy that you can sit and watch TV for 2 or 3 hours ?

To me nothing is worse than having a talent and a passion and letting it go to waste simply because of a stubborn attitude or trying to please others..

"IT’S YOUR LIFE TO LIVE"

Get your gi on and get to a dojo!

Signing off for the summer with a round of successful gradings for our students. Everyone worked hard to be ready for this grading, and some really strong performances.
Our two teenagers in particular were exceptional on the night; Joshua achieving his Brown Belt to a very high standard and Ethan using this grading as a mock Dan grading was the best we’ve seen him 💪

The future is looking bright for our youngsters too, and our strong students Kim & Elise prepare to compete at Karate tournaments off the back of their grading success.

Humbled that students come back every week to learn and train with us at the Farndon SKC.

Enjoy the summer and see you all soon.

Having trained with Ryan over a number of years it has always been obvious how talented Ryan is when it comes to Karate. Such a shame to see an injury like this happen to such a talent.
If you can spare a donation towards Ryan's surgery I am sure it will be greatly appreciated and get Ryan back on the international stage as soon as possible! Please see the original post for details.

UK Shotokan Karate Information - any chance you could share?

Sensei Ryan needs your support in getting fixed, organized by Stuart Needham Ryan is an instructor at JKS Llanbedr DC Karate club and also a member… Stuart Needham needs your support for Sensei Ryan needs your support in getting fixed

Busy week of Karate 🥋

This week we ran 2 packed out demonstration / training sessions at the 1st Sandstone Scout Group in Bickerton. Two really good sessions introducing Shotokan Karate to a fantastic group - one of our 1st Kyu students who is also a member of scouts helped with the training session, part of his youth instructing development.

Then our usual training session on Wednesday from 5pm to 6pm. As you can see from the picture, our temporary hall (whilst the main hall is out of action) is feeling fairly full but makes for good energy in the dojo.
Please get in touch if you would like to join - places are limited until we can return to the much larger hall.

See you all next week.

Hello everyone…

Karate training is BACK on tomorrow, Wednesday at 5pm to 6pm. See you all tomorrow. 🥋

(If there’s sufficient interest this week we may run an additional session on Thursday too)

Hello everyone.

Unfortunately our instructor is still unwell 🤧 for this evenings training session so we will have to cancel. Apologies for the late notice.

Also, the main hall where we train is currently classed as unsafe due to issues with bent beams in the roof structure from a previous incident so we are assessing if we need a new venue for training sessions or whether the smaller side room is sufficient for the number of students we have training. Will keep you all up to date.

Unfortunately due to number of illnesses we are going to have the cancel tonight’s training session. Whilst disappointing we have no option but to allow those Ill to recover and not further spread the illness.
All being well we will plan to run 2 sessions per week over the next couple of weeks to catch up on missed training.

See you all next week.

Happy New Year everyone.

We are back training this evening from 5pm to 6pm at Farndon Community Club.

See you all later 🥋

Hi everyone. Reminder that our last training session this year is today at 5pm to 6pm.
See you this evening. 🥋

Training will be 5pm to 6pm this Wednesday (14th Dec). We may look to keep this slightly later time slot going forward but will consult all students in due course.

See you tomorrow. 🥋

Good evening students.
General reminder that this week we are training at 17:30 until 18:30. This is for Wednesday 30th November.

See you all tomorrow.