Excellence is about doing your best. By nurturing a culture of excellence, you open the path to success.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and have plans for a happy and prosperous New Year. Now is the time to think about the past twelve months and what you accomplished. You should pat yourself on the back for your achievements but this journey is not over yet! What did you fail to accomplish that you feel you fell short of the mark? If you accomplished your goals for the past year what are your short and long term goals for this year? I encourage you to motivate yourself by setting your personal bar just a little higher than before.
Mr. Williams, Chief Instructor
SUNSHINE MEADOWS REVISITED
Late last year our students were invited to the Sunshine Meadows Retirement Community in Buhler. The residents really seemed to enjoy the performances by our youth intermediate class. On Friday January 8th the American Karate Black Belts will venture out to the retirement community to work with the residents on some basic skills. More than anything else just to get their bodies in motion in a different way. I want to thank Debbie Steele-Walker for the invite and opportunity to interact with the residents of Sunshine Meadows.
Mr. Williams and AKMS Black Belts.
AMAZON SMILE FOR NEW BEGINNINGS, INC.
What is AmazonSmile? AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to your favorite charitable organization. There is a place in our community that offers hope, support, and the means to rebuild a life. This place offers a Hand Up to people displaced from their homes. This place is New Beginnings. New Beginnings provided shelter to 1,789 people last year, 604 of them were children. In the last 5 years, New Beginnings has helped 91 households get off public assistance. If you go onto Amazon SMILE, you can register NEW BEGINNINGS, INC. and with every purchase, a donation to New Beginnings will automatically be made.
ADVOCARE FOR FITNESS MANAGEMENT
American Karate and Martial Science is a local Advocare distributor. We offer supplements to help get you through your workouts and belt tests. Products can be ordered at the school or online by going to our Advocare website where product can be delivered to your door step. For energy supplements prior to your workout or rehydration supplements after a workout session or belt test, I encourage you to visit us at https://www.advocare.com/150837167/.
COMPETITION FOR YOUTH IN THE MARTIAL ARTS
Competition can be a touchy subject sometimes when talking about kids. Whether it’s something like little league or kids martial arts many parents have a different view on the role of competition and when their kids should engage in it. It’s unfortunate that there have been situations in many youth sports that have given “competition” a bad connotation to it. It is very important for children to learn about competition in our martial arts classes. They have to learn how to be a good winner. They also have to learn how to deal with losing. There are many reasons but I think the main one is for a child to learn how much work goes into preparing and going to a tournament. It’s goal oriented in the short term, there’s a tournament, you need to prepare and the tournament will happen at a specified date and time. Some kids will love the whole experience and yet others may not like the experience, whether or not they win. The main reason youth competition is important for me is that we do not operate a “Sports Karate”, McDojo type facility. With bullying the way it is in our country martial arts classes need to take more of a serious turn. The down side to that is that there are times when classes are just boring because there is curriculum that must be taught and skill sets that must be achieved. Many of our kids cross train in other sports like football, baseball, soccer, volley ball and gymnastics. All of them said that it would not be fun to just practice those sports all of the time and not play against another team. The martial arts are no different. Children in the martial arts have a long journey because it is a life’s. There is no end of season. They need to compete in kata, weapons kata, team kata or sparring, any one or any combination. I was a child martial artist. A big part of my early journey was tournament competition. Had I not had the chance to test my skills in a safe controlled environment, I would probably have moved on to something else. It’s not about the winning or losing. It is about the experience.
Mr. Williams, Chief Instructor
