Congratulations to our dojo members who recently returned from the US open and Junior International Cup held in Las Vegas over the Easter weekend.  Sempai Mariah Blunt, Diego Ruiz and honorary dojo member – Ethan Strobach – all worked extremely hard and competed well.  Diego posted very strong results by winning the bronze medal in the Advanced Kumite division in the Junior International Cup – congratulations to Diego and well done to all!

Our primary focus over the next few months is preparation for Soke Cup.  Several local tournaments are scheduled, providing not only good opportunities to compete, but also a venue to gauge your training for the Soke Cup thus far.  In the last few weeks, we have been working hard at the sequence and timing of our katas – now we need to polish them for competition.  This is a time when the saying “don’t practice it until you get it right, practice it until you can’t get it wrong” has to be our mantra.

On the kumite side our priority has been on stance: making sure we have solid, balanced stances that enable us to deliver any technique to the fullest extent.  And while matches with lots of fancy kicks may be exciting to watch – the techniques that will provide the best results are solid, basic hand techniques like jab-reverse combinations.  

We have received more information from the Soke Cup organizers – under the Events tab above, if you go to the August calendar and click on the Soke Cup event, you will see more information and a schedule of events. A complete tournament package can be found here or under the Support tab, under Downloads.  Please take a minute to review these documents.  Ultimately, they have to be submitted by May 31.  We will need a signed waiver for each competitor; however we will submit one registration form and fees for the entire dojo for all other weekend events.  Please stay tuned for more information.  In the meantime take a look at the Soke Cup promotional video below.

Announcements

• The Shotokan Cup – an all styles tournament – is happening this weekend, April 16 at Western Canada High School from 9am to 5 pm.  Come out to support your dojo members who are competing!
• Upcoming cancellations – no class, Friday May 20 for the Victoria Day long weekend. 
• Mark your calendar for the Western Canadian Karate Championships on June 4 in Okotoks.  This is an open tournament so everyone should consider competing.

“We are going to Japan! Time to kick up the training intensity!”

Enjoy your training!

Gary Sabean

Head Instructor