April Newsletter

Leadership News

April 2009.

Forthcoming Events

Saturday 4^th April- Master Vince’s boxing match. 8pm Holiday Inn near airport.

Kata class, Sunday 12^th 10 – 11.30am (we had intended to cancel this as it is Easter Sunday but, we have decided to hold it anyway)

Sparring Seminar- Saturday 18^th 1pm points tournament practice.

Easter Egg Treasure Hunt

On Easter Saturday we will be having two Easter Egg Treasure hunts, one in Diss and one in the Bull Close area of Norwich. If you would like to take part all you need to do is give the names of your team members to Mr Fitch.

Each team must have at least one adult (for safety reasons), at least one person that trains at the Academy (this can be the adult or not) and one person who MAY be interested in starting Martial Arts.

The teams will be given a sheet with 20 questions and a series of clues that can be solved by walking around the area and finding the answers. Some of the questions are easy, some quite hard and some will be very difficult. You will have 60 minutes to find your answers, then you must return to base (Bull Close or Diss Youth Centre) with your completed sheet.

The sheets will be marked and the winning team will receive a MONSTER Easter Egg. Every person that enters will also receive a Cadbury’s cream egg.

The treasure hunt begins at 11-30am in Diss and 12-30pm at Bull Close.

Junior Black Belt Success

On Saturday 28^th March 2009 we held the latest Junior Black Belt Gradings. We had three successful candidates who were; Kia Duly, Morgan Crisp and Luke Meeson. You can see pictures of these guys along with the other grading pictures on our website www.blackbelt4sure.com

Oops I made a Mistake.

I know that its difficult to believe but I have made a mistake. I told everyone at classes this week that students can wear T-shirts to class instead of full gis from Wednesday 1^st April. The mistake is that we usually start to wear T-shirts from the start of May each year.

Oh well, as I have told some students already, it will be ok to wear T-shirts from Wednesday 1^st April this year but please remember its usually May and full gis must be worn for grading and tournaments.

One other IMPORTANT point, only ‘Academy’ T-shirts may be worn, we don’t wish to find out which football team you support, whose songs you listen to or where you went on holiday by looking at what you are wearing.

Pizza & Movies afternoon at The Academy.

We will be holding a ‘Pizza and Movies’ afternoon at Bull Close on Friday 17^th April. If you would like to come along it is free but you must bring a friend that does not currently do Martial Arts. You can arrive by 12 noon and just chill enjoying a couple of movies and some pizza, until 3pm. If you would like to come please give your name and the name of the person you will be bringing, to Mr Fitch by Wednesday 17^th April.

Tournament Success

On Sunday 29^th March at a tournament at Acle, Callum Meeks was the winner of the ‘light continuous sparring’ section and Jack Wright was the winner of the Kata section. Harry Meeks achieved third place in the sparring section.

I didn’t go to the event but, from what I’m told by those that did, it may be one to avoid in the future.

Black Belt Academy Championships.

The BBA Championships were a great success, thank you to everyone who took part or came to support. The winners of each section are listed below.

Sparring sections.

Junior Low Grade

1st J. Day

2nd S. Woodhead

3rd J. Lidgard

Junior Intermediate Grade

1st R. Tran

2nd B. Berger

3rd S. Frost / S. Russell

Junior High Grade

1st K. Bunn

2nd H. Meeks

3rd J. Wright / S. Atkinson

Junior High Grade Tall

1st D. Archibald

2nd Nitin Nataraj

3rd O. Cousins / T. Phillipson

Women

1st J. Meeks

2nd L. Gaskin

3rd R. Feetham / R. Earl

Men Intermediate / Low Grade

1st A. Toseland

2nd P. Gilding

3rd J. Foster-Clarke / G.Debattista

Men High Grade

1st C. Taplin

2nd P. Cousins

3rd J. Trippet-Jones / T. Phillipson

KATA Low Grade

1st H. Maguire

2nd C. Bunn

3rd L. Gaskin

Middle Grade

1st R. Tran

2nd S. Frost

3rd Navami Nataraj / S. Russell

High Grade

1st J. Wright

2nd Nitin Nataraj

3rd T. Phillipson / S. Atkinson

Demo Squad Training Sessions.

With the fete, gala, carnival season fast approaching I’m sure we will have a busy schedule with displays again this year. If you would like to be part of our demo team please let Mr Fitch know. The first practice session for the squad will be on Monday 30^th March 7-30pm at Bull Close.

Thinking Part.

I thought you may like to have an idea from the great Earl Nightingale this month. He was an inspirational speaker. Some of the words he uses are a bit difficult for young people to understand, I thought about changing them but decided you would benefit from finding out what these words mean, so I left them in.

Don't Follow The Follower

Processionary caterpillars travel in long, undulating lines, one creature behind the other. Jean Hanri Fabre, the French entomologist, once lead a group of these caterpillars onto the rim of a large flowerpot so that the leader of the procession found himself nose to tail with the last caterpillar in the procession, forming a circle without end or beginning.

Through sheer force of habit and, of course, instinct, the ring of caterpillars circled the flowerpot for seven days and seven nights, until they died from exhaustion and starvation. An ample supply of food was close at hand and plainly visible, but it was outside the range of the circle, so the caterpillars continued along the beaten path.

People often behave in a similar way. Habit patterns and ways of thinking become deeply established, and it seems easier and more comforting to follow them than to cope with change, even when that change may represent freedom, achievement, and success.

If someone shouts, "Fire!" it is automatic to blindly follow the crowd, and many thousands have needlessly died because of it. How many stop to ask themselves: Is this really the best way out of here?

So many people "miss the boat" because it's easier and more comforting to follow - to follow without questioning the qualifications of the people just ahead - than to do some independent thinking and checking.

A hard thing for most people to fully understand is that people in such numbers can be so wrong, like the caterpillars going around and around the edge of the flowerpot, with life and food just a short distance away. If most people are living that way, it must be right, they think. But a little checking will reveal that throughout all recorded history the majority of mankind has an unbroken record of being wrong about most things, especially important things. For a time we thought the earth was flat and later we thought the sun, stars, and planets traveled around the Earth. Both ideas are now considered ridiculous, but at the time they were believed and defended by the vast majority of followers. In the hindsight of history we must have looked like those caterpillars blindly following the follower out of habit rather than stepping out of line to look for the truth.

It's difficult for people to come to the understanding that only a small minority of people ever really get the word about life, about living abundantly and successfully. Success in the important departments of life seldom comes naturally, no more naturally than success at anything - a musical instrument, sports, fly-fishing, tennis, golf, business, marriage, parenthood.

But for some reason most people wait passively for success to come to them - like the caterpillars going around in circles, waiting for sustenance, following nose to tail - living as other people are living in the unspoken, tacit assumption that other people know how to live successfully.

It's a good idea to step out of the line every once in a while and look around to see if the line is going where we want it to go. If it is not, it might be time for a new leader and a new direction.

For those who have tried repeatedly to break a habit of some kind, only to repeatedly fail, Mary Pickford said, "Falling is not failing, unless you fail to get up." Most people who finally win the battle over a habit they have wanted to change have done so only after repeated failures. And it's the same with most things.

The breaking of a long-time habit does seem like the end of the road at the time - the complete cessation of enjoyment. Suddenly dropping the habit so fills our minds with the desire for the old habitual way that, for a while, it seems there will no longer be any peace, any sort of enjoyment. But that's not true. New habits form in a surprisingly short time, and a whole new world opens up to us.

So, if you've been trying to start in a new direction, you might do well to remember the advice of Mary Pickford: breaking an old habit isn't the end of the road; it's just a bend in the road. And falling isn't failing, unless you don't get up.

Earl Nightingale

If you are looking for carpentry, Joinery or general maintenance

Why nor call Mark Duly who also specializes in made to measure doors and windows. Mark does all our alteration and building work, he is very reliable and sensibly priced. His work is of the VERY highest standard too.

You can get him or his wife (Maxine) on 07931 348558 or 01379 741823

Joke;

A police recruit was asked during the exam, "What would you do if you had to arrest your own mother?"

He answered, "Call for backup."