December 2009 we held our first in-club comp on a Tuesday evening at the Bunnyhill centre. 23 kids competed on that night and about 12 parents watched. The whole thing took about 30 minutes. No fighting just kata.

November 23rd was the date for this year’s in-club competition. 131 students entered with 28 individual categories and 6 pairs and teams categories plus the boys v girls feature. This competition has certainly grown in stature. 17 of the entries came from TASK clubs and 17 from Dokan sister clubs. The other 97 entries were from our own club with a fantastic entry of 22 white belts which hopefully suggests some supportive parents entering our ranks after a sparse year and a half. And there is some serious talent in that group of white belts. I pray most will take opportunity to join one of the UKs top clubs and become something special.

We hired nationally qualified referees to accompany our existing club refs and ran three areas non-stop for 5 hours. The standard for a small local comp like this was fantastic and I hope the new and old parents alike enjoyed the experience. I know many of the kids did.

As usual our medals and trophies were second to none and I am commissioning some new ones for this summer's Dokan comp. In which I hope to run four areas at all day long to make things run slicker and quicker. Thanks to TASK and Derek’s SKA for supporting the event but more gratitude indeed to the small army of parents who helped set up the night before, done the draws, manned the tables, ran the shops, worked the door entry, transported the mats and cleaned away after we had finished. This event would not be possible without their support and what is nice is I didn’t have to ask them. They have seen me struggle over the years to try to everything myself and more and more of them are volunteering to help.

Harold Stephenson chief ref on the day summed it up as a fine way for the ref’s to end their year at a friendly well supported comp. And it was a good end to Dokan’s 2014 which has been the most successful year to date for the club.

Let us go into 2015 in the same fashion we went into 2014, with an aim to win but more importantly to enjoy karate.

Tags: competitions, 2014