As summer winds down we have quite a bit going on at the school, so we’re going to jump right into our upcoming news and events.
Cookie Dough Sale
This week, we are starting our annual Cookie dough fundraiser this week. The fundraiser is OPTIONAL, but students and parents earn 5 dragon dollars for each item sold. Dragon dollars spend just like cash, and can be used on anything from sparring gear, to training weapons, to test fees, to tournaments. This year all sales will be done on paper sheets (no more App, Yay!).
To ensure that all families who want to participate get one, please take ONLY ONE of the nice shiny printed sheets per family. You are free to take as many of the other printed handouts as you like. As we get later in the month, and after every participating family gets one, we will allow people to go back for seconds on the glossy copies.
Key points:
- Start date: Today!
- End date: September 29th
- Delivery: Week of October 23rd
- Cost per item: $19.00
- Earn 5 Dragon dollars per item sold
ALL ORDERS MUST BE IN BY SEPTEMBER 29th!
Labor Day
Labor Day, and the unofficial end of summer, is coming quickly!
The school will be closed Friday-Monday Sept 1-4 in observance of Labor Day. Go out there and have one last hurrah before school starts again, enjoy the county fair, and we will see you all on Tuesday the 5th.
Taijiquan seminar
On September 9th and 10th, we are proud to be hosting Sifu Richard Son Su Meyer for a 4 session Taijiquan seminar! There will be no regular class on Saturday the 9th
For those of you who don’t know, Taijiquan (also spelled Tai Chi Chuan, or simply Tai Chi) is a martial art that emphasizes ‘listening’ to one’s opponent, redirecting, off balancing them, and then performing a follow up – elements that should sound VERY familiar to any of you that have practiced Judo or Aikido! This is a chance for all of us to learn something outside our comfort zone from a different instructor. That’s not an opportunity Miss Amanda or I would pass up lightly.
Our seminar is going to be focusing specifically on elements that you are going to be able to use to elevate your one-steps, takedowns, self-defense, and sparring technique, and is open to ANYONE age 13+ (Parents, that includes you!) Students are asked to wear uniform pants and a t-shirt, and parents are asked to wear a plain T-shirt and light workout pants (such as track pants or yoga pants).
You are welcome to attend any, some, or all 4 sessions over the weekend, and if you sign up for a whole day, or the whole weekend, you save quite a bit over the $55.00 per session cost!
Also, as a personal note: This seminar is NAKA’s first officially sponsored seminar and is being hosted at our home dojang. It is going to set a tone for all the seminars to follow; either positive, or otherwise. Miss Amanda and I put a lot of work into convincing NAKA to take this leap, and in arranging to have Sifu Meyer visit. If it is at all possible for you to attend, even for a single session, I want to strongly encourage you to do so, and support NAKA, the Elkhorn martial arts center, and future seminars. I would love nothing more than to start us off right with a seminar that is an unquestionable success.
Zoom Links
Going forward, we will open Zoom by request. Often, we open the application only to have no one join, or miss when people are jointing. In the future, please contact us either via Email or phone to join Zoom. This way we can send links directly.
We have noticed a large drop off in the attendance of zoom classes since this time last year, and most weeks we see no one online, but we do anticipate an increase in use as we get into the winter months and with cold and flu season. As a reminder, I would rather have you make up classes when you are better than come to class sick.
Sharing is not caring when it comes to germs!
Fall weapons
We noticed a great response to our ‘Summer of Sword’. Over 3 months, we saw huge improvement across the classes. While we don’t have a catchy name for our autumnal weapon selection, we will be working on the following:
- Monday 7-8 pm: Fans
- Wednesday 7-8 pm: Bo Staff
- Friday 5:45-6:40: Kali/Nunchaku
On the horizon
- Next Colored Belt Test is September 16th in the morning.
- Black Belt Pre-Test at 2:30 we will be hosting the 2nd Black Belt Pretest for November. There will no Saturday classes on the 16th.
- October 8th is NAKA Fall Tournament at Brookwood elementary school in Genoa City.
- November 4th: 1st fall Black belt test in Elkhorn @ 2:30 PM
- November 11th: 2nd fall black belt test in Barrington IL @ 2:30PM