Life Shotokan Karate is a local club with classes in Cheltenham and Gloucester. The teaching style is traditional and disciplined in structure whilst also being fun & energetic.

Newsletter March 2010

I have sent out the March 2010 Newsletter. If you have not recieved your copy then please email me to let me know. Thanks. Sensei

Posted 4th March 2010

Junior Class Thursday 11th March

The Junior Class at Bishops Cleeve is cancelled on the 11th March as Sensei will be visiting the Winchcombe Junior Class in order to carry out a pregrading assessment. Any juniors from the Cleeve class who still wish to train are more than welcome to come along, dont worry if you are a few minutes late due to travel time. Sensei

Posted 4th March 2010

Black and Brown Belt Course, Wincanton

Well done to everyone who made the effort to attend this course - you did the club proud and I hope you enjoyed the class. We were the largest contingence there. Sensei.

Posted 27th February 2010

SPRING GRADING DAY MOVED

As mentioned in the February Newsletter the Spring Grading has moved to the Sunday 28th March due to the school double booking the hall. Same times and procedures as before just a day later! Sorry for any inconvenience caused. Sensei.

Posted 27th February 2010

KATA DAY 20th FEB 2010

Thank you to everyone who made the effort to come along today. We had quite a few people turn up although it would have been nice to see more of my blackbelts there! Also a big thank you to Paul and Brenda and Kevin who made the trip from wantage karate club. And finally thanks to Sensei Peter Manning for coming and saying hi. I will let you all know when I can plan another such day. Hope your bruises are not too bad Gary! Thanks Sensei

Posted 20th February 2010

KATA DAY 20th FEB 2010

Thank you to everyone who made the effort to come along today. We had quite a few people turn up although it would have been nice to see more of my blackbelts there! Also a big thank you to Paul and Brenda and Kevin who made the trip from wantage karate club. And finally thanks to Sensei Peter Manning for coming and saying hi. I will let you all know when I can plan another such day. Hope your bruises are not too bad Gary! Thanks Sensei

Posted 20th February 2010

BLACK & BROWN BELT LESSON

Our association the TRADITIONAL SHOTOKAN KARATE ASSOCIATION are putting on a senior grade class and we as a club have been invited. it is to be held in Wincanton on Saturday 27th February at 1pm until 2.30pm. cost of the class is to be £10 per student. we will all meet at Leckhampton Primary school at 11am and travel down together sharing cars to reduce our carbon footprint! please email me with your intention to come along if you havent already and for those of you hoping to attend the Shodan Grading in April this is a must! no exceptions. thanks Sensei

Posted 4th February 2010

FEBRUARY KATA BUNKAI DAY

the date for this all day class is Saturday February 20th. starting at 10sh and going thru to about 4pm. we will cover two Kata on the day one being an Heian Kata and one being a brown or blackbelt kata. the fee for the day per student is £20. please notify me if you havent already with your intention to come along as I cannot run this day if I dont get sufficient numbers. thanks Sensei

Posted 4th February 2010

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER...

the February club newsletter is winging its way to you as we speak! let me know if you dont receive it. thanks Sensei

Posted 4th February 2010

STUDENT OF THE MONTH

Well done and a big congratulations to Adam Higgins for winning STUDENT of the MONTH for February. I will get the pic of Adam being presented with the trophy uploaded onto the gallery within the next couple of days. Sensei

Posted 1st February 2010

STUDENT OF THE MONTH

Well done and a big congratulations to Adam Higgins for winning STUDENT of the MONTH for February. I will get the pic of Adam being presented with the trophy uploaded onto the gallery within the next couple of days. Sensei

Posted 1st February 2010

ADULT CLASS BISHOPS CLEEVE PRIMARY

I am afraid that I have to cancel the above clas for Wed 20th Jan as I have to now attend my daughters year 11 Tutors evening. apologies but family must always come first. see you soon in class. Sensei

Posted 19th January 2010

ADULT CLASS WEDNESDAY 13TH JAN

Due to the continued bad weather and the schools being closed I have had to cancel tonights adult class at Bishops Cleeve Primary School. Sensei

Posted 13th January 2010

STUDENT OF THE MONTH JANUARY 2010

Congratulations to Ben Stewart on being awarded the STUDENT OF THE MONTH TROPHY for Jan 2010. I will endeavour to upload a photo of Ben receiving the award from Sensei in the next day or so.

Posted 12th January 2010

FAMILY CLASS 22nd JAN

Good news - there will be an extra Family Class at Leckhampton School on Friday 22nd January. Hope to see you all there!

Posted 11th January 2010

Junior Class Monday 18th Cancelled

Apologies, Sensei will be on an instructor training course next week so sadly this class has had to be cancelled. Please look at the calender to find alternative classes. Thanks.

Posted 11th January 2010

ALL GRADES CLASS SUNDAY 10TH JAN 2010

We have had a good response to the email I sent out about training tomorrow morning. so I will run the class at Leckhampton Primary School. starting at 10am. hope to see you all there! Sensei

Posted 9th January 2010

THE WEATHER...

Due to the schools still being closed and the fact I doubt many people will venture out I have taken the decision to cancel tonights class at Leckhampton and tomorrows class at Grange Primary. I will email everyone to see if there are enough students wanting to train on Sunday morning. if so then we will aim to get together this coming Sunday 10th Jan. keep safe and warm. Sensei

Posted 8th January 2010

ITS SNOWING!

although it is all beautiful and white sadly the weather has closed the local schools. I have decided to cancel todays class for juniors at Leckhampton and tomorrows junior class at Bishops Cleeve. hopefully by friday we will be back to normal. now... whos up for a snowball fight? Sensei

Posted 6th January 2010

Xmas Grading Pictures

Hi fellow students. The pictures from the Christmas grading are now in the gallery. Apologies to those that I have missed and to those that feel I have not captured them at their most photogenic. Happy New Year to you all. Graham.

Posted 5th January 2010

JUST A QUICK MESSAGE FROM SENSEI

I just wanted to say thank you to all those students who gave me christmas cards and bottles of wine and gifts of chocolates for christmas. by January I will be very fat indeed! Have a very peaceful time this Christmas everyone with your families and may I wish all of you a happy and healthy New Year. may 2010 bring all of us plenty of love and laughter. Classes start back on January 4th with an adult class at Leckhampton so hopefully I will see everyone then. and to all you Parents and brothers and sisters not yet training? the new year is a great time to start... so hopefully see all the family together. Best Wishes. Sensei

Posted 19th December 2009

BISHOPS CLEEVE ADULT CLASS

Apologies but Sensei has to cancel tonights class at Bishops Cleeve.

Posted 16th December 2009

DATE FOR THE SPRING GRADING

Did anyone spot the deliberate mistake? Sensei put the date of the Spring Grading in on the weekend of Easter! Doh! it has now been moved to Saturday 27th March 2010.

Posted 13th December 2009

XMAS GRADING 2009

WELL DONE TO EVERYONE! just wanted to say how great it was to see all the students work so hard this morning at the grading. I would like to say thank you to my Blackbelt students Graham Watts, Saywan Salih, Ellen Bourne, Rudi Van der Hooft, Ashely and Tamsin Grainger for all their help. thank you to Graham for being official photographer! I am sure that once he puts all the pics up on the gallery he will put a little note on the news page to tell everyone to go and have a look. now for the other well dones... to the following students who achieved 3rd kyu brown belt - Rachel Coburn, Mike Curneen, Kevin Macey, Alexander Taylor, Joshua Woodcroft, Ben Wrathall and Tony Wright. and to those students who achieved 2nd kyu brown belt - Anniemae Evans, Innes Gardener, Barty Mcgrath, Caleb Trotman and Sarah Trotman. also well done to those students who achieved the lofty heights of 1st kyu brown belt - Gary Charlton, Bradley Evans and Deniz Gunn. I also want to say a great big WELL DONE to Ellen Bourne for winning senior student of the year! and to Ryan Oakley for winning Junior student of the year! and the Macey family for winning Family of the year! and finally well done to Thomas Pope for winning December student of the month! we have just a few more classes to go next week before the christmas break to give you all a chance to show off your new belts and start to learn those new Kata. see you all in class. Sensei

Posted 12th December 2009

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY...

what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us

Posted 9th December 2009

XMAS GRADING 2009

IMPORTANT NOTICE! as a result of a number of requests from students and parents I have decided to make this years xmas grading a joint one. that means that juniors and Seniors will all grade together. Please therefore be at Leckhampton Primary School for 9am registration whether you are a young one or an old wrinkly! :-) Sensei

Posted 2nd December 2009

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY...

there once lived a very poor farmer who one day discovered his Goose had laid a golden egg! the farmer could not believe his good fortune and amazingly it happens again the following day! and the day after that. the farmer becomes fabulously wealthy but sadly with his increasing good fortune comes greed and impatience. one day he cannot wait for the goose to lay the egg and so kills her to get all the eggs at once. not only are there no eggs but the farmer has now destroyed the goose who lay them. if we are more concerned with the golden eggs (the benefits) rather than the people in our lives who matter most we will become insensitive and inconsiderate. we will overlook and neglect the little kindnesses which are so important. the love and happiness wil quickly diminish, the goose will get sicker by the day! take some time to NOTICE those around you. LISTEN and make good use of your time. dont just get caught up with what you think is living. Sensei

Posted 30th November 2009

A LITTLE REMINDER...

The Grading is on the 12th Dec and I would just like to remind everyone to check their licenses to ake sure they are stil valid. thanks. Sensei

Posted 30th November 2009

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY...

life is full of stress. some is easier to handle than others. some stress can be seen as positive whilst many are negative and get in the way. stress can stop us in our tracks. make us ill. prevent us from enjoying life and living at peace with ourselves and those around us. stress sometimes can be many many little things that eventually build up until you feel trapped under something very heavy. so what do we do? well we must not lose sight of what is truly important. that is easier said than done I grant you but we still have to remember that our families and our friends and the love and support they give us will guide us through the stormy times. do not race round trying to fix everything all at once. forget what has happened in the past - no need to worry as it has been and gone and can no longer be changed. worrying about our future is pointless if we cannot influence it. so wait. deal with those stresses that are right under your nose, one at a time then use your energy wisely on the positive aspects of your life. Sensei

Posted 23rd November 2009

2010 CLASS TIMETABLE

I have just uploaded all the classes for the first three months of 2010 into the calendar. Please go and have a look and put them in your diary. 2010 is a big year for us with two Blackbelt Gradings as well as all our other events! so... train had everyone! Sensei

Posted 20th November 2009

THE LIBRARY...

Over the past few months I have lent out quite a few of my books and dvds regarding karate. I am happy to do this but am currently having trouble a, remembering who I have loaned things out to and b, it would seem having trouble geting them back :-( if you have borrowed one or more of my own personal books or dvds / videos can you please email me and let me know what you have? and maybe for how much longer you will need it? as I have other students who wish to do the same. thanks. Sensei

Posted 19th November 2009

CALLING ALL BLACKBELTS...

Can I please ask for some assistance at the Christmas Grading from any Senior and Junior Blackbelts that are available? thank you Sensei

Posted 19th November 2009

DECEMBER NEWSLETTER

I am sending out the December Newsletter a little early as I am becoming increasingly busy over the next couple of weeks with courses to attend and the Christmas Grading to prepare for so please dont moan at me that it is stil November and too early :-) if you are reading this notice and havent received the newsletter by the 20th Nov. please email me here at the club and I will forward it on to you. Sensei

Posted 19th November 2009

FAMILY CLASS

I am in a position to put an additional Family class in due to being off duty on the 27th November. This is a Friday and so the class will be at Leckhampton Primary School. 6pm to 7pm. See you there. Sensei

Posted 8th November 2009

BISHOPS CLEEVE PRIMARY

Due to Parents evening there is no Adult class at the above venue on Wed 18th Nov. Also there will be no Junior class on Thursday 19th either for same reason. However, Sensei will be taking this opportunity to go and teach at Winchcombe Primary School on Thursday 19th at 3.30pm. all Junior students are welcome to come along.

Posted 6th November 2009

CHRISTMAS GRADING!

The date for this years christmas grading is Sat 12th December. Junior Registration takes place at 9.15am and Adult registration will take place at 1.30pm. I would like to present the Annual Awards for best adult, best junior and best family at 12.45pm so can everyone taking part in the Adult grading in the afternoon be at the Grading for this time please? thanks Sensei

Posted 2nd November 2009

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