Dear Students and Parents,
Thank you to all the students and parents for your continued support throughout the year 2018.
This year has been one of growth and stabilisation since my return in December last year. Wayne and Erik have been hugely supportive and without them, I could not continue to run the programs we offer and so I take this opportunity to thank them publicly. They are both extremely skilled and dedicated Instructors.
We have grown our children’s classes from basically two children in February to over twenty now. And by offering 4 classes a week at the one reasonable price we have seen many of these children progress very well. Todays’ grading will demonstrate this I believe. We now have a cohort of children who will need to move into some more advanced work (the white belts with black stripes) and so I am working on providing special classes for them alongside the other older children. These classes may have to be only available on two days from five to six pm, but hopefully, parents will see the benefit of having a more focused training regime for these more advanced kids. I am also considering separating the lower ranks into two groups and holding the classes on different days
1. White belts, white with green stripe.
2. Blue stripes and red stripes.
This will ensure that the children get to cover some of their work in each class, whereas currently sometimes we do not have sufficient time to do so. I appreciate this may be inconvenient for some people, but it will ensure better training and attention and I hope parents will see the value in this move. I will analyse our register to try to ensure this provides the best outcome for most people.
Our Kick-Fit strategy women’s self-defence and fitness classes have also grown this year with several newcomers joining. I have provided a more structured course to allow people to see their development and gain new rank recognition. However, the emphasis is still around achieving self-defence skills in a fun environment. Mothers, I would encourage you to give this course consideration in 2019. It runs during school terms and at a time when most parents have been able to settle their children for the evening. The classes are an hour of continuous exercise that helps with fitness and in a supportive fun environment. I would also be keen to offer a daytime class once a week around 9.30am-10.30am but need a starting group of about 6 women to make this happen. Please let me know if any of you are interested.
Our regular evening ITF Taekwon-Do classes are perhaps our weakest group at the moment since it seems difficult to encourage families, teenagers or adults to take on a martial arts commitment. Nonetheless, I will spend some time building this group by offering a specific beginners night class and then two other nights when the more senior students can attend for longer classes. I would like to point out that there are very few activities that adults and children can do together. ITF Taekwon-Dois a great way for families to develop a bond between the adults and their children and instils a sense of respect and discipline in children toward parents. I have seen this happen often in the past and it especially assists while the children are going through their teenage years. I urge you to consider this and recommend our classes to others.
In 2019 I also hope to establish a Yoga class during the daytime at least once a week with one of the most respected Yoga teachers in Hobart. I am in discussions with this teacher but would be keen to get feedback from our members/parents/friends whether you think this would generate interest.
Classes will recommence for the year on Monday 7th January according to the proposed 2019 timetable below with the SITF Kids classes and Kick-fit Strategy recommencing on Monday 11th Feb which is the Monday after school starts on Wednesday 6th. (I'm aware the 11th is Regatta day)
Please note this is a proposed timetable only and may be amended after you provide feedback either personally or via e-mail. It would be helpful if you could do so before we recommence regular classes on the 7th Januar.
We will only have two classes this week on Wednesday 19thand Thursday 20th December starting at 6.15pm.
Grading dates for 2019 will be advertised soon.
If you do not receive correspondence from me via e-mailplease shoot me one on the address in the letterhead and I will add you to ourcontacts list.
Once again thanks for your support throughout 2018. It hasbeen an interesting year with many challenges personally, not least of whichwas the effects of ageing on ones’ health, that at times had some effect on myavailability for class, but the club has continued to grow with a terrificgroup of new students . Hopefully next year will be even better in terms ofgrowth and standard.
Merry Xmas, happy Holidays and look forward to seeing you in2019.
Regards,
Master Steve Weston
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