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DOES THE FUN NEVER STOP?
The club had a massive attendance make the trip over to the USKK(E) tournament earlier this year, with every adult student and four junior students taking the numbers (including family members) to 36 - we nearly had the whole plane to ourselves (maybe next year).
I think nearly every category in the competition had a member of our dojo take part, including six of us trying kobudo. We had a very cold but very successful tournament, returning home with a total of 34 medals.
For some of our students it was their first visit to Ireland but they weren't disappointed. They were lucky enough to experience not only great St Patricks day celebrations, but also had the chance to train with people others can only dream about.
The weekend started with a seminar with Major Bill Hayes, Kyoshi, followed on the Saturday by a mixed, small and intimate group of sessions with again Hayes Kyoshi, Koeppel Hanshi and Measara Sensei.
The evening is when everyone gets together for a social with a banquet, which was held this year at the Army barracks in Athlone.
Sunday was the tournament with our phenomenal contribution and outstanding number of medals! The day was brought to closure with a get-together in a bar for some Irish entertainment including a folk band and traditional dancing, plus a couple of birthday celebrations from our group.
We, in the run up to the 2007 USKK(E) tournament, have attended a couple of local-ish competitions with some of our junior students (some of whom had never seen a competition let alone taken part). I have to say they did extremely well in kata, kobudo and kumite and should feel proud of themselves for being brave. Now you've tried it you'll love coming to Ireland. We recently took five students to Rainham in Kent for the first Kent Open Championships and came back with 10 superb quality trophies - well done everyone.
NEWSLETTERS
At long last, we have found ourselves with an editor that has enabled us to start producing regular newsletters. The purpose of these newsletters will be to keep all students (and parents!) up to date, as well as answer some of those questions that you might have had.
The first five newsletters are available by clicking on the links below, and more will be added as they are published:
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