Dear Members,

I hope you've all had a great first week back for term 3! For the colour belts/gups, the pre-grading period is now in earnest as we head towards the 25 August grading.

Q & A Replay
Thanks to everyone who supported our Live Q & A on Friday night, It has now had 150+ views. If you haven't watched it yet, check out the replay. There's some great content in there including:

- What mini kids should work on
- How to get the most out of your practice
- What instructors are looking for in the pre-grading period
- How colour belt/gup gradings are marked
- The main things people should work on in the yellow belt pattern Dan-Gun

... plus more Taekwon-Do questions and answers and a few slightly random things. If you do watch the Q & A, comment and let us know what you think - who knows, we may do another one in the future.

Dojang Pride
Just a friendly reminder to everyone to please help keep our dojang and all the facilities clean and tidy. Last week someone lipstick kissed the mirrors and walls in the girls bathroom and caused a huge mess that was very difficult to clean off. :(  Just use common sense and be considerate.

Under 18s Registration Open
The next Under 18s Tournament will be in Papakura, at Rosehill College onSunday 21 August. Good to see a few Warriors entered already! For those who are interested, check out more and register here.

Have a great week!


Best wishes,



Rachel Bates
Centre Manager

Dear Members,

Welcome back everyone who's been away! We're back on our full schedule today and ready to get stuck into another awesome term of Taekwon-Do. We've got our second colour belt grading for 2016 coming up fast (25 August) so colour belts hoping to grade will be being put through their paces over the next few weeks to see if they are ready.

Secret!
This paragraph has been redacted as it's something for Warrior members only. Sometimes we do special stuff for our members like ... well, the thing this paragraph is about. So if you're a Warrior member reading this, check your email newsletter for the details. Contact the office if you didn't receive the email newsletter.

Next Pee Wee Tournament Entry Open
Kids aged 12 and under can now enter the next Pee Wee Tournament in Pukekohe. The event is on Sunday 14 August at Valley Rd Primary School.

Check out more info and register here.

Have a great week!


Best wishes,



Rachel Bates
Centre Manager

Dear Members,

Wow we had a CRAZY AMAZING time at Nationals last weekend!!! We kept you up to date over Nationals weekend through our members/parents only group but there are now also a whole lot of photos from the weekend here, and you can also check out an awesome video of Miss Giles and Miss Jaduramwho faced each other in their patterns division final.

We are really proud of the whole 13-strong team from Warrior and their tenacity! Everyone put their best effort in and supported each other at all the different events.

Our Warrior results were:
PATTERNS
Roisin Giles - Gold, Kevin Matsuoka - Gold, Steve Milne - Gold, Kavita Jaduram - Silver, Diya Ciji - Silver, Michael Marcel - Silver, Jeremy Lin - Silver, Oliver Kelly - Silver, Anton Keay-Davies - Bronze, Tabitha Crump - Bronze
SPARRING
Kavita Jaduram - Gold, Diya Ciji - Silver, Tabitha Crump - Silver, Oliver Mason - Silver, Oliver Kelly - Bronze
POWER
Steve Milne - Bronze

We are also exceptionally proud of Miss Jeny Joseph who won Gup Student of the Year and Miss Kara Timmer who won Senior Sportsperson of the Year at the National Awards.

Two Farewells
This week we farewell two really awesome members of the Warrior instructing team. Miss Roisin Giles is heading to Canada for 6 months, but will be back at the end of the year. She's already got a dojang sorted in Canada as she works toward the 2017 World Championships so hopefully we will hear some updates from the northern hemisphere over the coming months!

Miss Kavita Jaduram is starting a new job soon, so sadly she leaves our instructing team but will carry on as a member. Miss J is an incredible instructor and person, and was a founding member of Diocesan Taekwon-Do in 2003. She started assisting at the branch (long before it came under Warrior) when she was 16, and has been the Head Instructor for the last 4 years. Her genuine care and support of her students has ensured this club has flourished under her leadership and dedication. We are really thankful and proud of everything that Kavita has achieved as an instructor and student and wish her all the very best with this new chapter in her life.

Weekly Warrior Biscuit with Mr Chan
New lead instructor for Monday and Wednesday 5.30pm and Monday 6.30pm Mr Matthew Chan is filming and posting a new video each week on Taekwon-Do concepts to help his students (and any other interested Warrior students!) to work on their Taekwon-Do. Check the Warrior members/parents only group for the first video and look out for the next one coming soon this week.

Holiday Timetable Continues
We're still on our holiday timetable this week which seems to be working really well. Saturday class people, don't forget Saturday class is still on, Tuesday/Thursday 6.30pm people you are going to have an amazing time with Mr Topfer this week, and parents don't forget to bring you kids to Taekwon-Do so we can exercise out any excess energy in a convenient indoors location. ;) If you're not sure when to come during the holidays (as our timetable is a bit different from usual til the end of this week) you can check it out on our website here.

Have a great week!


Best wishes,



Rachel Bates
Centre Manager

Here's a short film of some of our Ellerslie kids having a go at board breaking with re-breakable boards - for most it was their first ever board break!

On the one hand they learned a lot about this very cool and fun aspect of Taekwon-Do including accuracy, proper technique, distance, speed and power - but they also learned a valuable lesson about one of the tenets of Taekwon-Do: perseverance.

In the film you get to see all their successful breaks, but most of the kids had multiple attempts before they successfully broke the board. But did they give up? No way!!!

Maybe they didn't get it the first time, but they kept on trying until they had their breakthrough, with wonderful coaching and encouragement from their instructor Mrs Sonya Robinson.

Dear Members,

Congratulations to all of our newly promoted mini kids! We had a really awesome grading last week with a very high standard. There is a whole album of photos from the grading available for you to view here.

Colour belts, your turn is coming up very soon. Your next grading is on 25 August and that's not very far away at all as we will be heading into pre-grading period at the start of term 2.

Holiday Timetable
This week our class schedule runs as normal, however, next week and the following week we will be running a reduced timetable during the school holidays to ensure better class numbers. There are no classes at Three Kings or Diocesan branches during the school holidays, however, students from both of those branches are more than welcome to come to classes at Ellerslie during the holidays if they wish.

The timetable at Ellerslie between Monday 11 July and Sunday 24 July will be as follows:

Monday:
3.30pm - TKD Kubz
4.30pm - Kids 5+
6.30pm - Ages 10+ of any rank, plus younger students at least yellow belt

Tuesday:
4.30pm - Kids 5+
6.30pm - Ages 10+ of any rank, plus younger students at least yellow belt

Wednesday:
4.30pm - Kids 5+
5.30pm - Ages 10+ of any rank, plus younger students at least yellow belt

Thursday:
4.30pm - Kids 5+
6.30pm - Ages 10+ of any rank, plus younger students at least yellow belt

Saturday:
9.30am - Parent/Child class

We will be back to our full timetable from Monday 25 July onwards.

National Championships
This weekend we have 12 students from Warrior Taekwon-Do representing the Auckland North Region at the National Championships in Tauranga. We wish Roisin Giles, Kavita Jaduram, Jeny Joseph, Anton Keay-Davies, Michael Marcel, Diya Ciji, Joji Joseph, Oliver Kelly, Steve Milne, Tabitha Crump, Jeremy Lin, Oliver, Mason and James Miller all the very best!

We also have students and a whole branch from Warrior Taekwon-Do up for national awards, the winners of which will revealed at the Awards Dinner during the National Championships on Saturday night. Congratulations to these finalists from Warrior:

Jeny Joseph - finalist for Gup Student of the Year
Kara Timmer - finalist for Senior Sportsperson of the Year
Warrior Three Kings - finalist for Club of the Year

I will be in Tauranga over Nationals weekend too and no doubt will keep you updated as to how our team are faring and award results through our private Warrior parents/members only group.

Have a great training week!


Best wishes,



Rachel Bates
Centre Manager