Author: Sensei Antonio Santorelli

This month on easyfundraising you could win a Samsung 40" 3D TV (complete with snazzy 3D glasses and SRS TheaterSound) and we’ve thrown in a Samsung Blu-Ray Player and a Monster vs Aliens Blu-Ray too

It's simple to enter, everytime you shop online via easyfundraising you get entered into the prize draw. Doesnt cost you any extra and at the same time you can help raise funds for the club. If your company uses viking direct, then you will get twice as many for on line purchases. (t&c apply)

If you shop online, then why not shopp via easyfundraising and register to help our cause. It doesnt cost you anything to do so and as you shop online, you also receive great offers only available to those registered to easyfundraising.

Thank you

The last grading was superb now its time to carry on the momentum to the next grading taking place on June 4th. We are holding more grading workshops to perfect those techniques for your next belt. These workshops count towards your attendances and will allow the instructors to evaluate the techniques that need improving.  This then gives us a month to polish your techniques so that it is to the same standard as your stronger techniques. We have split the workshops over 4 sessions so that we can focus on three belts at a time, giving you the best possible opportunities and attention. We are pre-booking now so that we can gage attendandees and have enough instructors to hand to help you all. Pre-booking your space is only £4 per student.

The ASBBA In House tournament (in conjunction with our sister club Dines Green Freestyle in Worcester) are holding its 2nd installment of the In House Tournament League. This is a great opportunity of those wanting to get onto the tournament scene as it tests your skills against people that you know. It allows you to build on your foundations and put your skills to the test. The event takes place on April 17th at Lordswood Girls School and costs only £5 for your 1st category. Each participant will receive points towards the league standings and there are trophies for the top 3 placed fighters in each category. Kids categories are done by height and there are categories for the lil' warriors (4-6 year olds). The last one was fun and the standings are still al to play for. Its never to late to start competing and winning the overall league.

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.

ASBBA has many ways of keeping you informed with important news, results and events. The quickest and simplest is to sign up to the club's newsletter on the left hand side of this page. You will receive monthly newsletters and reminders direct to your inbox. Our news blog is going to be kept up to date and streamed for events as well. Then we have our social network pages. You can follow us on twitter or join our growing group on facebook. Click the links to take you straight there.

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.