Welcome to the first Sensei’s Burogu (Blog), where you’ll get an insight into our world of martial arts as seen through our new Masters of Martial Arts Academy in Blackburn.
We opened at the end of September 2017, combining our clubs from Bank Top, St Bedes, Holy Souls and Rishton. As with any major project, it is a work in progress but it’s safe to say we’re about 90% complete.
I believe our martial arts tuition to be first class, so the vision was to create an equally first class modern academy & training environment for students, staff and visitors.
If you have seen it, I think you’ll agree it outshines any other martial arts venue locally.
Now things have settled down sufficiently, we have reintroduced our Star Student of the Month Award. It’s a great opportunity to recognise and acknowledge those little improvements in class or where a student has stood out above the rest. We previously had four awards - one for each of our four different locations.
With one centralised location now, our five most senior instructors will now select a student each who has impressed them. These students will be given a trophy for the month, have their photos displayed at the Academy and get to wear a special Star Student of the Month patch on their gi (uniform).
On the subject of rewarding students, our adults black tie Annual Masters Dinner & Awards Night takes has just recently taken place at the Dunkenhalgh. Students and instructors from all our Masters of Martial Arts clubs throughout East Lancashire attended, and we send congratulations to Luke Goldbold who received Blackburn’s Student of the Year Award. Sensei Phil Turner returned his overall Student of the Year trophy to be handed over to another deserving winner. Photos of the event will be uploaded on Facebook soon!
Our own Junior Awards Night is on Friday 23rd February in Jack's Lounge at Blackburn Rovers' Ewood Park. This juniors celebration event for 2016 was our first and this event recognises the achievements of our students in 2017. We’re expecting around 180 attendees so we’ve increased the numbers of awards this year, giving out around 30 trophies!
All proceeds, as before, will support our Defibrillators for Schools fundraising project. Through this project, we’ve now supported 11 Blackburn Primary schools with either the supply of a defibrillator or a cash donation, with another two in the pipeline. Our awards night should provide funds for yet another device.
We are also setting up free basic life support and defibrillator training at the Academy to be scheduled every three months for our community to attend.
"Recognising achievement is a high priority for us, as it helps create happy and productive students."
In my next Burogu, Sensei will be talking about our events and plans for 2018
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Keigu (Kind Regards),
Sensei