We hope you will jump, block, kick and punch at the chance to support us in raising money for Hampshire Paediatric Diabetes Group (formally BYDG) and Diabetes UK.

The Link to the webpage to donate is here https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/shingitaimartialartsacademykatathon2017

The event takes place all week from Monday 9th October and during the week we will try to do as many different Forms or Kata as we can. The fundraising culminates in the Final Event on Saturday 14^th, 1-4pm, which includes chocolate tombola, raffle and prizes for:

1. Best Mum Kata
2. Best Dad Kata
3. Best Overall Kata
4. Guessing the total number of katas completed during the week
5. Raising the most money

The Hampshire Paediatric Diabetes Group (formerly Basingstoke Young Diabetics Group) supports Young People With Type 1 Diabetes (YPWD) and their families & carers in North Hampshire. They provide support, continuing education and events for the newly diagnosed and for approximately 140 young Type 1 diabetics (age 0-22) predominantly under the care of the paediatric team at North Hants Hospital.

Since its establishment in 1972, they have helped several thousand young people with Type 1 diabetes and their families & carers and are affiliated with Diabetes UK. This group supports families who are members of this club and we have many other members who are impacted by diabetes.

As a Martial Arts Academy that is truly part of the Basingstoke community we at Shin Gi Tai are passionate about raising as much money as we can for this very worthwhile charity and we are also asking businesses and groups to please be part of this effort so that we can work together to make a real impact.

We will be running a sponsored Katathon over the whole week w/c Oct 9th culminating in a Main Event on Saturday October 14th from 1pm – 4pm

PLEASE pledge your support, by being here on the day and by coming together as a club to raise as much money and awareness as possible by being part of our sponsored kata.

Can you please support by  making  a  donation  here,  giving: raffle prizes, coming along and supporting on the day either by getting on the mats and adding to our kata count or just offering some support and buying some cake and donating to this event. We have attached a sponsorship form for you to please ask family and friends to contribute and all members will be completing kata/forms in their classes during this week to raise sponsorship money. Please support the club by encouraging as many people to donate as possible.

Many thanks in advance for your generous donation

From all the team @ Shin Gi Tai Martial Arts Academy https://www.basingstokekarate.com

for more info please contact mandi.miles@basingstokekarate.com

According to the BBC a Martial Arts Black Belt’s skill in punching has more to do with his brains rather than his brawn. This is what the article had to say on the subject.  

Karate punching power ‘all in the brain’

By Jonathan Ball BBC News

Black belts show structural differences in specific parts of their brains (in white)

In a close-range punching contest described in Cerebral Cortex, experts consistently out-hit novices. Scientists peered deep into the brains of the experts to reveal alterations in regions controlling movement. These changes were linked with better coordination and speed of punch, a team from Imperial College London and University College London concluded.

The research shows that experts consistently out-punch novices

Ed Roberts from Imperial College London, who led the study, said: “The karate black belts were able to repeatedly coordinate their punching action with a level of coordination that novices can’t produce. We think that ability might be related to fine tuning of neural connections in the cerebellum.” To determine the speed of the punch, the researchers filmed and timed the movement of the infrared sensors attached to shoulders, elbows, wrists and hips of the people. The study of brain structure and function has been accelerated by the development of new medical imaging techniques, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The current study used a special MRI technique called Diffusion Tensor Imaging. This is useful in the investigation pharmacy of a variety of brain disorders such as multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, brain abscesses and brain tumors.

The brain’s grey matter stains more darkly than white matter

The brain contains two main types of tissue – grey and white matter. The regions controlling and coordinating movement are known as the cerebellum and the primary motor cortex and are composed of both. However, the study showed that changes in the structure of the white matter were associated with improved coordination. Changes in white matter structure have been observed in other individuals engaged in repetitive physical activity – pianists for example – and can also be induced simply by thought. In a study published in the journal PNAS, the authors showed that regular meditation resulted in white matter changes in regions of the brain associated with emotion. Commenting on his findings, Dr Roberts said: “Most research on how the brain controls movement has been based on examining how diseases can impair motor skills. “We took a different approach, by looking at what enables experts to perform better than novices in tests of physical skill.” Also, by looking at healthy subjects, it is hoped that scientists will gain a better understanding of how movement is controlled. One of the main diseases affecting white matter is multiple sclerosis (MS). This is a chronic degenerative disease that affects millions of people around the world. But the cause of MS remains unknown.

Here we go again. It’s time for people to start their annual fitness regime with all the best intentions in the world.

You can just hear it can’t you……”Well it’s a new Year and I’m going to get fit and lose weight.”

So what will it be this year? Gyms, Bootcamps, Personal Trainers, Swimming, Jogging, Dancing or Martial Arts? The Government are doing a good job of telling us that a sedentary life style will kill you. So maybe you’ve decided to listen, at last.

Oh and lets not forget after the excesses of Christmas it’s time to lose some weight as well. If you go out and pick up any of the women’s health or men’s fitness magazines at this time of the year. You’ll find the typical headlines “Loose 7lb in a week,” “Lose weight fast” and the list goes on and on. It must be an important topic, Government Ministers are getting into the act now and suggesting to the magazines what they should be saying

Anyway enough about all that fitness mullarky and losing weight. Let’s get back into the Martial Arts and give you the biggest most important Self Defence tips of all time.

Are you ready to slay your demons? Well let’s start then at Self Defence 101.

1. Eat moderately and sensibly
2. Exercise
3. Don’t eat more calories than you expend during the day

Surprised, Yes? Well Martial Arts is about self defence and self protection and practiced well is meant to be holistic as well. (Your know holistic derived from the Greek word holos, meaning that the bodies natural systems should be considered a whole entity rather than a collection of separate parts – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holism)

Eat Moderately and Sensibly

Do you know that as a rule of thumb, the guidelines indicate that following intake of calories is necessary to maintain a healthy body weight.  A man needs around 2,500 calories a day a  woman needs around 2,000 calories a day.

Any idea what you actually consume? There are plenty of Android and Apple phone applications that will help you to keep track of what you are eating.

Bottle of Cola and bar of Chocolate for breakfast? At 139 calories for a tin or 210 calories for a 500ml bottle and a bar of Chocolate being upto 255 calories, you really won’t do yourself any favours, if you carry on like that all day.

The NHS offer some good tips for healthy eating. If you really want to scare yourself, look at the calorie lables on the foods you buy, yes even the so called ‘low fat’ options

Exercise

Do you know what the NHS’s guidelines are for adults aged 19-64?

To stay healthy, adults aged 19-64 should try to be active daily and should do:

At least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity such as cycling or fast walking every week, and

             muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a
week that work all major muscle groups (legs,
hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).

             muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a
week that work all major muscle groups (legs,
hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).

muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).

Don’t eat more calories than you expend in exercise

The ‘magic numbers’ seem to be that to lose 1lb of fat, you need to burn 3500 calories. The recommended guideline is to aim to lose 2lb of fat per week, so you need to make sure that you are burning another 7000 calories in a week. You could eat 500 less calories a day and that will lose you 1lb. You can also add more exercise.  What does that equate to, have a look at the table to the left and work out how the figures impact you.

We often use a calories counting watch, one of our members holds the current record with 1046 calories burned off during one 1 hour class.  That kind of consistent result will see some good things happen, but it’s down to you to make it happen.

So the first and golden rule of Self Defence has to be to look after your health.

The second golden rule is to learn a Martial Art 😉 Details of our classes are here https://www.basingstokekarate.com/basingstoke-adult-martial-arts-classes