Training Intensive & Canada Training Scholarship

21 January 2019 2:18 pm

Martin

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For about the last 7 years, we’ve kicked off the new year with a training intensive. We put the challenge out to all members to do every class during the first 2 weeks of training for the new year (with the exception of the day classes Tue & Thur). This year that amounted to over 50 hours of training crammed into just 2 weeks.

This year we had a small group of 5 students step up for the challenge of all these classes.

Bailey Keefe
Ranae Saunders
Sam Phillips
Savannah Perdikis
William Baarslag

Training intensive, end of week 1: William, Savannah, Sami, Bailey

In addition to this small group who have been busy training over the last 2 weeks, a number of other students have also taken advantage of the unlimited training also on offer for members. As a result we’ve had record attendance at the dojo during this first 2 weeks of the year.

The training intensive serves two main purposes, it helps kick start the year with some great energy in the dojo, and it is also used to help select the recipient of the annual training scholarship. Usually the winner gets to go to Japan with either Sensei Martin or Sensei Sandra, but this year the committee decided that it could be a good opportunity to go to Canada and train with one of the senior instructors over there prior to the Soke Cup to be held in late July.

Many of our newer members probably don’t realise that alongside of Sunshine Coast Karate, runs a non-profit organisation to help support the growth and development of Chito-Ryu in our local region. The association runs all tournaments, annual social events such as the Easter & Christmas family days, organises training camps, funds visits from guest instructors such as Soke & Higuchi Sensei, runs this scholarship program and a whole lot more.

The committee is run by volunteers and meets regularly throughout the year. A new committee was elected at the end of last year and one of their first tasks will be to help select the winner of this year’s training scholarship in Canada.

The scholarship recipient is always selected by the committee and this year will be no different, except that a few of the committee members will be stepping aside from the selection process. Sensei Martin is on the committee as a representative of the instructors, and both Renae & her Dad Gary hold committee positions as general members. Given that Sam & Renae are the only seniors to apply for the scholarship this year, the remainder of the committee will be left with the task of making the selection.

Usually Sensei Martin & Sensei Sandra would offer feedback about scholarship applicants based on their efforts in the dojo and general training attitude. However, this year, all of the black belts in the dojo have been asked to provide feedback to the committee instead, particularly based on what they have witnessed during the training intensive.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the the training intensive, please links below to all of the blog posts that Sam & Ranae have been writing over the last 2 weeks.

Renae’s Training Intensive Blog Posts

Sami’s Training Intensive Blog Posts

It’s been a gruelling 2 weeks in the dojo for all of the intensive participants and I’d like to say a big congratulations to all them. It’s been wonderful to see everyone step up to the challenge and I’ve enjoyed reading the blog posts from both Renae & Sami. No matter who wins the scholarship, you’ve both trained well over the last 2 weeks.