Archive for March 2011

Happy Birthday to William Lowe who celebrated his birthday with one of our Martial Arts themed birthday parties. Under the careful supervision of its instructors, an exciting bunch of William's friends ascended onto Lordswood Girls School for a fun packed, high energy birthday party. For 2 hours, all 18 children were on the move led by William who was awarded for the day an honourary black belt. Once we played our ice breaker game so that all children got to to know each other, it was time for some light martial arts on the free standing punch bags in the form of races. All the children listened to all instructions and attacked the assault courses then they fought each other with our unique foam stick game. With many more games, the children didn't have time to stop, think or get bored. Game after game, the children were kept entertained and we finished the fun with some board breaking. A pleasent party was concluded when William blew out the candles on his 'the stig' (off top gear) birthday cake.

What a long and hard day's work for all those who took their grading on Saturday. The standard was set by the Lil Warriors who were focused and disciplined with all their techniques. They demonstrated great movement, ability and more importantly, the desire to succeed in our specialised Lil Warrior Programme. Our kids and adults then took the stage. The technical side was soon followed by self defence sets, grappling sets, patterns and then sparring. Our grading system is designed to take all students through a journey towards their black belt and beyond.

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A great opportunity has come to for you all to improve on your semi contact sparring. ASBBA has teamed up with its sister club - Dines Green Freestyle, to bring to you a 2 hour intensive session for your competition fighting. We are bringing usefull tips and drills for you to take away and practice in sparring or on the tournament circuit. Lil Warriors and Kids shall take place at 10am followed by Cadets and Adults at 12.30pm, all to be held at Lordswood Girls School. Spaces are limited so book early to avoid dissappointment. An ideal opportunity to start thinking about getting yourselves onto the fight squad.

Less than two weeks away until it's grading time again. Could all students please make sure they arrive at Lordswood Girl's School from 9.30am so that we can take the register and ensure the smooth running of the event. We are looking to start with the Lil Warriors at 10am with Kids, Cadets and Adults starting promptly straight afterwards. The sparring element of the grading shall be assessed at the end of the grading so please do not forget your sparring kit or disappear home after the technical element. There will be refreshments and ASBBA merchandise on sale that day as well.

A quick thank you to all the asbba members who have started using the easy fundraising website to help us raise funds for the club. We received a cheque for £20 today which will be put towards some equipment. It doesn't sound like much but so far we have 15 members signed up. If we all signed up to the cause then the funds would increase at a faster rate. The previous cheque was put towards the gladiator pugel sticks that we used in class a couple of months back. Don't forget that you can still help raise funds by using easy search. So even if you do not shop on line, you can do your part whilst using the internet.

An excellent tournament with the best fighters in the country. ASBBA took 2 members of its fight squad to the championships. The event was over 2 days and had 6 areas and 1 boxing ring to accommodate all the competitors. The results unfortunately didn't go our way but Shane and Adam did themselves proud against tough opposition. Each fight comprised of 2 x 11/2 minute rounds. Some good points to work on for the next competition. If you are looking to get into the tournament circuit then don't forget to get yourselves to sparring on Wednesdays (semi contact) and Saturdays (light continuous). We are also running a sparring workshop for all ASBBA and Dines Green Freestyle students on March 20th.