Congrats to our 5 new black belt women

[RENSHI]

GOOD JOB GIRLS

SHODAN - Denise Morell
SHODAN - Elora Schad
SHODAN - Jaimie Piatkowski
SHODAN - Laura Cristache
JUNIOR BLACK BELT - Jamie lynn Bernard

[Kim]

CONGRADULATIONS TO YOU ALL!!!!

[Sempai Terry]

Congratulations Ladies.

I have always believed that the female students in our dojo had a fighting spirit that you do not find in a lot of other dojos. All of you demonstrated this in the pretest.

Denise, you were Sensei first student, it took you longer than you thought it would but you still reached your shodan. You demonstrated to other students to never give up on your goals.

Elora, you have always demonstrated skill and determination. Whether it was karate or grappling I appreciated that you never backed down from a challenge. I was told you trained “like a demon” for this grading and it showed.

Jamie Lynn. I saw a real fire in your eye when you were thrown down by Mr. De Vito, (I thought you were going to continue to fight and throw punches and kicks from your back.) The fact that you returned to the sparring circle to continue, when you did not have to, speaks very highly of you. Your junior black belt grading was a lot tougher than normal, you should take pride in that.

Laura, you have always showed good fighting spirit. I saw you dig down and come up with flurries of kicks and punches after you were very exhausted. Never lose that mindset.

Jamie, as a white belt you were bothered that the other students “went easy” on you when sparring and asked me not to go easy on you. When you wanted to tune up for tournaments and gradings you often asked “younger” Mr, Rocke to spar you. I believe your quote was "He will beat on me but I trust him not to injure me.” Whether it was sparring or breaking you challenged yourself.

Ms Langford set a high standard for you ladies, you all rose to the occasion and set examples for others to follow.

Once again congratulations.

[RENSHI]

excellent post Terry

[Sempai Jaimie]

I would just like to say thank-you very much Mr.Rocke for being so thoughtful and kind in your post. Without the help, patience and support of you and the (younger)Mr.Rocke I wouldn't be where I am today...Once again thanks!!!

[RENSHI]

Jamie said:

wow lol i was just about to cry there thankz terry and yeah hes right man you guyz were allll SOOOO awesome ..i probably could'nt of done as well as i was told i did if you guyz weren't there beside me you guyz all deserved IT AND WE DID IT ;D congratulations ladies muaha

pls refer to black belts, sensei,s sempai,s and so on by there titles, i cant stress how important this is...

its great we keep it relaxed but we also must remember our etiquette

if someone is your senior, you should always try to address them with proper respect, i know in another post you had said do we have to go by miss {so and so}

the answer is yes, this is not for your benefit, it is needed to keep the martial arts respectful, with out respect we are simply equal to trained thugs

to give everyone an example i have had 4 sensei,s in my 20 yrs of martial arts,with turkoski sensei and zinck sensei i have been lucky enough to be on a casual level with them, but even talking personally on the phone or through emails, i try to be careful always to address them appropriately

i know its tough sometimes to break habits especially with people you have trained with for years, but we must...

with this in mind i would also like to point out that all the people that recently passed to shodan should also be referred to by miss aswell.... example, miss morell

this post is not directed at you alone Jamie Lynn your a great student and have always been very respectful, this is just a fantastic opportunity for us all to review our etiquette