Archive for February, 2010

Basingstoke Sports Awards – Club of the Year 2009

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

Karate Basingstoke Coaches receiving Club of the Year award

Shin Gi Tai Martial Arts Academy in Basingstoke has been awarded the Basingstoke Sports Club of the Year award for 2009

In the face of stiff competition from Basingstoke Bluefins (swimming), Basingstoke Gymnastics club, Basingstoke Rugby Club, Basingstoke Volleyball Club and Totally Tennis, most of whom have been previous winners of this prestigious award, we have been awarded the 2009 Sports Club on the Year award for Basingstoke at the annual sports awards ceremony on 26th February 2010. The awarded was presented by The Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane Cllr Brian Gurden to coaches Katherine White, Lindsey Andrews and Bryan Andrews.

 This recognition for Shin Gi Tai as a centre of excellence for general sports and not only Martial Arts in Basingstoke has been due to the hard work of all of the coaches (Lindsey, Katherine, Neil, Jonathan, Bryan, Teresa and Jackie) within the Academy and the dedication of it’s members in pursuing excellence in the field of Martial Arts. A special mention must also go to the parents of our members who support their children in the quest to become Black belts and whose support and encouragement is vital to the success of the children. The support from Sue Parker and Greg Knight from Basingstoke and Dean Council and Kevin Laing from the Local Sports Council has also been important in helping us develop us a club and we’d like to thank them for their contribution during this year and look forward to continuing to work with them to deliver sporting opportunities within Basingstoke.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough is fortunate to have a very strong sporting community, which is demonstrated both in the success of it’s athletes in competition and also the provision of grass roots sporting opportunities in the local community. The Borough Council, Local Sports Council and Basingstoke Sports Trust all play a big part in recognising and supporting this achievement at the annual Sports Awards.  The Basingstoke annual Sports Awards are coordinated by the Voluntary Local Sports Council and are hosted by the Apollo Hotel with support from the Basingstoke Gazette Newspaper. The awards ceremony celebrates the success and achievements of clubs, teams, coaches, officials and individuals involved in sport within the Borough.

During the 2010 awards ceremony, the standard of the Basingstoke Sports people and the clubs was clearly evident with many Olympic athletes represented along with national, international and world champions from sports as diverse as Judo, Ice Hockey, Powerlifting, Gymnastics, Football, Equestrian Vaulting, several Athletics disciplines and Boccia. The future looks bright for sport in Basingstoke with many excellent coaches, clubs, officials and players. With such high quality competition, we can be very proud of our achievement.

Bryan Andrews Chief Instructor for Shin Gi Tai commented “The award of Sports Club of the Year 2009, means a lot to us, being the first Martial Arts club to win this award. It is a great culmination to an excellent year of progress for us as an Academy with many notable achievements including:-

  • Moving into Basingstoke’s only fully equipped Martial Arts centre
  • The first of our members achieving their Black Belts
  • Becoming accredited as Coaching assessors for the Martial Arts Standard Agency
  • The introduction of a specific children’s Coaching programme to help develop the skills of Junior coaches with mentoring from more senior coaches
  • The production of our first booklet, a children’s guide to combat Bullying called “Don’t Bully me!”
  • Becoming recognised by Sport England through our affiliation to the BCCMA and Shikon International
  • The introduction of various awards to celebrate the success of our members

The award gives us a lot to live up to in the coming year, but we have more exciting plans for 2010, that we are working towards, including Clubmark accreditation with Sport England.”

Basingstoke Sports Club of the Year

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Stranger Danger

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

 

Teach your child about the importance of 'Stranger Danger.'

Teach your child about the importance of 'Stranger Danger.'

As a parent, teaching your children about stranger awareness can be very difficult. Although you want to teach your child how to respect others, it is equally important to emphasise the importance of dealing with strangers. The problem is every person that your child meets for the first time will fall into the stranger category, including neighbours, relatives, and teachers.

 Tip #1: There are different types of strangers

Everyone is a stranger at some point. Children learn who they can trust based on your approval. Communicate with your children about people that are safe, such as relatives, neighbours, family friends, and teachers. Authority figures such as policemen and firemen are also safe. Let your children know that if they ever needed help, these are the people they should go to if you are not around.

 Strangers that are not safe are people that you have not introduced to your child. Explain to your child that they should not speak to anyone that they don’t know unless you (or their teacher) give them permission to do so. Also explain that even if a stranger knows their name, it is still not ok to speak with that stranger because sometimes strangers can overhear someone else say their name.

Tip #2: Just because someone is an adult, it doesn’t mean that they are in charge

If your child is approached by an adult that they do not know, then that adult is at fault. Good adults understand the importance of stranger safety and should NEVER approach a child without being introduced by a safe person first. Explain to your child that just because they are approached by an adult, it doesn’t mean that they should follow the adult’s commands unless they already know the person.

 Tip #3: Teach your children how to follow their instincts

Children are very intuitive. Explain to your child that if they feel uncomfortable for any reason around a person, to run away immediately and seek a person that is safe. This includes people that may “act” like they are in charge. Not all dangerous strangers use sweets or lost puppies to lure children.  Sometimes dangerous strangers approach children with a level of authority to intimidate the child. If your child does not feel comfortable for any reason, tell them to run away immediately. The worse thing that could happen if they run from a person that actually turns out to be safe is to apologise after they are with another safe person. 

Tip #4: Building confidence in your child

Probably one of the hardest challenges when working with children on stranger awareness is helping them maintain confidence. The last thing you want is for your child to be afraid of every person they meet. To prevent this from happening, put your child in activities that builds confidence. Activities such as the Martial Arts can help children cope with stranger awareness while maintaining a confident outlook on society as a whole.

 Conclusion

Remember, there is no easy method for helping your child deal with strangers. One conversation will not do the trick. You must consistently work with your child and ask them questions to make sure they understand what to do in any given situation. In fact, many experts will suggest that stranger awareness be a part of your daily parenting routine. For example, if you take your child to a park before you leave the car ask your child what would they to do if they are approached by a stranger. Keep in mind that outside activities that build confidence will also go a long way when building stranger awareness in your child.

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How fit do you really need to be to learn a Martial Art?

Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Fit for Karate?

Fit for Karate?

Our Basingstoke Martial Arts Academy often gets asked by new comers to the world of Martial Arts, “How fit do I need to be” sometimes this is suffixed with one of the statements “I’m too old, too fat, too unfit, too busy, too something”……………

None of us start off as being super fit athletes, we all have to work on it, usually over a period of months and years, sometimes even decades. The most important qualities of a Martial Artist are:-

  1. Ability to perservere and keep trying, even when its tough going and to overcome the natural peaks and troughs in any training cycle
  2. Self belief and self confidence
  3. A willingness to try and keep trying until you succeed – (we never “I can’t” instead we say “I can’t YET, but will practice until I can”)
  4. A sense of humour and a desire to have fun, lots of it.

The best way to get fit to do any sporting or physical activity, is by doing it.   Sure if you want to learn a Martial Art, you can do lots of   swimming, gym work, running or anything else and they should all help to improve your general fitness, but if you want to get ft and learn a Martial Arts, then you need to go and practice that Martial Art, its simple really.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor will your improved fitness levels be. We’ll start you off with a warm up firstly to make sure that your body is ready to start exercising. We take you through a number of conditioning drills and exercises to help develop your fitness levels, all before the main content of a class and then to finish a cooldown and some stretching. The drills and exercises have to be performed at your own level, actually to be accurate you should try to do slightly better than your own level, so that in every class, you improve your fitness and skill levels and thus increase yourown threshold and level. This kinds of approach sets you up well for long term development in your Martial Arts practice and the pursuit for excellence.

You don’t need to fit to start to learn a Martial Art, just ready to have fun and be prepared to try your best. No excuses, you aren’t too fat, too old, too busy, too something……… As Nike would say “Just do it!”

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