Keep your comments polite, on topic and succinct. Play nice and everyone benefits!.
Just a quick update/reminder of changes to the usual schedule for training this week.
Michael C is in Canada for the next fortnight, so there will be no Systema classes till Tuesday 20 November.
I have a mid-afternoon committments today (Monday) so won’t be at the dojo till 5.30 for kendo kata.
Arnis is having a slow period at the moment, so we will be rescheduling training till Tuesday at my place. Let me know if you are interested in participating!
I am wanting to firm up some planning and numbers for the last weekend of November and the first weekend of December, as this will come around quicker than anticipated.
The draft schedule for 24/25 November has been put together, and we are planning for a full day Saturday at the Gin Gin National Fitness Hall, starting with Kendo at 10.30am, Iaido from 1.00-2.30pm, then Jujutsu from 3.00-4.30pm. That evening we will be heading to Bundaberg for an end-of-year dinner and show. Sunday will start with a Judo training session and end with an informal Judo shiai, where competitors will be matched more closely on age/experience/size than would be in a formal Judo competition. This will also allow for the broader Judo community to participate.
If you are interested in participating, please let me know ASAP. We will need to arrange for how many cars we take driving up, and accomodation. There are a number of accomodation options, but the earlier we sort this the better. The plan is to leave Toowoomba first thing Saturday (likely 0530) for at least one car, but if you were looking to support the Jujutsu and Judo sessions of the weekend, there may be some scoope to have a second departure time for those folk.
The Saturday and Sunday morning sessions are open to all regardless of experience, so it would be great to see folk come and support our sister Club in Gin Gin.
The weekend after we will be off to the Gold Coast for the QKR Summer seminar. We will be missing a few folk (attendance/participation at wedding is a passable excuse), but we will be looking to sort out our accomodation arrangements this week coming. If those who haven’t confirmed (yay or nay) whether they are coming could please do so before Thursday, it would help this planning enormously.
It is the 10th anniversary of the Club this month. As part of celebrations that will include an end of year dinner, I would love for all of the BBRD community — current and past members, supporters and friends— to share their favourite memories and photos from the last ten years.
There are some great stories out there, and I’d love to hear them! So please, post on social media, including the Club’s public Facebook page or the group pages, e-mail me directly, or simply spread the word/love in whichever way you would like. And don’t forget to use the hashtag #BBRD10years !
Friday night last, our Taiko group performed two sets for the diners at Kajoku Korean & Japanese Restaurant in Margaret St, Toowoomba. The restaurant was full for both sessions, but that provided little sound buffering for the boom of multiple taiko at full bore! However, I'm not aware of anyone availing themselves of the ear plugs thoughtfully provided by the restaurant. 😁 The night was arranged to raise some further funds for the Takatsuki Disaster Relief Fund, before it is closed off by Rotary and Council at the end of this month. We enjoyed the opportunity to perform for the public again on the wonderful taiko gift from Takatsuki, especially in order to give something back to their community, and thank Jeff from Kajoku for arranging this night. Grateful thanks go to our Club members: Tomoko, Jun, Michelle, Katy (who danced as well as drummed), Gary, Arielle, Joanne and Sian, and to Roger, Steve and Mark who helped with handling the drums in and out of the restaurant and vehicles.
It’s a misty start to the week here in Toowoomba, which will give me an opportunity to start working on a number of home-based and dojo-based projects that have been on the back burner while I have been travelling to Bundaberg for study. The first of these will be some updates to the Club’s web site, which is in need of a refresh as some of the content there is either a little tired or out of date. I will be making these changes through this week, so as a favour, could you please point your browsers to www.bbrd.org.au and let me know what you think needs revision/deletion/inclusion for the site.
Second, we will be doing some planning for the next month, with three Club committments starting this weekend in support of the Diwali Festival celebrated this Saturday, a trip to Gin Gin to help the Ken Jin Kan Kids prepare for their very first Kendo seminar the following week, and taking the opportunity to do some Jujutsu and Iaido while up there.
Third is of course our own participation at the QKR seminar and grading opportunity the following weekend.
On the back of the successful “Virtual Dojo” training we had with Gin Gin on Wednesday afternoon, we are going to try to set up virtual classes for both FlexiFit this evening and Iaido later this week. I you are interested in participating, please contact me ASAP so that I can set up the Zoom meetings and send invites to participate.
In Jujutsu, we are finishing up our focus on kansetsu-wasa and transitioning to a month of focus on nage wasa. I would encouragefolk that have been away from classes for a while to come this week if you can, as we will be doing some important foundation work with your falls and “fitting in”. For kendo, we will be starting to spend focussed time in grading preparation.
Systema on Tuesday night will run as usual, though Michael C has to head overseas for a fortnight from next week, so will be returning to regular programming thereafter.
And one thing I am particularly looking forward to after study and illness forced disruption is a return to Gym and Swim for me this week! Let me know if you are interested in coming along to Milne Bay for a session!
I wanted to note Jack Baker’s success on the weekend in picking up gold for judo, in the u81 Kg category at the Isshindokan Club competition. This adds to an excellent haul so far this year. Congratulations, and I am looking forward to seeing him back on the tatami, especially with our nage wasa focus about to start in Jujutsu!
Second, I’d like to especially thank Russell Lawrence sensei, who generously provided his time on Thursday to give my Iaido kata a thorough working over in preparation for my shinsa in December. Five hours with a 6DAN certainly will leave your head feeling pretty full, but I’ve hopefully retained plenty of things to polish and refine over the coming weeks.
Thanks also to Rob D for organising the use of the Pine Mountain Dojo for the session. I’ll look forward to some more training with him in both Iaido and Kyudo in the coming weeks!
We have some significant planning to do over the next few weeks for a few significant events at the Club.
First, The Club has been invited to participate in the Toowoomba Diwali Festival to be held at lunch on Saturday 3 November.
We are in the planning stages of supporting a Gin Gin martial arts weekend towards the end of November Tamara Kelly will be solidifying arrangement in that regard over the next week, so we ought to have more detail by the next bulletin.
We may have a visit from Kurt Graham, Sensei in November as well, and will be confirming details there in the next few days.
The QKR Summer seminar will be held on the Gold Coast the first weekend of December. We will start doing some forward planning for that starting this week, including firming up who might be coming down so that we are able to secure appropriate accommodation for the event.
And finally, the 10th Anniversary of the Club’s foundation in in November, and we will be looking to celebrate it in an appropriate way, and include a wrap up of the year’s events!
So an exciting and packed month ahead!
I hope that everyone has made it through the storms that swept through Southeast Queensland yesterday afternoon without too much disruption or damage. I still have to thoroughly look around our place, as flights were delayed coming in from Canberra to Brisbane yesterday, and we didn’t arrive back in Toowoomba till after 10 pm.
The plan at this stage is that training will resume a normal for this week, though we may have to be a little flexible, depending on what state the MEAC is in after the School’s Art Show. Any changes or variations to the schedule will be posted up on the Club’s Facebook page, and sent out via SMS to affected students. We may also be doing some minor tweaks to the timetable, including shifting kendo kata, Go sessions or Arnis, but we shall be consulting with the regulars to see what the best fit for the next few weeks will be.
In addition to regular opportunities, we shall be organizing a few excursions down to Pine Mountain Dojo, as Russell Lawrence Sensei is visiting from Perth, and I certainly would like to take the opportunity to train with him while he is here.
I am really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things , after what feels like an age away due to illness and end-of-term commitments for my studies. As always. I’ll look forward to seeing you at the dojo!
With a tinge of sadness, I’d like to note that Minty Ma will be leaving Toowoomba at the end of this week to move back to Sydney. She has been successful in securing a speech pathologist role there, and will be off by the end of this week.
I first wanted to express my thanks to Minty for being a phenomenal 2IC of Kendo at the Club. This has especially been appreciated over the past seven months that I have been travelling to Bundaberg and back in pursuit of my studies. Minty’s knowledge, skill, enthusiasm and diligence have always shone through, and she has made an enormous contribution to Sean T’s and Kateena’s kendo development.
Given the disruptions to training this week, we will have to confirm a location for her final training session in Toowoomba (at least for the moment). However, we fully expect to see her at QKR seminars to come and join the fun of a weekend away!
So on behalf of the Club, we very much wish her all the best, and will hope to see her soon!
It is that time of year again, and the Holy Name Primary School’s Art Show will be set up for this week.
This will mean that we cannot hold any classes at the MEAC. However, we are looking at some specific alternatives on a session-by-session basis. We will try to get the messages out regarding alternative training times before the Budo Bulletin is sent Monday Morning, but please consult with your individual discipline coordinators if you are unsure what this week’s arrangements will be.
Keep your comments polite, on topic and succinct. Play nice and everyone benefits!.