Greetings!

I know July has already started and it seems like it’s almost on its way out, however, after being on vacation all last week, I didn’t have a chance to send out the July newsletter sooner.

So, with that said, here is all of our July updates and upcoming events.

1st Annual Summer Potluck

As many of you know we held our 1st Annual Holiday Party in December last year.  We had over 80 people gather at our school with a giant potluck, award ceremony, and video presentation.  Families had fun, kids ate a ton, and we all socialized with others.

We are now going to host our next school gathering for the Summer to get students, families, and friends together again to enjoy Colorado’s beautiful Summer, and just have some fun!

On July 31st from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM, we will have our 1st Annual Summer Potluck at the Big Dry Creek Park.  This is located on 128th Avenue, just south of The Dojo of Karate (within walking distance).

The Dojo of Karate will provide hot dogs with condiments for all guests to enjoy.

All we ask is that every family bring a dish to share with the rest of our guests.  We may expect around 100 people to attend.

Feel free to invite friends and family members interested in attending our 1st Annual Summer Potluck, even if they are not members of our school.

Families can also bring water guns, and we can all have a big water gun fight!

There is also a softball/baseball field at the Big Dry Creek Park.  If anyone is interested in getting together and playing some softball during our Summer Party, please feel free to bring some bats and softballs.  Everyone else should bring their own gloves.

There is a signup sheet at the front counter.  All families please signup to bring a dish to share and the amount of guests that plan on attending.  We want to make sure everyone gets a enough food.

Possible Class Expansion

It is very exciting to watch our school grow, especially in the Beginners Karate Program, since so many kids are getting the benefits of learning Martial Arts.

Since this program is growing during the Summer months, and Back-To-School is around the corner, we will potentially add an additional time slot for the Beginners Karate Program for Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:30 PM to 6:15 PM.

This will than allow for The Dojo of Karate to offer Martial Arts classes 5 days a week for new students.

However, please keep in that Beginning Students are only allowed to attend between 2 or 3 classes per week.

What is Black Belt Club?

Well, it’s our program for students interested in taking their Karate training to the next level.

However, this isn’t just some ordinary Karate Program… There are all sorts of benefits and requirements in being apart of the Black Belt Club.

Students will have the opportunity to receive the following:

• Unlimited karate training.
• Special Black Belt Club classes every Friday.
• Weapons training, such as the Bo Staff, Kamas, or Nunchucks.
• Custom embroidered, brushed cotton, middleweight uniform with students name on the front and The Dojo of Karate log0 on the back.
• Eligibility for Demo Team.
• Eligibility to compete in Karate Tournaments.
• Eligibility to be on Leadership Team.
• Discounts on seminars and events.
• And much more!

How do you become a member of Black Belt Club?

We are now updating the process of our Black Belt Club membership.

The first step is that students must write a letter, in their own words, on “why they want to become a member of Black Belt Club”.

Next, we sit down as a family to discuss Black Belt Club membership, what it entails, requirements, etc.

After we have our discussion, the family will need to go home and have a discussion whether this is going to be something that everyone wants to be apart of.  This is a family decision, not a single person decision.

Why do we do all of this?

Black Belt is a very difficult goal for students to achieve.  It requires a lot of training and dedication, and you need to be mentally, emotionally, and physically prepared.  For most students it can take between 3-4 years to achieve this goal, pending they do not miss belt tests, pass all of their exams and display proper attitude at home and obtain ‘B’ average grades in school.

In addition, we require students to be a minimum of 10 years old to achieve a ‘Junior Black Belt’.

Why?

Kids may “know the moves” but they will not know HOW to perform the moves as designed… until their bodies develop.  Usually that won’t happen until they are teenagers or adults.

If your child is interested in becoming a member of Black Belt Club, please talk to Mr. Lozano, so he can guide your child in the right direction.

Wado Karate Seminar

As many of you may have heard, we are hosting a Wado Karate Seminar on Saturday, August 7th and 8th.  A colleague of mine, Sensei Bob Nash is coming out from Seattle, Washington to teach this seminar.

Sensei Nash is one of only 2 people living outside of Japan that has earned a 7th degree black belt in JKF Wado-Kai.  He has been training in Wado-Kai for nearly 50 years, and brings a wealth of knowledge about our classical Japanese martial art.

He travels around the world, from Europe to Australia, and cross the United States hosting Wado-Kai Seminars at various dojos and facilities because of his technical expertise and understanding in the art of Wado Karate.

The fact we are able to have Sensei Nash come to our school and teach a seminar is an opportunity of a lifetime for many practitioners because he’s as close to the source as it comes from.

We plan on splitting the group from kids and adults, to make the floor more manageable.

Kids will have about a 2 hour seminar, while teens and adults will have the entire weekend to train, approximately 8 to 10 hours.  The schedule will look something like this.  However, we still need to finalize the time slots.

Saturday: 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM — Kids

Saturday: 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM — Teens & Adults

Sunday: 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM — Teens & Adults

Students must be a minimum of an Orange Belt in order to participate.

We also plan on having a friend of mine, Sensei David Sasaki, bring some of his students from Conifer to attend the seminar too.

The cost of the seminar has yet to be determined, but we will have it shortly.

Please make sure you pre-register for the seminar so we know how many people we need to accommodate.