Success or Not

Being a Martial Artist we learn and practice discipline and an ethos of self reliance to help us further our physical and emotional skills. We can work with coaches that are the best in the world, train with the best students and in the best facilities. However the...
Black Belt Grading – Congratulations

Black Belt Grading – Congratulations

On the weekend of 2nd December we held our biggest grading of the year in Basingstoke. We had students from Karate, Ju Jitsu and Judo all grading. Of which Seven of them were being examined for their Black Belt. The weekend started with the younger children from the...

Promotion to 6th Dan

On Friday 17th February I was awarded my 6th Dan in Karate from Steve Rowe Sensei/Sifu 9th Dan, head of Shi Kon Martial Arts. Quite a few people have asked me what is involved in a Black Belt grading involved and whether it was simply a time served promotion. The...
Gradings December 2016

Gradings December 2016

Traditionally December is our biggest grading of the year and the one that prompts the most nerves as it is also the time for our annual Black Belt gradings. During the course of December we ran three Judo gradings (one at the club and two in schools that we run after...
SO YOU THINK IT’S EASY FOR ME?

SO YOU THINK IT’S EASY FOR ME?

SO YOU THINK IT’S EASY FOR ME? ‘Yes, but it’s easy for you’ are words I hear frequently when coaching, typically when asking students to challenge themselves with something they cannot yet do. Yes I’m a Kata World champion, European champion, British champion and...
Life is like a Jigsaw

Life is like a Jigsaw

Two days before Christmas I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon at a friend’s house. Laid out on the table was a jigsaw. The edges were complete but nothing else, hundreds of pieces scattered around waiting to be found and placed in an orderly fashion. As...
Fear and the Martial Arts

Fear and the Martial Arts

We are all afraid of something at times. Anyone who tells you that they’ve never been afraid is lying. For some people it’s Spiders (Arachnephobia or Arachnophobia) or Clowns (Coulrophobia) or Heights (Hypsiphobia) or Flying (Pteromerhanophobia) or...

What is Fear?

  Fear as described in the dictionary is: An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat, but what does it actually do when we feel it? The brain structure that is the center of most neurobiological...

Brainy Black Belts

According to the BBC a Martial Arts Black Belt’s skill in punching has more to do with his brains rather than his brawn. This is what the article had to say on the subject.   Karate punching power ‘all in the brain’ By Jonathan Ball BBC News Black...
Do you make excuses? (Self Defence 101)

Do you make excuses? (Self Defence 101)

Martial Arts isn’t all about fighting, far from it. Martial Arts is all about setting yourself up for challenges, meeting them and overcoming them. Physically and Emotionally this is the case whether it’s just turning up for your first class, being...
Black Belt Gradings 2013

Black Belt Gradings 2013

As Martial Artists, we should all seek to constantly challenge ourselves to test our knowledge and skills every time we train. As Gichin Funakoshi (who is credited with introducing Karate to Japan) said “Karate is like warm water. If you don’t heat it...
Are you getting what you want from your training?

Are you getting what you want from your training?

We may all have different reasons for taking up Martial Arts but we should all have goals and aspirations for what we want to achieve from our training. It may be that you want to learn how to defend yourself, make new friends, achieve a black belt, be successful in...
You’ve got real potential!

You’ve got real potential!

You’ve got real potential! How many time do we hear this said of ourselves and then then start to feel really proud of our accomplishments because someone has said this to us. For most of us this would be the norm. Why? Because it makes us feel good about...