GKI National Karate Tournament 2024

GKI NATIONAL KARATE TOURNAMENT 2024 RESULTS

️ San Dan Gi ️

1st - Daniel Mumford - Ashridge
2nd - Ben Gerrard - Ashridge
3rd - Oliver Willis - Woodley

️ Kata Juniors ️

White Belt

1st - Eli Mansfield - Woodley
2nd - Bence Szlavik - Woodley
3rd - Henry Futcher - Ashridge

Yellow Belt

1st - Archie Sahans - Woodley
2nd - Vitalij Todevski - Wessex
3rd - Thea Varley - Thompson - Woodley

Orange Belt

1st - Emily Bennett - Woodley
2nd - Charlotte Wardle - Woodley
3rd - Henry Dobson - Woodley

Green Belt

1st - Harry Foster - Ashridge
2nd - Antanas Gailiunas - Ashridge
3rd - Thomas Hounsell - Twyford

Blue Belt

1st - Nishard Vikram - Woodley
2nd - Max Sargeant - Wessex
3rd - Lily Sargeant - Wessex

Purple Belt

1st - Aleksej Todevski - Wessex
2nd - Oliver Lawrence - Wessex
3rd - Yamuna Patel - Woodley

Brown Belt

1st - So Yoshimura - Ashridge
2nd - Alex Newman - Ashridge
3rd - Helena Koe - Wokingham

️ Kata Cadets ️

White - Orange Belt

1st - Louis Kearney - Cheshire
2nd - Aahnaf Azam Mir - Chelmsford
3rd - Laurence Atkinson - Ashridge

Green - Blue Belt

1st - Abi Sargeant - Wessex
2nd - Josh Sargeant - Wessex
3rd - Helen Ricketts - Twyford

Brown - Black Belt

1st - Hannah Koe - Wokingham
2nd - Marco Archer - Woodley
3rd - Kieran Simmonds - Wessex

️ Kata Adults ️

White - Purple Belt

1st - Sheilagh Anderson - Wessex
2nd - Mike Bodych - Cheshire
3rd - Phil Scott - Wessex

Brown Belt

1st - Buster Barrett-Greening - Wessex
2nd - Hannah Lewis - Wessex
3rd - Lester Owens - Wessex

Black Belt

1st - Liv Walker - Wessex
2nd - Dave Vest - Wessex
3rd - Nathan Simmonds - Wessex

️ Team Kata Juniors ️

White - Green Belt

1st - Charlotte / Emily / Archie - Woodley
2nd - Henry / Jasper / Stanley - Woodley
3rd - Harry / Antanas / Henry - Ashridge

Blue - Brown Belt

1st - Alex / So / Elliot / Hayden - Ashridge
2nd - Leila / Yamuna / Nishad - Woodley
3rd - Max / Lily / Abbey - Wessex

️ Team Kata Cadets ️

1st - Harry / Toby / Hughie / Oliver - Chelmsford
2nd - Marco / Kieran / Rico - Woodley & Wessex
3rd - Alfie / Alex / Laurence - Ashridge

️ Team Kata Adults ️

1st - Nathan / Dave / Jamie - Wessex
2nd - Dennis / Phil / Lester - Wessex
3rd - Hannah / Sheilagh / Buster - Wessex

️ Kumite Juniors ️

5-6 years

1st - Lucas Jones - Chelmsford
2nd - Ryan Wu - Woodley
3rd - Isabel Atkinson - Chelmsford

Boys 7

1st - Eli Mansfield - Woodley
2nd - Aarav Visvanadane - Woodley
3rd - Dima Polunina- Woodley

Boys 8

1st - Henry Dobson - Woodley
2nd - Robin Caird - Woodley
3rd - Veeraj Sall - Woodley

Boys 9

1st - Archie Sahans - Woodley
2nd - Stanley Williams - Woodley
3rd - Mario Hunter - Twyford

Boys 10 - 11

1st - Nishard Vikram - Woodley
2nd - Alex Newman - Ashridge
3rd - Henry Atkinson - Chelmsford

Boys 12-13

1st - Hayden Brown - Ashridge
2nd - Elliot Goodison - Ashridge
3rd - Raphael Currie - Cheshire

Girls 7-8

1st - Emily Bennett - Woodley
2nd - Cynthia Ward - Ashridge
3rd - Eva Morely - Ashridge

Girls 9-10

1st - Lily Sargeant - Wessex
2nd - Eva Maunders - Ashridge
3rd - Charlotte Wardle - Woodley

Girls 11-13

1st - Leila - Woodley
2nd - Sophie Thake - Twyford
3rd - Angelina Currie - Cheshire

️ Kumite Cadets Girls 14-17 ️

1st - Abi Sargeant - Wessex
2nd - Hannah Koe - Wokingham
3rd - Helen Ricketts - Twyford

️ Kumite Cadets Boys 14-17 ️

White - Blue Belt

1st - Josh Sargeant - Wessex
2nd - Laurence Atkinson - Ashridge
3rd - Aahnaf Azam Mir - Chelmsford

Brown - Black Belt

1st - Kieran Simmonds - Wessex
2nd - Marco Archer - Woodley
3rd - Harry Fox - Chelmsford

️ Kumite Female Adults ️

1st - Liv Walker - Wessex
2nd - Gemma Walden - Wessex

️ Kumite Men Adults ️

1st - Nathan Simmons - Wessex
2nd - Warren Koe - Wokingham
3rd - Lester Owens - Wessex

Belts

Grading - November 2022

100 students graded

Fantastic 3 hour grading, all students were focused, determined and demonstrated amazing technique.

Our Queen - Thank You

After 10 days of mourning, Our Queen was laid to rest yesterday, Bank Holiday Monday 19th September 2022. I was glued to the TV, what an amazing emotional day and send off she deserved. Everybody who was involved, it was truly perfect. I am lucky to live near to Windsor where I met Prince William and Harry. I offered Prince William and his children the chance to take up Karate lessons.

GKI Wokingham Gasshuku May 2022

Fantastic 3 days training at the spring GKI Gasshuku. Was lovely to see everyone in the organisation and special thanks to those who came from Portugal. Thank you to the Sensei’s teaching for their incredible knowledge. It is always so nice for our Karate family to come together. Well done to all my Woodley students who attended. What an experience!

Grading - May 2022

Grading Day!

66 students took their grading on Sunday after many weeks and hours of training.

Focus, respect, discipline

They all performed very well, working hard on techniques and focusing on their strength.

Well done Woodley Dojo

Very proud Sensei

Merit badge and sparring event

The sun is shinning and its a bank holiday weekend!!

Woodley students returned to the Dojo after a lovely Easter break. We kicked off with a Sunday morning event which saw over 60 students take part. Some students took part in achieving a merit badge where they had to demonstrate a chosen technique to the required standard to pass. Other students took part in a sparring class which saw many gaining confidence and strength.

Wishing everyone a beautiful bank holiday, see you next week.

Sensei Amie

WHAT THE COBRA KAI?

Woodley Goju Ryu Karate Club checking in!

After 4 months of lockdown and teaching my Karate Club via Zoom we have been back in the Dojo training for 6 weeks now and it has been fantastic. An absolute joy to be back face to face with students and continuing to train them on their Karate journey. I love being their Sensei, seeing their smiles and watching them train hard and progress. They never quit, continue to practise, put passion and focus into their techniques and thrive to be the best they can.

Since reopening the Dojo after lockdown I have put in place safe Covid-19 measures and I have been wading my way through a massive influx of Karate enquiries to get children in for free trial lessons. I’ve also noticed on Facebook that the quantity of recommendation requests has soared over the past few weeks. This left myself and my Sensei contacts scratching our heads wondering what the Cobra Kai was going on!

Then the penny dropped. During lockdown we all had more time than we have ever had before to watch our way through the list of boxsets we had been writing for a while. On that list was a US spin off series based on one of my childhood favourites, The Karate Kid. Cobra Kai had only appeared on YouTube until Netflix bought it in June 2020 and quickly began airing the 2 seasons that are available. The good news for myself and other Sensei’s across the UK is that a third season is due to air in January 2021 and agreement is in place for a fourth. Yes, I watched it too, who wouldn’t when it is based on films from my childhood? It has great appeal to adults and children alike and interest in karate has been ignited across the UK, possibly across the World, which is brilliant!

Karate is and has been my passion for 28 years, it’s a way of life I use every single day and I like to teach and pass this on to my students. Karate teaches us many things, some of which are to focus, respect ourselves and others, be confident and have self discipline.

I’m Amie Benton the Sensei of Woodley Goju Ryu Karate Club and I have been running Karate classes in Woodley, Berkshire for over 10 years. I run classes for ages 4 and up, with 8 weekly classes at present. If you or your child would like to come along for a free trial get in touch and I will find you a space. I look forward to meeting you all soon.

People ask… “have you watched Cobra Kai Sensei Amie”

I smile and reply “Yes I have” :)

Student of the month - November 2019

Marco attends extra classes outside of his own Karate lesson to help with the little ones. Thanks Marco, a lot of children look up to you in the club.

Student of the month - October 2019

Congratulations to Lillie, student of the month for October. Lillie has a great technique and is always looking to improve. She listens well, takes on board the information given and then delivers. Very well done.