Dokan Karate Club

Autumn grading at Dokan karate club. In volume of numbers attending I have had more than double todays tally, but I have never had a more pleasing grading day. The student now understand what is expected at my gradings, their effort level is where I believe it should be and the standard was fantastic. I dare not mention names for I will be labelled with the old favouritism banner but at least 20 kids surpassed expectations and I will be in touch about squad sessions for some new children.

Dokan entered 13 students into this 5 day event held at Antribes France. (Unlucky 13) We finished 14th on the medal table which is respectable. I believe most of our students performed to the best of their abilities and no one can ask more than that.
Sometimes everything goes your way and this was not one of those times. In a few fighting bouts there were head kicks that simply went unnoticed and this could have altered our tally dramatically. We also had 4 x 4th place, 2 x 5th and a 6th in large individual kata sections.

Two big busy tournaments over 4 days. Malta open where DKA Mukin Shori, finished 5th of the 50 clubs, federations with a squad of only 15. Countries like Brazil had 90 people entered and there were 33 countries represented. Comp Two the WKA World championships. Where we entered 17 and finished 4th. The entire trip has been fantastic. Malta is lovely (check my personal post out later this week).

Hot on the heels of a great succes at the GB International Birmingham in mid September, we made our way to Dundee for the Kanzen international. 8 countries and over 1000 entries, yet our small squad of 15 emerged on top of the medal table. What a fabulous achievement and payback for the students hard work and dedication.

There are 3 aspects to me arranging these parties. 1. To raise cash for the funds (which this year was spent on your kids competition fees) 2. To present certificates and awards. 3. Most importantly to get the students together outside of the dojo and away from training to have a nice time together and a bit fun. My club would run in exactly the same manner without them and save me and Ali an unbelievable amount of hassle.

The Liverpool open today. I entered 8 young students and won 11 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze medals. Everyone of my Dokan kids won either an individual gold or a silver. We had no kata or fighting teams entered and these individual sections were busy with 16 to 30+ entered into them all. Our tally with such a small squad is outstanding, and the bond of friendships amongst the kids is what I've always wanted, true team spirit from some truly awesome children.

Dokan Spring Grading. There's a couple of video's here and some photographs, mainly for our own parents pleasure, but anyone interested in joining a club, you will find no one pushes harder to maintain standards than we do. For any of my friends involved in karate you will see no matter what grade you are here at Dokan you must know every preceeding kata up to your rank.

Two day tournament, the GB international, Birmingham. Without a doubt my favourite competition of all time (& I've been around a while now). Had my usual share of controversy, it wouldn't seem right without it . For Dokan club 17 gold, 7 silver and 23 bronze, add to this our association tally and it will be impressive. I entered 25 students.

The first, DKA Northern League tournament tomorrow morning at Temple park leisure Centre. John Reid Road, South Shields. Doors open 9.00am.

A sincere thank you to the 20+ adults and dozen kids that turned up to help out setting up today, a really great team spirit.

This is a grassroots competition to encourage newcomers and it is only possible with the help of some knowledgeable top class referees, so I owe them a debt of thanks too.

Karate World Championships in Dundee. A long way off the start I hoped for, but tomorrow is another day. I only really watched female kata, but there was some really exceptional quality. Congratulation to Ariz (our only gold) Salma bronze and my 14 to 15 year old team of Rebecca, Fran and Hilda, another bronze.

KKO competition Leeds on May 21st. Despite me suffering severly from softy man cold it was a fabulous day. 15 gold, 23 silver and 21 bronze medals. There were 6 areas and about 23 refs so the day flowed beautifully, finishing at 2.30. The sun was shining and it was back to Leeds town for a few beers in the sun. Great day, great weekend, great place. Thanks to Becky, Ian and everyone involved.

The GB open. 10 areas and 44 students entered left me no time to enjoy the day Dokan as a club finished with 13 gold, 11, silver 22 bronze and thats counting teams and pairs as one. It was a tough comp in more ways than one and I hope none of you are too disappointed as even those that won little or nothing gave it their absolute best shot. Some of them were robbed, but no one was rubbish. For some students this has to be a waking up point, as many made mistakes or had failings which I keep telling them about in training. It is a harsh lesson at a comp but a wake up call and will define their future on how well they handle and use the experience. I was extremely pleased with a few kids in certain sections and if there was a prize for the most 4th places we would have won it.

North of England karate Championship down Barnsley Sunday 19th March. Here's some stats, we entered 39 sections as a club and won gold in 33 of those, sliver in 27, and bronze in 20. I was disappointed with no one and very pleased with many. Well done to all our students and thank you to Graham Summerfield for doing his absolute best to please everyone.

These past 2 weeks, I have been feeling sad within myself for being so harsh on the kids and told Ali on Friday I was going to lighten up, but the results were there to be seen today. The reality is I do not want anyone to go into a competition completely unprepared and sometimes you need to be strict. Dokan club had 27 firsts from 34 fights, but it was the way our kids fought that was the pleasing aspect for me.

EKA 29th January 2023. I heard there were over 900 entries, so the nine areas were required in an exceptionally busy competition, which was ran with unbelievable efficiency. Massive credit to Gary, Analiese and Foxy fox and of course the table staff and refs etc for holding it together. I am impressed. ALSO we we top association / club on the day with 24 gold, 13 silver and 15 bronze and that is simply my club tally, not the association total.