Well that’s the last class of the year done and now everyone
can take a well deserved break after a very busy year...first of all don’t get
too used to me hijacking the blog it’s a rare thing so make the most of it. As
I just said it’s been a very busy year for all of us with competitions galore,
gradings , personal goals whether it was learning a pattern, set sparring,
getting to the next belt, doing your
first competition , starting to spar, or simply just taking part in that 1st
training class a big well done from me. It’s been good to see some of the
parents who have gone from sitting at the back of the hall watching their
son/daughter training to actually deciding to take part in the class after some
gentle persuading from the senior grades and have gone onto getting to 7th,6th
kup at the last grading a great
achievement. |
| Final Class of 2013 in Prestwick |
Some of you gave competing a go for the first time and now
have the bug for sparring and patterns going onto Sunday training and already
looking at next year’s calendar of events - brilliant. I must at this point thank Mr. Scott Mc Millan
for his Sunday sparring classes I have no doubt what so ever that these extra
training classes have played a part in helping the students achieve success in
competitions – cheers Scott (get your own blog lol )
There have been some good performances on the competition
circuit with the usual suspects Connor Mulgrew, Mikey McDowall, & Karina
Chahal having competed on a regular basis throughout the year getting their
fair share of silver ware. Mikey has done well this year and his sparring is
coming on leaps n bounds he should have an interesting year in 2014. Karina has
been a bit of a surprise package this year – she’s gone from wanting to do
competitions to wanting to win every competition she’s in and you can’t ask for
anymore than that. She put aside the disappointment of the world championships
of only getting a silver in the tag team (her words not mine) to going on to up
her training to sometimes 6 times a week and then doing well in 2 Scottish
competitions and rounding off with the a bronze and silver at the British
championships with the best sparring performance to date. Connor Mulgrew has
had a busy year also doing every competition this year and then went up a
division in September to boys light weight at the Scottish open. At the age of
12 he’s one of the youngest and smallest in that category but that didn’t faze
him and used the disappointment of being on the wrong side of a few sidekicks
to working on his timing and movement to beat a very much taller and heavier
opponent in the final at the British championships and become the boys blue
belt British champion. Young Teagan Harley overcame her fear of sparring to
competing in patterns and sparring this year and getting a gold and bronze
along the way well done.
And now for the new kids on the block – young Dylan Nutt –
amazing uses his cute factor to its full potential on and off the mat did very
good this year, Ryan Brown, Thomas Murphy competed for the first time to see
what all the fuss is about, Ieuan Harley got in on the action also this year
and did well, Craig Nutt & Gill Blackwood did really good for their first
year competing both came away with silverware this year well done. Young Katie
Walker made a comeback at the Scottish closed let’s hope she’s here to stay.
On the home front the Ayr club is starting to grow nicely
with a real family feel about it with parents training alongside their kids it’s
good to see from my own experience of having my kids being a part of my hobby. At
Prestwick it’s been business as usual with the kids training hard and having
fun and the adults having fun training hard. Quite a few of the kids in the
middle class are getting to grips with their new blue belt patterns whilst
still remembering to practice all the patterns from the earlier belts good work
– keep it going. Also we had new edition to the team black belts Erin Sawyer,
passing her black belt in October. I’m looking forward to next year as everyone
comes back to training in January with their own goals in mind so get thinking
– write it down and put in your training bag where you will be reminded every
time you get ready for training.
Finally I would like to say a BIG BIG thank you to all the
people who have helped me with the club this year – Mark Sawyer, Karen Harley,
Kiran Chahal, Michael McRobert ,Steven Kerr, Karina Chahal to name but a few.
Iain Harley for the our club photos and blogs Bryan Mulgrew for the editorials
in the local paper and then there’s all you guys who finally persuaded me to
get a club suit and helped with the design and input into the logo – thanks – looking
good in your new Doboks maybe we could even model them at the awards night in
February.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Cheers
Kuli Chahal
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