Sometimes as a coach in any sport it’s easy to feel like a nag, constantly reminding students to ‘bend their knee’ or ‘pull their hand back’ or ‘grip the uniform differently’ or whatever is specific to a particular sport.

The focus of Sunday’s monthly coaching meeting  was how to create effective and fun new ways to develop skills without seeming like we are nagging. Sharing experiences and knowledge of Gymnastics, Judo, Tennis, Karate, Tai Chi, Teaching in academic situations and discussing how we can relate this experience to Andragogy and Pedagogy.

Members of our Basingstoke Martial Arts club made the trip to Dundee on the Banks of the River Tay in Scotland for the World Union of Karate-Do Federations biennial World Championships. This event is always a highlight in the calendar, with over 2600 competitors from 74 different federations taking part, this year was no different.

Competitors, officials and coaches came from Countries diverse as Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria, Egypt, Switzerland all adding a truly international feel to the event.

Just asked the kids at the end of one of the Karate classes, in Basingstoke, if they had any questions and was asked “what did we learn today cause I just had fun.” We discussed it as a group and this is what they learnt.

Our drills warm up was team oriented and included a class discussion on how we deal well with winning and losing.

Please note that we are closed on the Bank Holidays during May on Monday 7th and Monday 28th May. All other classes run as normal.