It's Test Time!

Saturday, December 3
Kyu Belt test (white belts through brown belts).
New Iberia Karate Institute
224 Center Street, New Iberia

Time: Clinic (if recommended to attend): 12:00 noon - arrive by 11:45
Test: 1:00 - arrive by 12:45

Further information to be distributed on Monday, 11/28. Registration taking place this coming week!

Dues once again payable to City of Lafayette

The Comeaux Center has worked out it's fee collection process with the affiliated organizations. Dues are once again payable to the City of Lafayette. Many thanks for your patience with this process!

TEMPORARY CHANGE OF DUES PAYABLE

The Comeaux Center is revising the way it collects fees from organizations. For the next 2 months, September and October, dues are payable to the Lafayette Karate Club (rather than the City of Lafayette as has been the case).

Our apologies for this temporary change - we just try to do as the Center asks!

12th Annual Funakoshi Gichin Cup

In less than an hour from the time of this post, the USA JKA AF team will begin tournament competition in Pattaya, Thailand for the 12th Annual Funakoshi Gichin Cup. This is a world class tournament with crazy high levels of competition. The Lafayette Karate Club is very proud to be the home of one of the team members, Lane Nevils. Though he has trained all over the region, Lane was the chief instructor of LKC for over a decade and my first instructor when I started training. As a club, we are very proud to train and compete with Lane and many other members of this USA Team. Best of luck to Ray, Dimitri, Devin, Jovany, Gustavo, Andre, Rami, Khim, and Lane!

CAMP/TEST WEEKEND!

As you may have heard, this weekend, August 5-7 is the annual Acadiana Karate Camp jointly sponsored by the New Iberia Karate Club and the Lafayette Karate Club. Camp weekends usually mean 2 hours of training on Friday evening, 2 hours Saturday morning, 2 hours Saturday afternoon, and 2 more hours on Sunday morning (it IS possible)! There are also typically kyu belt tests and Dan (black belt) exams as well.

It is possible to train one or more of the camp sessions without attending the whole thing: sessions are scheduled: Friday 6:00-8:00pm; Saturday 9:00-11:00 and again 3:30-5:30, Sunday 9:00-11:00. Register at the door for $35.00/session.

The venue is the Heymann Park Gym on S. Orange Street (off of Pinhook); this is just down from Paul Breaux Middle school.

There will not be many kyu level students testing from our club this weekend as most people have been travelling and taking vacation time over the summer. However, a few people will be participating in the kyu belt test on Sunday at 11:30. Good luck to Will and Camille - go get 'em!

The black belt exam will be held on Saturday at 11:15. This includes 1st kyu level students testing for their first degree black belt as well as higher ranking black belts testing for their next level. It's a great opportunity to come watch the black belts in action!

Southern Open Tournament

Congratulations to Payton and Jack Nelson who participated in the Southern Open Tournament in Hammond in April. This was their first tournament and they represented the Lafayette Karate Kids class with great spirit, respect and awesome karate! If you look for Allyson OKeefe photography on the web, you'll find her great sports photos and an album for this tournament.

Payton and Jack were the very first students in the youth class when we started 2 summers ago, and for a while they were the only students! So it was especially cool for me to go to their first tournament with them. There is a lot to be learned through tournament competition, and I believe they both came away with a new perspective on karate as well as on themselves.

UPCOMING EVENTS!

It's been too long since I put anything new up on the blogsite! A couple of important upcoming dates:
July 4th, Holiday (Comeaux Center closed) No class
August 7 Belt Test 11:30 a.m. Heyman Park
October 22 Youth Tournament, Ponchatoula, La.


With many students traveling on vacations or busy with additional activities this summer, the upcoming belt test on August 7 may not be recommended for everybody. I will be talking with individual students about that as the date gets closer. If your karate student is recommended to test, if you will be available on August 7, and if you would like them to test, training as much as possible until that date will be important!

Even though the youth tournament is several months away, I encourage you to start looking at your calendars to see if you will be available on that Saturday. We have had students compete at this tournament in the past and as our youth class continues to grow and we have more and more intermediate ranks, I will be encouraging more tournament participation. I would especially love to put some teams together in addition to the individual events! More info to follow...

UPCOMING EVENTS!

Spring is a busy and exciting time to be a karate student! Here is a listing of upcoming events:

All South Tournament: April 2, New Orleans. This is an annual tournament with both youth and adult divisions. Any full colored belt (yellow or above) is eligible to participate. White belts may be eligible with instructor's permission. I have registration forms available!

Belt Test: April 16, New Iberia. Students ages 7 and older may be eligible to participate in this belt test, while students 7 and younger will have a junior belt test at our dojo the following week (exact date to be announced). If the student plans to test or participate in the tournament, please attend every class possible between now and the event!

You can use the labels listing in the right hand bar to find other blog posts related to belt testing.

Summer Camp: June 3-5, New Orleans. An annual training camp that attracts members of our organization from all over the country and internationally. Attending the full camp is probably too much to ask of the youth members, but if you're going to be in New Orleans that weekend and have some time, attending even one of the camp sessions would be worth fitting into the schedule. This year's guest camp instructor will be Kobayashi Kunio from JKA Headquarters in Tokyo.

New Class Times

After a year and 1/2, our Youth karate class has grown to the point of modifying the class schedule. This will allow a specific focus for each level of student while maintaining interaction and overlap between all ranks. This new schedule will begin February 2 (Wednesday).

Beginning level students (white, yellow and orange belts - including all striped or Junior belts) will continue to have class from 5:30-6:15.

Intermediate and Advanced ranks (green belts and above) will start class at 6:00, joining the beginners class in progress. After the beginners are dismissed at 6:15, the intermediate and advanced ranks will continue until 6:45.

Adult class will begin at 6:30, joining the intermediate-advanced youth in progress.

Intermediate-advanced youth are welcome to stay for the duration of the adult class, until 7:30. There will be a bow out at 6:45 for those who will be leaving.

This rolling schedule will allow each level of student to benefit from a focus on their particular needs while expanding training opportunities with higher ranking members; the intermediate-advanced level youth will train with black belts for a portion of their class time.

Intermediate and advanced students are always encouraged to train on Fridays (at 5:30) with the adult class (beginning level youth will be invited on an individual basis).

I am excited about the growth of this youth class to this point. We have some talented and dedicated students and families. It has been such a great experience to watch them grow as people and as karateka. I can't wait to see where they'll be at the end of this year.