24h January 2005
Welcome to new member Sam who managed to lift Josh off his feet. Everyone is beginning to master the Kata steps, which is great. I will find out the date of the next grading and let you know.

21st January 2004
Welcome back to Eric and Holly who have been on holiday. I'm sure Eric missed being the class guinea pig.
Club membership is really building up and I would like to keep on top of subscriptions. There is now a penalty for late renewals so if you could all let me know the date that your membership expires I can issue reminders. Thank you.
You can e-mail me at m@rtha.fsnet.co.uk

10th January 2005
Welcome to new members Bethan, Lucy and Mark. Bethan and Lucy are new to karate but are picking it up very quickly. Mark used to train at a different club where he reached purple belt.
Unfortunately this meant that Dai used him to demonstrate technique on. Hopefully he'll recover before next week and come back again.
We distributed flyers advertising the club in the Forgeside area over the holidays. This attracted some new members. If anyone can help with posting flyers in the Blaenavon area please let me know.
We also need to put up some new posters so any suggestions for locations would be appreciated.

11th December 2004
Congratulations to everyone who graded. Holly and Eric move up to 9th Kyu - orange belt. Emily moves up to 8th Kyu - red belt and Josh moves up to 7th Kyu - yellow belt. Well done.

3rd December 2004
A very strenuous class tonight. Eric, Holly, Josh and Emily each performed their grading syllabus several times and managed some kicking and punching practice too. Everyone did an excellent job of their Kata. One more class before the grading so put in plenty of practice over the weekend.

1st December 2004
Some dates for your diary.
The grading is next Thursday (9th). Make sure that you take your licences and grading fee.
There will be NO training next Friday (10th).
There will be training on Monday 13th December and then a break until Friday 7th January.

15th November 2004
A small class again tonight. Concentrated on kicking and its application. Eric was used for demonstration purposes and despite ending up on the floor several times still managed a smile.
Holly did an excellent Kihon Kata despite being really tired.

12th November 2004
The grading is getting closer. Small class tonight - might have had something to do with the Wales match - but excellent training session. Holly, Eric and Josh ran through the complete grading syllabus several times and all looked great.

8th November 2004
Grading practice tonight with Kihon, Kumite and Kata. Holly has mastered her turns and everyone had fantastic 'kiais'. Just a month to the next grading so everyone is working hard.

1st November 2004
Some challenging stretches as a warm up to a kicking session. Focus on correct stances and raising the knee. Also punching with focus on targets.
There will be no class on Friday 5th November.

18th October 2004
Another excellent session perfecting stances, knife-hand blocks and strikes, and some self defence. The class ended with all four kata. Everyone is really progressing well.
Eric copped a sharp dig in the ribs and a couple of other people ended up on the floor during Dai's self-defence demonstration.

15th October 2004
A killer session tonight with stretches (which left Josh and Eric walking with bandy legs), squats and press ups. Everyone is really getting to grips with their kata. Lovely loud 'kiais'.

11th October 2004
Katas and self defence tonight with some resistance training. Eric had to carry Josh and then Josh carried Holly. Hannah did very well and managed her kata while carrying Anya. Chris was exhausted after his marathon walk but used his finely honed Ninja skills to kill a fly.

8th October 2004
An early class with Kata practice and demonstrations of their applications. Eric and Josh did their best to take Dai down but he'd had his Weetabix. There were a couple of sore noses by the end of the class after some enthusiastic backhands.
Welcome to new member Richard.

4th October 2004
An excellent session with lots of work on Katas. The class practiced Kihon, Heian Shodan and Heian Nidan Katas. Hopefully there will be lots more coloured belts in the class after the next grading in December.
My apologies to Holly for spelling her name wrong in the diary.

30th September 2004
Another new member tonight. The class is really building up.
Working on the combinations again and ending the class with some painful looking self-defence moves.

27th September 2004
Welcome to new members Hannah, Anya and Tom. A tricky kick and punch combination tonight with everyone working very hard and poor Eric being target again.

13th September 2004
A well attended class with a good session of kicking practice followed by some sound self defence instruction. Welcome back to Neil and Christian after their holiday.

10th September 2004
An exhausting night. 45 minutes of very intensive stretching and kick practice, followed by 260 Mae Geri, then some work on the bag. Holly was very impressive as usual especially as it was a particularly tiring session.

6th September 2004
Lots of kicking and sweeping practice tonight with poor Eric being used for demonstrations.
Congratulations to Beth and Ben who received their grading certificates.

27th August 2004
Naomi certainly packs a powerful punch - as her dad found out tonight. Welcome back to Ross.

19th August 2004
Hope everyone is enjoying their well earned rest. Back to training on Monday 23rd - fighting fit I hope.

22nd July 2004
Congratulations to everyone who graded. Everyone did really well after an intensive two hour training session. There will now be six coloured belts in the class. Well done.

19th July 2004
The pressure was on tonight and everyone worked really hard at their Kata. I don't know who is more nervous - Dai or Neil.
Good luck to everyone grading on Thursday.

16th July 2004
Everyone did really well at their practice gradings despite Dai trying his best to wear them out beforehand.
The 'Kiais' are getting loud enough to be heard in Abergavenny. Very impressive.
Don't forget to take licences to the class on Monday night so that Dai can complete the grading cards ready for Thursday.

12th July 2004
A very intensive session where the class practiced the grading from start to finish several times.
The hard work was broken up with some fun when Eric was picked on by all the crocodiles.

9th July 2004
Lots of practice of the basics in preparation for the grading.
While demonstrating the finer points of self-defence Dai made a sandwich with Andrew, Josh and Neil.

5th July 2004
Naomi's father Andrew decided that he would give the class a go too tonight. He did really well at his first karate class for 27 years.

2nd July 2004
Another new member joined tonight - Naomi - who made a perfect sparring partner for Holly. The class is really filling up.
Christian had his Weetabix today and managed to catch Dai out with a powerful punch.