Here is the Holiday Schedule from today through the end of the year. We do not have class on Wednesday, December 24, Thursday December 25, Saturday December 27, Wednesday December 31 and Thursday January 1. We do have class on Monday December 22, Tuesday December 23, Monday December 29, Tuesday December 30 and Saturday January 3rd. Thanks to everyone for making the Christmas party special. To see a larger image of the announcement above, click on the image.

Our Student of the Year for 2008 is Steve Bellingham. He is a Shodan who trains with his two sons at NIKI. He is very active in participating in events beyond the walls of the dojo. It is through challenging himself and keeping motivated that he and his family are so successful in Karate. Congratulations Steve on a job well done and a title well earned. Keep training hard everyone!

KYU TEST RESULTS. We did not do as well as a group on this test as the last. I think that everyone needs to concentrate more and focus more power towards the correct targets. I will work on exercises that emphasize these skills. If you didn't do as well as you expect of yourself, then re-double your efforts at each training. If you don't train with great intensity at the dojo it is very hard to perform well on these tests. Here are the results (double click on the image to see a bigger version):

STUDENTS OF THE MONTH. The student of the months for September was Nicholas Bellingham, for October was Jake Hebert and for November was Sammy Crochet. All three are brown belts and all three participated and did very well at the Youth Tournament last weekend in Ponchatoula. I will post a complete recap of that event soon. Congratulations to all three students for their recognition and thanks for the great work ethic each student has shown.

UPDATE. The JKAAF did very well at the competition, winning the women's individual kumite and kata events (Ray) and the men's kumite (Devin) and Kata (Lane) events. Ray was named the outstanding female competitor and Lane was named the outstanding male competitor. Our region won men's team kata and kumite and women's team kata amd kumite. It was pretty much a clean sweep of the tournament. Our Acadiana competitor who competed on Sunday did excellent. Lane Nevils won the silver medal in men's sparring, the gold medal in men's kata, and two gold other medals for team kata and kumite (as well as the overall best male competitor award). Holly Damico won a gold medal for women's team sparring. Soon Yeoh won two gold medals for men's team kata and kumite. Candis Durand won two gold medals for women's team kata and kumite.

The U.S. team trials were then held between tournament winners and Mr. Mori's competitor's from the SKDI. Having not competed in the tournament, the SKDI competitors were definitely in an advantageous position in the team trial competition. In addition to that, they were very strong at Karate. From the JKAAF organization, Candis, Ray, and Rachel competed on the women's side. Devin, Tony Nakamura, Lane, Dimitri and Soon competed on the men's side. Everyone did kata and fought very well and with great spirit. In the end, from our organization, Ray, Devin, Tony and Lane were named to the United States team that will be competing in Tokyo in 2009 for the world championships. Congratulations to everyone on a very successful tournament.