Happy New Year!

All classes resume from Saturday 7th January. I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. We are looking forward to resuming the classes!

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15 Black Belt Promotions

We are pleased to announce the promotion of fourteen 1st Dan Black Belts and one 2nd Dan Black Belt! The candidates have all been training very hard for a long time in preparation for this Grading and all the hard work paid off. The Grading took 3 hours and there was a panel of four Black Belt examiners including two external examiners: Sensei Robert Herincx (5th Dan) and Sensei Phillip Wardle (3rd Dan) from Tora Karate Academy. Crouching Tiger Karate are very honoured to have such experienced examiners as guests of our club and they were kind enough to share their knowledge with us and give us ideas for how we can improve in the future.

The candidates all performed their Kihon (basic techniques) and Kata first. this was followed by rounds of individual Kumite (sparring) and also rounds of two against one sparring. This was followed by a demonstration of self-defence techniques and kata applications. The testing process was very stringent and we would like to congratulate all the candidates who have all shown fantastic dedication for many years and in particular the last 6 months in the run up to the Grading.

 

2nd Dan Promotion:

Robert Bright

 

1st Dan Promotions:

Anna De Rosa

Francesca Wigington

Ethan Cox

Joel Wisely

Archie Henry

Alexei Newton

Joe Larvin

Mateo Santos-Thomas

Takumi Nakamigawa

Harry O’Brien

Kai Jewson

Ruben Ward

Max Hamlyn

Nico Charalambous

 

 

October Newsletter

Dear Parents and Karateka,

Half-Term Clubs:

We will be running Half-Term Clubs on Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th October from 10:00am-2:00pm in St. Luke’s House, Kew (TW9 3NP).

There will be a wide range of material covered as well as keeping a good focus on the grading syllabus. There will be some students preparing for their black belt grading so it will be highly focussed training, but enjoyable nevertheless!

The Half-Term classes are open to all students from 7 years old and over.

Please remember to bring a packed lunch and a drink as well as all Karate equipment

The clubs cost £30 per day or £50 for both days. If you would like to book a place then please reply to this email. 

Gradings:

If your child has been selected to take part in a grading then you can choose whichever Grading is most convenient for you from the following:

Saturday 22nd October – 3:00pm – Duke’s Meadow Community Hall, Alexandra Gardens, W4 2RX

Saturday 19th November – 9:30-10:30am – Venue TBC

Sunday 4th December – 10am (lower grades) and 11am (higher grades) – Old Powerstation, Mortlake 

We will be checking all students in their classes over the next week and if they are ready we will be handing out grading envelopes. If not then we will explain to them what is needed to improve so that they can hopefully book in for one of the later gradings this term. 

‘In Class’ Gradings:

The classes with younger children will continue to have gradings within their class at the usual time and venue during the week commencing 28th November. Parents are welcome to come and watch these gradings and also to see the belt presentation the following week. The following classes will have ‘in class’ gradings:

Monday 3:15-4:00pm – Orleans – 28th November

Tuesday 4:00pm – Putney Methodist Church – 29th November

Wednesday 8:00am – East Sheen Primary School – 30th November

Wednesday 3:45pm – St. Luke’s House, Kew – 30th November

Friday 4:00pm – Duke’s Meadow Community Hall – 2nd December

Saturday 12:00pm – Mortlake Powerstation – 3rd December

Tournament:

We will be hosting a Friendship Tournament on Sunday 11th December at 9:00am in The Old Powerstation in Mortlake. I will be handing out registration forms for this after Half-Term. 

Tournament Preparation Classes:

Sensei Tom will be running tournament preparation classes in the run-up to the Tournament on 11th December. There will be two Kumite (sparring) workshops and one Tournament Kata class.

Saturday 19th November – 10:30am-11:30am – Sparring – Venue TBC

Sunday 4th December –  12:00-1:00pm – Kata – Old Powerstation, Mortlake

Sunday 4th December – 1:00-2:00pm – Sparring – Old Powerstation, Mortlake

Each class is £10 per student but if you attend all 3 classes then the third class is free. If you would like to book a space for one of these classes then please feel free to email me or just turn up on the day. 

Term Dates:

Half Term: 24th-31st October

Last Class: Monday 12th December

First Class of Spring Term: Monday 9th January

Yours sincerely,

Sensei Ben Pethick

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July Newsletter

Dear Parents and Karateka,

Thank you all very much for all your hard work and dedication this academic year. In October we had 7 students who passed a very challenging grading to Black Belt. In February we took 9 students to the JSKA National Championships and they won 10 medals between them and in March we hosted our first Inter-Dojo Cup. We have a number of students who have been very dedicated in attending extra classes, holiday clubs, sparring classes and we have seen a fantastic turnout in our summer fair demonstrations as usual. Our adult class is going from strength to strength with more parents taking up Karate for themselves and I have enjoyed teaching every minute of every class. Sensei Tom and Senpai Alex have been very passionately helping to raise the standard of our club and I have been very excited to see Senpai Robert and Senpai Sebastian emerging as assistant instructors. They both started classes with me when they were 6 or 7 years old and now they are 16 and helping me to teach the classes. 

Term Dates:

Our final day of teaching this term is Monday 11th July so all weekly classes will be on summer holiday from Tuesday 12th July onwards The Autumn Term starts on Monday 12th September 

Please note that Ravenscourt Park Prep School and Kew Gren Prep School have different term dates 

Summer Holiday Classes:

From 27th July-31st August we will be running weekly holiday classes every Wednesday in Kew (St. Luke’s House, 270 Sandycombe Road, Kew TW9 3NP). The classes will be 90 minutes each and run from 4:00-5:30pm. The price of the classes will be £10 per student, or £50 for all 6 classes.

The classes will be suitable for children over 6 years old and we will cover a wide range of material as well as practicing the full grading syllabus for the relevant grades. Students training for a specific grading will be given assistance to practice whatever they wish to prioritise.  

The full list of dates are:

27th July

3rd August

10th August

17th August

24th August

31st August

Price Freeze:

Our termly fee has not increased since 2011. In the 5 years since 2011 there have been significant increases in hall hire, insurance, equipment and other costs, and I have committed to keeping the student to teacher ratio at a low level in order to ensure that every student gets a good amount of individual attention. I am planning to introduce new software in the near future which will have features such as online payments, electronic payment receipts and the ability to check when a student has been selected for grading amongst other exciting new features. 

I had been planning to increase prices this September, but in this period of economic uncertainty I have decided that this would now be the wrong time and I have decided to freeze prices until 2017. 

Notice Period:

Please remember that you are supposed to give half a term’s written notice to stop classes. If you are not planning to keep your space in September then please let me know asap if you have not done so already as you might need to pay for the half term if you do not. 

Have a wonderful summer holiday!!!

Yours sincerely,

Sensei Ben Pethick

www.crouchingtigerkarate.co.uk

ben@crouchingtigerkarate.co.uk

07734 655 057

020 8560 5267

Venue Change

Dear Parents,

I am very sorry for the late notice but I was informed that there has been a double booking at the Kew venue this Saturday 11th June and therefore the venue has now changed for the grading and sparring class. If your child is not taking part in either of these events then there is no need to read on as all the other details in the June newsletter are correct. The time will be the same but the venue is now the Duke’s Meadow Community Hall.

Saturday 11th June – Duke’s Meadow Community Hall, Alexandra Gardens, Chiswick, London. W4 2RX

3:30-4:30pm – Grading

4:30-5:30pm – Sparring Class

It is just on the bend of the road on Alexandra Gardens. 

There is a car park at the venue and free parking on surrounding streets but please arrive early just to make sure. 

Apologies again for the late notice and I hope that the new venue does not cause inconvenience.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Pethick

ben@crouchingtigerkarate.co.uk

www.crouchingtigerkarate.co.uk

020 8560 5267

07734 655 057

Inter-Dojo Cup

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Congratulations to Mortlake Dojo for winning the first Crouching Tiger Karate Inter-Dojo Cup!!!

Thank you very much to all competitors from all clubs. Over 90 students competed and it was great to see such a high standard of Karate and such a friendly but competitive atmosphere. I thought that the attitude of the participants was spot-on and I feel proud and honoured to be the instructor of every single one of the competitors. 

It was very closely contested and ultimately it was decided in the last two events of board breaking but Mortlake Dojo are the Inter-Dojo Cup Champions. 

The Gold Medal tally was as follows:

Mortlake – 9

Kew – 8

Putney – 6

Grove Park – 2

Duke’s Meadow – 2

East Sheen – 1

St. Margaret’s – 1

Kew Green – 1

I would like to say a special thank you to all of our Black Belt competitors who helped to officiate and judge. Their spirit and enthusiasm for helping was exceptional and we could not have done it without them. Also I would like to thank Sensei Tom and Senpai Alex for their tireless work and to my wife Teo and daughter Kara for helping organise the event.

I am already thinking of ways to make next year’s event even better and I will be getting Mortlake engraved on the trophy and it will be theirs to defend next year.

Yours sincerely,

Sensei Ben