EVENTS

Well done to the fighters who took their winter grading.
From left to right
Rob Topalian passed 8th Kyu,
John Yarwood passed his 3rd Kyu
Matt Harrison passed his 8th Kyu
Chris Allies passed his 5th Kyu
Simon Weir passed his 6th Kyu

All of your were excellent, keep fighting.

LATEST
1. New comedy video link on the video page - it might just remind you of one or two martial arts experts you have trained with.
2. Christmas Superstars. - Protea kickboxers will be joining us to take part in our second Christmas superstars event. If you can beat 141 press ups - why not join us.
3. Sensei Joe Tierney has kindly completed an interview with www.shukokarate.co.uk to read it click INTERVIEW
4. The Martial Arts fighting cancer video is nearly complete. It will be £10 on completition and I confirm it is of a very high quality, both in terms of the demonstration footing and the editting.
To book you cpy, contact us at SHUKO
Simon Weir enters interclub tournament organised by Brian Nelson .
EVENT REPORT
Hi everyone
Had a good day today; although lost in the first one, it was to the eventual winner on the category (Mens junior). Got a few roundhouse kicks in which should have been counted (according to a ringsider!), but I got points for a side-kick as the person launched for a back-fist (!!). Having got there at 10 am, I had to wait until about 1.30 pm before my bit. I think I may have peaked in my energy levels by about 12... Never mind. Need to work on a little more in fitness. To be really honest though, there didn't look as there was a lot in it, in standard that is, between the 8 of us in that section, with probably a bit of fortune more than skill getting people through - with only 8, I can at least say I was in the quarter finals!! There were some great points scored amongst the more senior section, but they were few and far between (i.e. spinning back and hook kicks). Watching the young kids were great (6-8 yrs), my hat goes off to them. Some were rendered to tears as they were putting their all into it. There were some big 'kids' there also who were disputing points, a bit of a shame really. Anyway, had a good day, and looking forward to the next event.
Cheers Simon
Well done Simon it takes alot of guts to enter a tournament on your own. Hopefully you will be an inspiration to the rest of the club.
We have a new video page - check it out at VIDEO

Martial arts fighting cancer 04 / 05
As you probably know we have a strong involvement in this charity event, and what a do it was. Alan Cain (British army), Andrew Manwaring (IABC) link, Andrew Morrell (CMAA) link and the great Silvio Simac link were all fantastic. It is hard to know whether fighters enjoy an event such as this until afterwards, but I pleased to say all the feed back has been brilliant. We have 1 hour of high quality video which is being editted at the moment, this will go on sale, probably for £10. We would like to think that everyone who came to the event may wish to buy a copy. Thanks also to Steve Fenwick and Alastair Hall and our friends and colleagues for there help in raising £947. http://www.fighting-cancer.co.uk
Picture to follow GRADING SUCCESS
Six of our Shuko Karate team took their grading today, Saturday 11th September. Simon Sewell (1st Kyu), Charlotte Haldane (2nd Kyu), John Yarwood (4th Kyu), Jessica Middleton and Chris Allies (6th Kyu) and finally Simon Weir (7th Kyu)
Very well done to you all, you are all a credit to our club.
MANY THANKS TO LEEK KUNG FU CLUB
We would like to thanks six members of Leek Kung Fu club who joined us at last weeks open style sparring night. Their skill was fantastic, but more importantly they were great guys with good spirit. We hope if they have time Rob, Alex, Andy and the rest of the gang can join us again.
We are happy that we will get the chance to meet their senior instructor Brian Nelson (World Champion) who is coming up to say hello at this year Martial Arts Fighting Cancer event. The event is on Sunday 19th September. To see the web site click www.fighting-cancer.co.uk

CONGRATULATIONS
We would like send our best wishes to Instructor Alastair Hall and his partner Tracy on the birth of their beautiful little daughter, Megan Charlotte.

Third Dan Success
I am proud to say that I managed to pass my Third Dan blackbelt today, Sunday 4th July. Sensei Joe Tierney (6th Dan) and British WKA Team coach agreed to be my senior examiner. My syllabus had rather a split personality. In one way it was very simple as it really left it up to Joe to pick the individual techniques, but in another way it was quite complex, in that I wish Shuko Karate to be at the centre of Karate, not in status of course but as in fighting style and as such we had sections in Knockdown Karate, Light continuous Kickboxing, Traditional points fighting and heavier contact Kickboxing. Joe did not ask to see the Heavy contact kickboxing with Instructor Alastair Hall, as I had already received quite a battering during my knockdown section with Sempai Steve Fenwick, Steve kindly said I gave as good as I got. In fact Sensei Joe also said he was very impressed I was willng to put my self on the line as I took on all the hard challenges he set for throughout the two and a half hours of grading work.continued below.
He has told me off for always putting myself down and that I have some very strong strengths with in my Karate. It is nice to hear this from the fighter who was the first to go on to my Top fighter list, after I saw him compete at a big ShukoKai tournament in Bolton in about 1987. His sweeps and takedowns were fantastic as well as his general speed and understanding of Kumite. After my grading I mentioned I had been to a Wayne Otto course and that Wayne's style of fighting reminded me of Joe's, less reliant on kicks and using alot of strong punches and sweeps. His answer was they were both from the same general school of Karate.
The rest of my grading was taken up with Focus padwork, Heavy Padwork, a really hard air combination section, Self defence, fitness and just to finish me off a conditioning test at the end of the grading.
Many thanks to Sensei Joe Tierney for his help and to my two good friends Instructor Alastair Hall and Sempai Steve Fenwick who acted as both my training partners and sparring partners as well as encouraging me all the way. There were four very different people in that Dojo today who are all united through Karate - fantastic.

Oops!

A cautionary tale: The Advantages & disadvantages to all out commitment to a punch.
I went down to Georgie Matiaha's Leek boxing club last week and did 12 rounds of sparring mainly with his teenage fighters, but also 3 or 4 rounds with a 21 year old. The main thing I noticed, was that compared to semi contact fighters, boxers do not fly in as maybe some of our lighter contact fighters do. This is because boxers have learnt through bitter experience that full body commitment to a punch can end up getting you knocked out. Dave Wilbraham shown on the left, who is one of Alastair Hall's Protea Kickboxers came to our boxing night on Monday, and when sparring with me, his fast hands and full commitment, meant he got a few good hard shots through my guard and gave me a bleeding nose, actually my first in 18 years, quite a novelty.
This is obviously the plus side of going for it, however when Dave sparred with another Protea kickboxer Nigel, he once again commited or over commited to a punch and ended up with the head on crash effect with one of Nigels punches and hence the nasty broken nose. Semi Contact fighters must always remember that if the contact level goes up our own defence must become more of a priority, attacking fighting is great, but we must do it with control and balance.
I hope it's not too sore Dave.

SUMMER NEWS SHEET
1. We are pleased to announce that Georgie Matiaha has confirmed he will do a third boxing seminar with us. He will be concentrating on
'Dealing with blitz punching, avoidance, blocks and counter fighting'
It will be on Monday 28th June at 8.00pm
2. We regret, due to lack of numbers that the JJB FightPro circuit training sessions have been cancelled for the summer period. We will probably be running a ladies self defence class in September at the same time slot.
3. Hopefully I will be taking my 3rd Dan Black Belt on Sunday 4th July at Congleton Leisure Centre. Sensei Joe Tierney 6th Dan will be the Examining Instructor. Joe has many British and European titles to his name from Traditional and Freestyle tournaments and is the British Team WKA coach. I will be proud to do my grading under Joes experienced eye, I just hope that my skills are adequate for the job.
4. We are training this Saturday morning 19th June at 9.30am at the running track.

Spring Grading
We would like to congratulate John Yarwood, Jessica Middleton, Rebecca Branch, Simon Weir, Chris Allies and Charlotte Haldane on passing their respective gradings. There were some impressive performances of Karate. Simon was fantastic taking his Yellow Belt and Rebecca is proving to be one of the most technical fighters I have seen come through our doors. Charlotte going for her third kyu, also showed true grit when asked to fight the whole club in consecutive sparring bouts of thirty seconds a time. This amounted to five and a half minutes of solid sparring, she maintained control throughout and never seemed to lose technique due to fatigue.

We obviously have things to work on as individuals, but I can definitely see a genuine improvement as a club. Well done again.

To see larger pictures click the images.
Important Notice. Sensei Wayne Otto a multi, multi, World, European and British Karate champion has in principle given his support to this years Martial Arts Fighting cancer. This means up to now we have the support of Silvio Simac, Wayne Otto and Jamie Goulding, potentially three World Champions on one course.
The seminars will be in September and October. The dedicated web site www.fighting-cancer.co.uk will be updated soon with details.
Sensei Wayne Otto Course. Sun 7th March
Many thanks to Sensei Irfan Ansari for inviting us to Rochdale for the course.
Before the course I mentioned to our team that the one thing that stands out about great champions, more than their technique is their attitude. I have seen it on other courses with Vic Charles, Alfie Lewis, Joe Tierney, Silvio Simac and Jamie Goulding and it was very evident once again with Wayne - a determination to win that seems to almost take over their lives, at least during their fighting career. I guess the tricky side of being a Champion is losing and eventually retiring, going through these events with dignity must be hard. I actually asked Wayne about this and he actually said he does not even like to think about the times when he lost tournaments. Quite different to most of us who have never won one, never mind multiple World Titles. Waynes technique was incredibly sharp and his understanding of Kumite was instinctive, but he still managed to put his ideas across in interesting and understandable ways. Many of the techniques and his training methods will be coming down the M60 to Shuko Karate.
Shown above: Karthik Ravi, Charlotte Haldane, Instructor Alastair Hall from Protea KB, Sensei Wayne Otto, Sensei Jon Tilley, Chris Allies and Rebecca Branch. We were also joined by Simon Sewell, Dave Wilbraham from PKA and Sempai Steve Fenwick and John Yarwood from Shidokan Karate.
Thanks to all of you for making the day so enjoyable.
UUuuuurgghh!!!
 The arm is not too good either
This is the arm of our friend
Dr Steve Fenwick, from Shidokan Full contact Karate. He has just come back from Annecy in France, where he fought in the Shidokan World Championships.
Steve fought Julien Perruchini from France who unfortunately gave him a bit of a kicking, hence the arm. Steve lasted two rounds, but gave in, to the speed and power of his opponent during the third round (Thai boxing round, for more details click Shidokan). With a Phd you think Steve would have more sense, but our greatest respect goes to him.
Congratulation to our friend Carl Bracegirdle from Macclesfield Thai Boxing Club, who won a British Title on Sunday 29th Febuary, under full Thai rules.

BLACK BELT GRADING
We would like to congratulate Karthik Ravi from Shuko Freestyle Karate and Dave Wilbraham from Protea Kickboxing Association for passing their Dan Grades yesterday. A lot of effort has gone into their grading and they both thoroughly deserve their belts.
The grading lasted 3.5 hours and covered fitness, basics, padwork, combinations and sparring which ran from freestyle points (stop, start) through continuous semi contact and onto full contact Kickboxing. Unfortunately James from Protea one of the fighters who came to support the grading got a busted nose for his trouble, we hope its not broken and is feeling better today.
We asked Dave and Karthik to demostrate stretching, combination technique and self defence movements as both Instructor Alastair Hall and myself believe by this stage Fighters should be able to at least help with Instruction.
If any of our fighters wish to take a blackbelt grading the fee is £65, which includes a three and a half hour grading and belt and certification, but it will cost alot more in blood, sweat and tears as it is not easy, so please don't expect to pass without the correct attitude, effort and technical skill levels. Karthik and Dave have been working very hard for their belts and it would be a detraction on them to allow anyone to pass with less effort.
I am tired and only did a fraction of the grading, well done to you both.
For more pictures click the images

To send your best wishes to Alan email us at Shuko and we will forward messages.		 Alan Cain flies out to Iraq
Our friend Alan Cain, an experienced Defendo practitioner and Instructor, who was one of our guest instructors at Martial Arts Fighting Cancer 2002-03, has been invited by Her Majesty the Queen to join one of her Army Regiments out in Iraq. Alan e.mailed me from Iraq in one of his quieter moments and it appears that although things are a little disorganised, essentially the army feels in control. Obviously within a war zone the rules may not be quite the same as they are on an British suburban street and as such Alan and his army colleagues are quite prepared to defend them selves robustly if necessary. He is on a six day rotation escorting convoys and acting as close protection to medical teams in Basarah and defending the airport. He does have a little time to instruct his colleagues in the very effective art of Defendo on his day off. I hope they are
as impressed as we were.
Good luck to Alan all his mates out in Iraq and get home safely.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL
We celebrated Christmas this year with a Martial Arts Superstars Competition. We were delighted that Alastair Hall's Protea Kickboxers joined us to make the night a really festive occasion.
Rob from Protea showed incredible fitness and Charlottes 151 situps was a winner, but we can not go by without congratulating Rebecca on her High Roundhouse, not bad for an Orange belt hey? Get that guard in and your heel on the floor and it is perfect Rebecca.
More Details below.
Click photo for more pictures.
The events that were involved were
PRESS-UPS won by Rob from Protea with a score of 121
SIT-UPS won by Charlotte with a score of 151
BOX -SPLITS won by Rebecca
JUMPING FRONT KICK won by Karthik
HIGH ROUND HOUSE won by Rob
MULTIPLE ROUND HOUSES won by Rob with 101, pipping John by 1.
BODY BRIDGE won by Rob (again) with a time of nearly 6 minutes.
LONG ARM PULL UPS won by Rob (this is getting silly) with a score of 21.
HARDEST PUNCH won by Dave from Protea
SPECTACULAR KICKING COMBINATION won by Karthik.
HARDEST KICK won by John from Protea.
The over all winner was, unsurprizingly Rob with a score of 21, followed by Karthik with 13 and John with 12. I think that special mentions should go to Charlotte for her very impressive 151 sit ups and to Rebecca for her total score of 6, which for a Orange belt is brilliant. Dan, Chirs, Nick and all the rest of the participants competed hard in a festive sprit and everybody enjoyed the evening. WELL DONE.
Hadyn Roberts is presented with his Dan grade Certificate at our All Styles sparring night.
Well done Hadyn and our best wishes go to you and your family as you emigrate to Canada on December 12th 2003. We hope your Martial Arts career goes from strength to strength in Kamloops.
BLACK BELT SUCCESS
We are pleased to announce that our friend Hadyn Roberts has successfully passed his Dan Grade on Wednesday 26th November. Hadyn was hoping to pass before he emigrates to Canada in December and his hopes have become a reality. The grading did not all go smoothly and Hadyn had to make a return trip to Leeds to show some of his techniques again, a little more polished. A nasty cold and his struggling fitness due to his cruciate ligament opperation did not help either so the greatest respect goes to him for pulling through in the end as Sensei Steve Leak put Hadyn through his paces on both trips.
We are hoping as many of our friends as possible can make our Christmas Do on Saturday 6th December to celebrate Hadyn's departure - only kidding, but please come and see Hadyn off in style, it will be sad to see a valued member of the club leave, but hopefully after Hadyn has trained for a little longer, Shuko Freestyle Canada will become a reality. To book your place on the Christmas meal please click SHUKO
THE COMPLETE SILVIO SIMAC INTERVIEW
We are pleased to announce that the great Silvio Simac has kindly completed an interview with www.shukokarate.co.uk. Silvio has won numerous British Tae Kwon Do titles and went on to win European and World titles as well. After retiring from competitive Martial arts he has moved into Martial arts films and is at present filming Danny the Dog with Jet Li (shown right), Bob Hoskins and Morgan Freeman.
To read Silvios views on Martial Arts and Life please click the picture to the right.

BOXING NIGHT - MONDAY 20TH OCTOBER
We would like to thank our friend Georgie Matiaha, (New Zealand commenwealth boxing squad) for giving us his time and experience on Monday. Both Alastair Hall (Senior Instructor at Protea Kickboxing Association) and my self would like to send our sincere thanks to him for an excellent course.
We went through simple punching technique which seems a little odd for some fighters at first as it seems rather basic, but after Geoorgie has pointed out our different faults and strengths, his in depth knowledge of his sport shines through and we all learn a lot.
We then moved on to some basic blocking, which is surprisingly similar to our own Freestyle Karate and Kickboxing blocks.
Finally we had several rounds of sparring.

Shown opposite are Georgie Matiaha and Simon Sewell

To see photos of our sparring please click the image opposite

British Kyokushin Kai Championships.
Our friend from Shidokan Karate, Sempai Steve Fenwick went down to London to fight in the Kyokushin Kai Championships. The tournament is always of a very high standard and Steve has often said if he makes it through the first round he feels he has done well, because some of the top knockdown fighters in the World attend the tournament.
Steve's report below.
In the first round I fought Paul Travis who came second in the IFK World Tournament last November, losing in the final to a Russian fighter. I took Paul to a second round , but his fitness told and he certainly deserved the decision, but it was a fairly evenly matched fight, and I probably really lost it in the last minute or so of the second round.
Unfortunately Andreas another of our friends from Shidokan Karate was knocked out within the first thirty seconds of his fight. A stark reminder to anyone who fancies fighting full contact - it hurt's. We hope there is no lasting damage. And next year Steve we expect Silver ware!!
Shown above
Sempai Steve Fenwick (right) and Andreas (left) at the Shidokan Summer Grading.
2002 & 2001
Including Ian Freeman, Joe Tierney, Silvio Simac and Steve Fenwick reports.