Well, AsiaFest and the Kudo Nationals are over – thank you to everyone who was involved: competitors, demonstrators, volunteers, families, officials, spectators and all who loaned equipment.
The tournament taught us a great deal about our strengths and weaknesses, plus we have two new (padded) Kudo National champions – Doug and Daniel S! Congratulations to all competitors, everyone fought hard and made me proud. Full results should be available soon.
Now we are back to regular classes, with revised goals:
- 2016 Kudo Nationals at the Arnold Classic in March (yes, Arnie will be there!). It looks like we will have a big team travelling to Melbourne for this tournament, with around 15 fighters indicating they will compete. Currently fighters should be focusing on conditioning for stamina, strength and power, eliminating their weaknesses, and solidifying their foundation skills.
- Grading in about 6 weeks. We have a large number of students close to their next grades, and kata classes will be planned to help you succeed.
- Self Defence. This is a reminder that we are a self-defence based martial art dojo. Combat sports have an important role in preparing us for personal protection, but our primary goal is to help you become healthier, happier and safer.
Take the content of last night’s classes for example…
Kids
- Self defence stages
- Verbal diffusion
- Environmental awareness
- Effective use ‘spectators’
- Practical escape
- Pre-emptive strikes
- Contingency planning
Kata – many elements similar to the kids class:
- Self defence stages
- Verbal diffusion and decision making
- 4Ds: dialogue, deception, distraction, destruction
- Environmental awareness
- Pre-emptive strikes
- Multiple attacker drills – pads, sparring, stand up etc
- Low light and high noise scenario drills
- Third party protection drills
- Contingency planning and visualisation
Kumite
- Elastic band punching and throwing drills
- Focus mitt punching and countering
- Thai pad and kick shield intensive kicking drills
- Kata guruma (fireman’s carry throw)
- Triangle choke and simple defence
- Conditioning: 60 x push ups, crunches, squat jumps
- Stretching
Oh, and welcome aboard to Samuel, Lucas, Kylie and Rick!
Sobukan Dojo 