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9 January 2011
NOTICE BOARD
Review of the Year, 2010
It
was another packed 12 months for Carmarthenshire Karate in 2010, full
of challenges, improvements, awards, promotions, fun and success. Now
that we're back in training after the Christmas break, this article
gives us a chance to look back and reflect on what we all achieved last
year, before we get stuck into another exiting calendar of events in
2011.
January 2010 started in almost perfect fashion for the club when we were nominated and shortlisted for the Carmarthen Town Sports Awards. The ceremony was held at the Carmarthen Quins rugby club at the end of that month, where we were thrilled to receive 3rd place in our category (team of the year). This gave everyone a timely lift, as we approached a tough couple of months of grading examinations.
It began with the advanced senior grading in February, where Shihan Spanton conducted an examination at the end of a long West Wales Weekend Course; an examination that included Carmarthenshire's Aled Jones-Davies, Jordan Evans and Dawn Davies. Their collective success inspired our Karate Kids and Juniors/Seniors to their own achievements in March, which were for the first time held at Carmarthen dojo and St.Clears dojo respectively.
In total, 66 members attempted and passed their examinations during these two months, which was a record figure for Carmarthenshire Karate. Little did we know that this record would be broken twice more during the year.
Our first competition of the year arrived in April when the Welsh National Championships were held at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff. It was great to have every one of our 4-person team winning a podium finish at such a high level event; we came back with 1 Silver & 3 Bronze medals.
Despite all of the hard work and preparation that are required to achieve these good results, we always aim to introduce variety and enjoyment to our programme. With this in mind, Whitland YFC joined us for a karate session in St.Clears one evening. They followed in the footsteps of several other YFC groups that have requested sessions with us in the past and like them, the visitors showed no hesitation in joining in.
Back to the serious stuff in May, as the annual Carmarthenshire Karate Tour coincided with the European Championships for Regions in Poland, where our chief instructor was entering the officials' examination with the hope of gaining international qualification. On collecting her result from the European Referee Commission, Mair was commended on her excellent performance at the event and earned her European Judging badge to the delight of her Carmarthenshire supporters.
****** it is definitely worth reading our news article on this achievement by clicking here ******
Poland is where we first started making use of our new social networking accounts on Facebook and Twitter, which allowed us to announce the latest news, as it happened. We have also been using these throughout the year to announce events and training changes when required.
At the halfway point in the year, we were faced with another couple of busy months, which started with our annual Charity Week & Presentation in June. Policies that we are passionate about at Carmarthenshire Karate include the support of worthwhile, local causes but also avoiding traditional fundraising methods that put additional financial burden on families. Therefore, we welcomed back for a second year our charity week format, where all of the training fees collected during a full week of classes were donated on behalf of us all. And it was a pleasure to be supporting the Physiotherapy Department at Carmarthen's West Wales General Hospital once again.
This was followed by the year's second round of grading courses, where a record total of 77 Carmarthenshire members were successful this time. They included Nia's promotion to Nidan (2nd Dan) at the West Wales Weekend Course, another Junior/Senior Grading Examination in St.Clears, and a huge Karate Kids Grading in Carmarthen. It was exactly the reward we all needed just before the summer.
Nia added another achievement to her list July when she was promoted to British Karate Referee at the British International Championships in Glasgow. Although our squad did not travel to this event, there were two new competitions for them during this time: the Scottish Karate Grand Prix in Wishaw and the Central England Open in Walsall.
Together with the North Wales Open in Wrexham, and Welsh Junior Championships in Cardiff, the squad returned 2 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze medals from four events. This included Jordan Evans winning a Welsh National Open title for the first time in the club's history.
In August it was time to kick back and relax again (just a little bit), as we headed to the beach for our annual Family Picnic. It was another great day this year: sunshine, good company, fun, and the Kids vs Big Kids rounders match was an excellent spectacle once again. Later that day, BBC Radio Cymru broadcast the first of their Straeon Bob Lliw episodes about people in the community, which in this edition was all about our Sensei Mair.
From September the training intensity climbed once again and there were numerous improvements to the various classes, including: more time for the Karate Kids at Carmarthen; a better dojo for the Karate Kids at St.Clears; and a new Competition Club in an extension to the Sunday class in Carmarthen. The latter was just in time for the Welsh Open Championships in Cardiff, where the squad came back with 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medal.
The final round of the year's examinations started with the Junior/Senior Grading in October and by the end of the two months, 85 members had successfully completed another examination (yet another record). This included the biggest Karate Kids Grading we've ever had in Carmarthen and a big advance for Jordan Evans and Monique Samra at the West Wales Weekend Course. The instructors are extremely proud of the effort that everyone has shown and the rewards that have been achieved throughout the year in this important, traditional aspect of karate. Well done to you all.
Congratulations also to the expanded squad that represented Carmarthenshire at the WHKK Invitational Championships in November. This is arguably our biggest competition of the year and one in which we have topped the medal table on the last five occasions. We were fortunate to be hosting the event in St.Clears this year, so the home advantage allowed us to encourage as many new competitors to participate as possible.
It was a fantastic performance from the whole team (including all of the supporters) and despite the toughest competition that we have ever faced, we retained our position at the top of the table and won double the medals of our nearest rival. Well done to everyone in the team, especially to those who were competing for the very first time; you certainly impressed.
So December was our chance to celebrate and that is exactly what we did. It was certainly a memorable year and looking forward to 2011, we're aiming for another one...
January 2010 started in almost perfect fashion for the club when we were nominated and shortlisted for the Carmarthen Town Sports Awards. The ceremony was held at the Carmarthen Quins rugby club at the end of that month, where we were thrilled to receive 3rd place in our category (team of the year). This gave everyone a timely lift, as we approached a tough couple of months of grading examinations.
It began with the advanced senior grading in February, where Shihan Spanton conducted an examination at the end of a long West Wales Weekend Course; an examination that included Carmarthenshire's Aled Jones-Davies, Jordan Evans and Dawn Davies. Their collective success inspired our Karate Kids and Juniors/Seniors to their own achievements in March, which were for the first time held at Carmarthen dojo and St.Clears dojo respectively.
In total, 66 members attempted and passed their examinations during these two months, which was a record figure for Carmarthenshire Karate. Little did we know that this record would be broken twice more during the year.
Our first competition of the year arrived in April when the Welsh National Championships were held at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff. It was great to have every one of our 4-person team winning a podium finish at such a high level event; we came back with 1 Silver & 3 Bronze medals.
Despite all of the hard work and preparation that are required to achieve these good results, we always aim to introduce variety and enjoyment to our programme. With this in mind, Whitland YFC joined us for a karate session in St.Clears one evening. They followed in the footsteps of several other YFC groups that have requested sessions with us in the past and like them, the visitors showed no hesitation in joining in.
Back to the serious stuff in May, as the annual Carmarthenshire Karate Tour coincided with the European Championships for Regions in Poland, where our chief instructor was entering the officials' examination with the hope of gaining international qualification. On collecting her result from the European Referee Commission, Mair was commended on her excellent performance at the event and earned her European Judging badge to the delight of her Carmarthenshire supporters.
****** it is definitely worth reading our news article on this achievement by clicking here ******
Poland is where we first started making use of our new social networking accounts on Facebook and Twitter, which allowed us to announce the latest news, as it happened. We have also been using these throughout the year to announce events and training changes when required.
At the halfway point in the year, we were faced with another couple of busy months, which started with our annual Charity Week & Presentation in June. Policies that we are passionate about at Carmarthenshire Karate include the support of worthwhile, local causes but also avoiding traditional fundraising methods that put additional financial burden on families. Therefore, we welcomed back for a second year our charity week format, where all of the training fees collected during a full week of classes were donated on behalf of us all. And it was a pleasure to be supporting the Physiotherapy Department at Carmarthen's West Wales General Hospital once again.
This was followed by the year's second round of grading courses, where a record total of 77 Carmarthenshire members were successful this time. They included Nia's promotion to Nidan (2nd Dan) at the West Wales Weekend Course, another Junior/Senior Grading Examination in St.Clears, and a huge Karate Kids Grading in Carmarthen. It was exactly the reward we all needed just before the summer.
Nia added another achievement to her list July when she was promoted to British Karate Referee at the British International Championships in Glasgow. Although our squad did not travel to this event, there were two new competitions for them during this time: the Scottish Karate Grand Prix in Wishaw and the Central England Open in Walsall.
Together with the North Wales Open in Wrexham, and Welsh Junior Championships in Cardiff, the squad returned 2 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze medals from four events. This included Jordan Evans winning a Welsh National Open title for the first time in the club's history.
In August it was time to kick back and relax again (just a little bit), as we headed to the beach for our annual Family Picnic. It was another great day this year: sunshine, good company, fun, and the Kids vs Big Kids rounders match was an excellent spectacle once again. Later that day, BBC Radio Cymru broadcast the first of their Straeon Bob Lliw episodes about people in the community, which in this edition was all about our Sensei Mair.
From September the training intensity climbed once again and there were numerous improvements to the various classes, including: more time for the Karate Kids at Carmarthen; a better dojo for the Karate Kids at St.Clears; and a new Competition Club in an extension to the Sunday class in Carmarthen. The latter was just in time for the Welsh Open Championships in Cardiff, where the squad came back with 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medal.
The final round of the year's examinations started with the Junior/Senior Grading in October and by the end of the two months, 85 members had successfully completed another examination (yet another record). This included the biggest Karate Kids Grading we've ever had in Carmarthen and a big advance for Jordan Evans and Monique Samra at the West Wales Weekend Course. The instructors are extremely proud of the effort that everyone has shown and the rewards that have been achieved throughout the year in this important, traditional aspect of karate. Well done to you all.
Congratulations also to the expanded squad that represented Carmarthenshire at the WHKK Invitational Championships in November. This is arguably our biggest competition of the year and one in which we have topped the medal table on the last five occasions. We were fortunate to be hosting the event in St.Clears this year, so the home advantage allowed us to encourage as many new competitors to participate as possible.
It was a fantastic performance from the whole team (including all of the supporters) and despite the toughest competition that we have ever faced, we retained our position at the top of the table and won double the medals of our nearest rival. Well done to everyone in the team, especially to those who were competing for the very first time; you certainly impressed.
So December was our chance to celebrate and that is exactly what we did. It was certainly a memorable year and looking forward to 2011, we're aiming for another one...