Dokan Karate Club

Sunday the 20th of November found me hosting our association tournament with 187 people entered, which equated to about 500 entries. Four areas well ran and supervised by quality wukf official referees aided by Dokan volunteer judges and table staff. The set up and efficiency of the day is a credit to all those people who gave up their time to make it work. The feedback has been wonderful and virtually everyone enjoyed the day. A sincere thank you to my helpers, our Refs, and all the parents for supporting the event. 85 of my own Dokan club students setting the best of examples, done me and their parents proud . And let’s not forget my friend John Bearby photographer extraordinaire who a lot of these photos were taken by. Also thank you to Monika Baxter for making a superb video of the event.

WUKF EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2022

Dokan karate association that has its head quarters in South Tyneside and Sunderland, took a small squad to Florence Italy for the WUKF European championships. A tournament that had 21 countries, over 70 referees, 260 coaches and 1852 athletes attending, and was ran over 4 days with a further day for registrations and weigh ins etc.

The squad had a hard time of arranging the trip due to rail strikes and multiple flight cancellations that saw some parents withdraw completely, but those that persevered were rewarded with an experience they will never forget.

The 12 students who are all from Tyne and Wear won 4 gold, 3 silver and 8 bronze medals between them. Quite a respectable tally for such a small group, and they could have done better with a smidgen of luck.

Manchester open 02.10.22. A long and tiring day. Arrived 8.00am pulled out 8.00pm. Twelve hours is enough for me. Some great personal performances from our squad and the team effort was exceptional. I am proud of their attitude, skill and etiquette. Medal tally I believe is (& this counts pairs and teams as one medal) 17 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze. Brilliant job guys. Not sure how our Ichiban Leeds branch done but we done well. I am really happy with the development of most of my junior students, and as per usual, my senior girls set the example. Fabulous girls. The attached video was made by student Ewan Baxters mother and all those shown are our own students. This tournament had 457 people entered and show cased how competent our students are becoming. The medal tally may have been a tiny bit higher had we not withdrew from 6 categories because of the time. 

GB Open Birmingham. 19 Dokan students and 2 Kawuaso from our Association club in Ryhope. A 2 day competition and a WUKF ranking event. My 21 students won 21 gold, 14 silver and 12 bronze medals, and I am counting team and pairs medals as only one win. What a fabulous achievement and a fantastic outing for those that attended. When the lockdowns were ending a year or so ago and I got a large influx of new starters, I set out to forge a new junior super squad and I thank those parents for putting their trust in me.

Our medal tally 8 gold, 12 silver and 16 bronze. Might be more as I was so stressed running about trying to get inexperienced kids in the right place that I lost track of the tally. Also if i count teams as three medals we won way more. I will do another post on this weekend later, but I want to thank the organisers and everyone concerned with running a superb competition efficiently and amiably.

Ryukyu comp at Newcastle, we entered 18 students and won thanks to team events about 21 medals. There was no kumite for the youngsters and the whole thing could be described as a a little bit different. I was pleased with all the Dokan squad and there was a high stand of kata and teams.

Second comp of 2022 for Dokan karate club. 33 students entered, half of those novices, so a testing day for all involved. We ended the day as the most successful karate club with a medal tally of approximately 17 gold, 21 silver, and 28 bronze, courtesy of team events. Of the tournament itself, I will say it was superbly run, and finishing well before 6.00 was an accomplishment in itself.

This is one of three posts that I will do this week, as I can only add 80 photos. And I am having facebook problems. It will not allow me to tag or comment. Regardless I hope you enjoy looking through these and that your child enjoyed the experience of competing. These photo's were taken by Lyndsey Gates on my outdated camera. Thanks Lyndsey. Next post will be the photo's by John Bearby and if you want more look up Monika Baxter who took some good ones too.
There will be a photo of me awarding the top external club trophy on the next batch of photos later this week.