Dokan Karate Club

A weekend of pure stress. So why did I enjoy it so much? The answer is simple it was because this tournament is the ultimate test for English athletes however old or young and we are there like everyone else to win. In hindsight there were many mistakes decision wise, by me and the squad but hindsight is a great thing so they say.

Looking to the future we can only learn by our short fallings. Undoubtedly we were a tad unfortunate in some quarters but nothing to get irate about and we proved yet again what a tremendously focused and talented squad we have.

I spoke to an old karate acquaintance whom I have not spoken to for six years or more. He has a number of clubs and has recently joined the JKS which is an EKF member too. He has 850 licensed students and the JKS will have literally 1,000s of members, yet here we are competing against squads with 20 or 30 times our volume of students and we frequently have higher medal tallies than them all. Dokan has around 200 members only but we are slowly expanding and quantity does not equal quality. I do what I can with what I have and we are the envy of many.

Well done to everyone who competed and as I look towards next month’s WKU tournament down Somerset I am filled with optimism that we can start to put right the few mistakes we made and continue to improve and develop in preparation for next year’s championships.

Dokan finished fifth on the medal table. Not bad for a very a small Northern association.