Archive for March, 2011

Hampshire and IOW Sports Club of the Year 2011

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Martial Arts Club in Basingstoke are the championsAt the Sport Hampshire and Isle of Wight awards on 23rd March, our Martial Arts Academy from Basingstoke won the prestigious award of ‘Hampshire Sports Club of the Year.’

 

Katherine Wight, Sarah Godley and Alison Lee from Biscoes, Oliver Andrews on their shoulders, Lindsey Andrews and Nicola van Meerkerk. 

The awards ceremony was held at Southampton Football Club and was organised by Sport Hampshire and Isle of Wight, The event was hosted by Roger Johnson of BBC South today.

This award represents the culmination of a very successful year in Basingstoke for Shin Gi Tai Martial Arts Academy, which included.

  • Moving into it’s own full time professionally equipped Martial Arts centre
  • Providing Martial Arts classes in Karate, Kung Fu, Judo, Ju Jitsu, Tai Chi and Vale Tudo and fitness classes in Les Mills’ Bodycombat, Pilates and Circuits.
  • Becoming Basingstoke and Deane’s Sport Club of the year 2009/2010
  • Achieving Sport England’s Quality Kitemark ‘Clubmark accreditation’
  • Hosting numerous courses during the year with world class coaches
  • Teaching quality Martial Arts at all levels from recreational users to successful national level elite competitors and ages between 4 years old and 60+

 

Programme Director Lindsey Andrews, Coach Katherine White and Centre Manager Nicola van Meerkerk represented the club at the Sports awards along with 9 year old Oliver Andrews who is one of the students. This years Sports Awards saw a record number of nominations, with over 200 from all over the Hampshire region in 17 different categories and nominees included many international and Olympic level athletes. There was stiff competition for the coveted title of Club of the year with 20 clubs from the region put forward. The award was sponsored by Biscoes Solicitors (www.biscoes-law.co.uk) and the three shortlisted nominees were Chawton Park Indoor Bowls Club from East Hampshire, Warsash Wasps Football Club and Shin Gi Tai.
 

Heather Windust from Sport Hampshire IOW commented “The awards are a fantastic celebration of sport throughout the county, and reflect not only the quality of local sporting achievement, but also the dedication, commitment and excellence of the many unsung heroes.  The club of the year category had over 20 nominations, it was a tough decision to whittle them down to just 3 and even tougher to decide on a winner. However the work Shin Gi Tai do in the local community and the dedication they have to developing their coaches and members made them deserving winners.”

There were a number of other Sportspeople from Basingstoke also made it into the top 3 in their respective categories, they were:

James Feighery-Murphy (Karate) -  Junior sportsman of the year
Rob Tobin (Athletics) – Senior sportsman of the year
Ben Hazell (Athletics) - Senior sportsman of the year
Rebecca Jane (Football) - Senior sportswoman of the year
Basingstoke Teamgym squad (Gymnastics) – Senior team of the year
Nigel Long (Tennis) – Performance coach of the year

 

The certificated presented to us as Hampshire Sports Club of the Year 2011.

The Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane Cllr Keith Chapman said: “I am delighted that this forward thinking and proactive club won the award against tough competition from other strong clubs across the county.  It was very well deserved and is a testament to the hard work of the club and its many volunteers.  The club is a credit to the borough, making a contribution not only in the area of sport but to the local community, for example running self-defence classes and anti-bullying sessions. The council has worked in partnership with the club on various sports development initiatives and great links have been established with schools and voluntary organisations.  The club is very highly regarded locally.”

Chief Instructor Bryan Andrews said of the award “We have a great team of highly experienced coaches and staff and many enthusiastic members taking part in our classes. This award is really theirs and it is down to their hard work, effort and their determination to be the best they can. I’m delighted that their efforts have been recognised by Hampshire County”

Martial Arts in Basingstoke, for those that want to be winners. Karate in Basingstoke, Judo in Basingstoke

Certificate presented to the winning club at the Hampshire Sports Awards 2011

 

Further information on Shin Gi Tai Martial Arts Academy: -  Shin Gi Tai Martial Arts Academy is Basingstoke’s only full time Martial Arts center teaching a range of Martial Arts including Kung Fu, Karate, Judo, Tai Chi, Ju Jitsu and Vale Tudo. In addition there are a number of fitness classes including Pilates, Body Combat and Circuits based classes.

There are specific class for adults and children to train in seperately. Children’s class are split into age specific groups of 4 – 6 yrs, 6 – 9 yrs and 10 – 14 yrs. In addition there are family classes where parents and children can train together.

Classes take place during the day time and evenings.

Shin Gi Tai Martial Arts Academy is registered with The Martial Arts Standards Agency, Shikon International, The British Council for Chinese Martial Arts., World Union of Karate Federation and accredited with Sport England’s ‘Clubmark’ Accreditation.

The award for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Sports Club was sponsored by:- 

fitness, lose weight, health, gym

Quality Kitemark, Clubmark, Sport England, Martial Arts Basingstoke

Clubmark Accredited Sports Club

 

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Posted in Basingstoke Council, Coaching, Judo, Karate, Kickboxing, Kung Fu, Ladies only, Martial Arts, News, Returning to sport, Sport Hampshire and IOW | Comments Off

I CAN’T DO IT!

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

How many times do we hear……….. “I can’t do it”… “It’s too difficult / impossible”… “I’ll never”… “why can she / he do it”… “It’s not fair”…………. As adults we all recognise these phrases, often coming from (disgruntled) workplace colleagues unhappy with their lot in life. Usually the culprits are ‘the worker bees’ rather than from those in a managerial position.

Green eyed monsters are everyone. The people who won’t put in enough effort to improve their skills and worth to their employers or those that think society owes them a living and a decent one at that.  Martial Arts practitioners are sadly often exactly the same.

Most practitioners of Martial Arts find learning their art challenging, regardless of whether they are learning Karate, Taekwondo, Kung Fu or Kickboxing for example. It’s not meant to be easy to learn the techniques in any depth, yes there are some shortcuts, namely having an experienced teacher and training properly and consistently, but the biggest shortcut of all…. Don’t ever give up trying to be the best you can be.

We probably need to take a step back into our childhood to find the origins of the mentality “I can’t do it.” Usually the adult is telling the child “You can’t do that” this is further reinforced at school with the teachers telling the kids “You can’t do that.”  So by the time the poor youngster is a teenager, they have been brainwashed into thinking “I can’t / won’t be able to do that” So by the time we become adults, the vast majority of us will follow the herd and also “Won’t be able to do that.”

There are a small number of people who break this conditioning. They are the people that see opportunities that others do not AND then through self-belief, commitment, determination and sheer hard work deliver the opportunity, in business terms, they have a special title. They are called entrepreneurs. Have you heard of them, people like Bill Gates or Donald Trump or closer to home with Alan Sugar, James Dyson or Richard Branson. Each and every-one an entrepreneur who fought and overcame adversity to become successful and then once successful through their own self-belief, drive and hard work, stay successful.  

 Positive Mental Attitude, Self Confidence, Self visualisation

So we should act in our Martial Arts practice. Rather than focussing on the problem or what we can’t do, focus on the solution to overcome the problem and keep working on it until we achieve the results that we deserve.   All the time we need to continue to foster a mental ‘can do’ attitude by visualising ourselves performing that perfect technique, each and everytime we do the move. Imagery of ourselves in a positive light can make a real difference to what we achieve, if we use it as a tool, both frequently and persistently.

Think about the little Pussy cat looking at itself in the manner, it sees a magnificent Lion. Do you?

The only time you fail is when you give up trying.

Written by Bryan Andrews

19th March 2011. 

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Posted in Basingstoke, Martial Arts, Mental Preparation, Self confidence | Comments Off