Jujutsu kyu examinations Saturday 6 June

It is that time of year, and we have locked in 11 am Saturday 6 June to hold grade examinations for Jujutsu. Application fee for the grading is $30.

The grading rubrics for 9th-6th Kyu have been updated on the Club's Facebook group. I would ask that anyone who is wishing to present for an evaluation to download (and print out) the appropriate document and bring it with them to jujutsu classes between now and the end of the month.

Saturday sessions between now and the grading will be focussed on grading preparation, but if you have any specific questions based on the rubrics, please bring them along to evening classes as well.

Good luck everyone with your prep!

Best wishes for Stuart Shaw

I am not sure what the Chinese equivalent might be, but I want to call out a big gambate! for Stuart who left on Sunday to compete at the International tournament in Daqingshan, China.

We all know the very hard Work Stuart has been putting into his training over the past 12 months, and expect him to acquit himself well, no doubt with tales ideas and vigour to bring home with him.

Farewell Jack Jang!

With a little sadness, myself and some of the Executive managed to catch up with Jack on Tuesday before he and his wife started their journey down to Sydney in pursuit of work opportunities.

I want to extend my thanks to Jack for his contributions to the Club over the past two and a half years. We will all miss him, wish him all the best, and hope to see him again in Toowoomba in the not too distant future.

Annual General Meeting this Saturday 12pm

This Saturday, 2nd May, we will be having our Annual General Meeting (between the sessions of Tai Chi and Jujutsu) at 12 noon in the MEAC.

All current financial BBRD members are welcome and invited to attend. You must be financial to vote. Have your say in the future directions in our Club!

At the AGM we elect our club executive members: President, Secretary and Treasurer, for this year. Maybe you are thinking of standing for a position? This is your chance! We also hear about the happenings of the last year and what may be coming up ahead.

Jujutsu training will follow on from the AGM, which is not anticipated to take up a great deal of time. 

Hope to see you all there!

Saturday Jujutsu — Nage waza

Saturday's class (after the Club's AGM) will be the first of the month, and we will be transitioning from our focus on kansetsu waza (joint locks) to nage waza (throws and take downs). I always love this month as it provides an excellent opportunity to focus on the entire "package" of jujutsu — entering, unbalancing, footwork and body movement.

We will also be preparing for gradings up to potentially yon kyu, at the end of this month. For anyone contemplating presenting for a grade, please make sure that you talk with Michael ASAP about your eligibility and the criteria for the grade you wish to test for.

Will not be at Kendo this Wednesday

Unfortunately, Michael will not be able to attend Kendo at the University on Wednesday as he has been asked to participate in an event down in Springfield that afternoon and will not be back in time.

Those that wish to practice can still use the space, and we will confirm with the Club's kendoka whether Jason Winchester will be available to direct traffic.

We will be back to usual next week, and look forward to seeing as many there as can make it.

Membership form reminder

Just a quick note to remind everyone to fill out a 2015 Membership form ASAP so that we can set up the new database, and a big thank you to everyone who has already done so!

If you haven't done so yet, could you please give your paperwork to your relevant instructor this week.

Social Media experiment

I'm just wanting to run a little bit of a social media experiment with the Club's Facebook  page over the next few weeks, and would love if everyone on the Club's distribution list could help out.

First up, if you are a Facebook user and haven't "liked" the Club's Facebook page, please do so. Second, for the next two weeks, could you "like" the posts that come through on the page.

I'm hoping that we can continue to grow the reach of of the Page over the next month so that we might get more traffic both through the Club's various channels and in class. By liking things, you will see more of the Club's material come through your news feed, and more importantly, so too will your broader network of friends.

To that end we well also be putting up a new You Tube channel in coming weeks and try and re-syndicate some of the best martial arts related content that we find on the Net.

Andrew Seyerhelm seminar wrap up

I just wanted to once again say a big thank you to Andrew Seyderhelm for the seminar he delivered on Saturday. We managed to work through a six and a half hour dump of "practising Systema" — and as such we still didn't even get to all of the planned content!

Andrew's approach to the material, as always, was clear an insightful. We have many things big and small to practice over coming months. I'm sure everyone can still feel the outcome of the "mind in the elbow" heavy striking session. We have Andrew's notes from the day, so we will be working from them starting this Tuesday night.

I really enjoyed being able to spend the day with everyone, meeting new friends like Tony Dunne and catching up with old friend like Michael Conroy (who we hope to see a little more of in coming weeks!).

For those that missed out this time, we are going to tray and organise him to come up in the second half of the year, once he and the family have settled into Canberra for his new job in the AFP.

Andrew Seyderhelm Seminar this weekend

It is finally here!

Andrew will be up this Saturday to deliver a full-day Russian Martial Arts Seminar at the MEAC. I've been looking forward to this since before Christmas, and it promises to be a jam packed day.

There will be two sessions 10am–1pm and 2–5pm, with catch up drinks afterwards.

Attendance is $40/50 for a session or $60/80 for the day for BBRD members/Guests. You can pay via the Club website.