2009 was a very successful and eventful year for Shaolin. We were proud to take delivery of our new kickboxing ring and this will see greater use in preparation for our “Armageddon” tournament next year (see below).
Despite James Montgomery having been forced by work commitments to close his Hemel class at the end of 2009, the last year has seen our overall membership grow to record levels. Moving the Chief Instructor’s Monday “Fighting and Fitness” class to Elstree from Watford, re-locating Gerry’s Edgware class to Sundays at LA Fitness and Stephen Coward having qualified as a black belt and having taken on the St Albans class have had a tremendous effect as numbers at all these venues continue to grow.
Shaolin, of course, wouldn’t be the great club that is it without the support of students who train and submit themselves for gradings regularly. We would like to take this opportunity to mention just a few of these:
April Thomas, Elstree
Akin Coward, St Albans
Amar Shah, Kenton
Akshay Shah, Kenton
Chris Lloyd, Elstree
David Winston, Edgware
George Xenophontos, Elstree & Edgware
Harry Trower, Kenton
Jane Boyce, Elstree & St Albans
John O’Connell, Edgware
Ky Godfrey, Elstree
Laz Diaz-Prior, Elstree
Praayag Pandya, Kenton
Looking ahead, 2010 is set to be our best year yet. The Armaggedon intra-club tournament on 21st February will see the best fighters within the club competing to win their respective weight/age categories, with our Middleweight champion Steve Shorto headlining the event by taking on a national level opponent. We also plan to support the Herts Youth Games with a demonstration of our talents on 26th June 2010.
Other notable events planned for 2010 include:
· Presentation of certificates to all those who passed the grading that took place on 13th December '09
· St Albans class moves to Malborough School (closer to town centre) starting in the New Year
· Start of voucher scheme enabling students to buy 10 lessons for £50. This will be a first-come-first-served offer available on the website early in the new year with only the first 2 claimants in each class able to buy a voucher.
· Nikolay and Denver grading for their Black belts
· Spring training camp in St Kitts!
· Black Belt Adam Weir-Rhodes returns from university
· More equipment (kick and punch pads) to arrive at classes
On behalf of the Chief Instructor Kingsley Morgan, and all the Shaolin Instructors, we would like to wish our members and their families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.