A Great Start to the year.
Class numbers have been pretty solid since we returned. This is a great sign for a great training year. Our largest class for 2025 has been 17, and our smallest has been 9 – Fantastic!
I think we can safely fit 25 in class – what do you think? Shall we do it?
New Requirements
These two new initiatives are aimed at our younger members, parents and families.
We are introducing two new ideas to help connect Ryukyu Kempo training to your wider home and school life.
Behaviour Points
We are introducing Behaviour Points as a way to help guide and promote good training behaviour in class.
- Each student begins the class year with 50 Behaviour Points
- Points can be added or subtracted based on behaviour in class.
- The maximum number of points a student can collect is 100 points.
- Behaviour Points cannot drop below zero.
Instructors can award or remove points based on behaviour in class. Parents can ask for points to be added or removed based on behaviour around the home or school. Instructors will discuss with parents how many points should be added or removed.
Point totals count towards test scores when grading.
- A full 100 points can add up to 10% to a test score
- Zero points removes the ability to grade until the score rises above 10 behaviour points.
School Achievements
When students are preparing for grade testing, parents will be asked to provide feedback on performance at school which will count towards eligibility to test.
Parents will be asked for a yes/no answer on whether the students behaviour and performance at school has been acceptable since the previous grade test.
Why are we doing this?
These types of incentive are offered by many, if not most, martial arts schools who work with school aged children.
One goal is to teach kids that behaviours have consequences and that consequences can have effects across many parts of life.
We believe that Ryukyu Kempo is a way to improve problem solving skills which, in turn, develops life skills. When kids can recognise and solve problems, they have the tools to build strong, successful lives – taking whatever shape ‘success’ looks like in their world.
We hope that these initiatives resonate with parents and welcome any feedback or questions.
Test Dates
We are still targeting our first rank test for 2025 to happen in late March or April, followed by July/August and finally October/November.
If you train hard and practice outside regular class, you should be able to achieve 3 tests per year until you reach Blue or Green belt. Once you reach Brown belt, tests will be a minimum of 18mo apart.
If you need a refresher of what you need to learn, check the curriculum pages.
Student Drive for 2025
Big thanks and warm welcome to our new members!
We still have space in classes – it might be getting full, but we’re not overloaded yet!
If you know anyone who might be interested, please invite them to try our classes – remember the first 10 classes are free.
I will be making printed flyers that will be available in class in the coming weeks. Please hand these to interested people. We can provide PDF copies if you’d like to email or share on social media.
Helping out in 2025
As we are a registered non-profit, we are required to have a committee and the kinds of official roles that go with these kinds of affairs.
We will be holding an Annual General Meeting in April where we will be looking for help with things like:
- Recruitment – getting new faces
- Social Media – telling our story
- Fundraising – applying for grants and funding
- “General Ideas” – if you’ve got thoughts about how things can be improved – we’re listening!
Keep an eye/ear out for the meeting time – it will (probably) be held online to help make it easy for people to attend.
Banking Information
For any new students who need the details, our class bank account is:
Bank: Kiwibank
Acct Name: RYUKYU KEMPO KARATE
Acct Number: 38-9012-0728171-00
Suggested Donations are:
Kids / Students: $30 per school term
Adults: $60 per school term
Again, we would also like to shout out thanks to those people who have donated beyond the suggested amounts – it means a lot and we are very grateful.
If you’re a new member and have been attending for 10 classes or more, please consider adding your donation to the account. Feel free to chat with us if you have any questions or concerns.
Social Media Links:
You can find more information and learning material on these links:
General Information:
(We’ll keep this here for people to refer to)
Uniforms:
A few people have been asking where to get uniforms, so let’s look at what the options are:
- Trackies and T’s
Plain black track pants and a plain black or white TShirt are perfectly fine for training – this is the cheapest option. I haven’t checked lately, but if I’m still correct, The Warehouse have budget brand trackies and tees for about $10ea. This is perfectly fine, and for students who aren’t sure they want to invest in a full uniform, this is the best option.
- Dojo TShirt
From time to time we will place orders for dojo tshirts. These will be well publicised and cost around $45 per shirt. The colours available are:
White
Grey
Green
Blue
Pink
Coral
T-shirt prints have the dojo kanji on the front, and big logo on the rear:
- Karate Uniforms
If you wish to have a full uniform, you have the choice of either an all-white or all-black uniform. Check out the links below for places to purchase:
Belts:
Following the donations-based approach, we have a few options for belts
- Belt Library
We would like to establish a “belt library”. The idea is simple. Unless you wish to keep each and every belt you earn, when you’re done with a belt, you donate it to the library and we can recycle it back to another student in the future. At the moment, we only have a few belts of a few colours, so this will take time to build up a stock.
If you’ve got belts you would like to donate to the library, please drop them to us in class.
- Borrowed/Gifted
If you’d like to lend or gift one of your belts to a fellow student, feel free to make those arrangements with the instructors. For example, if ‘Bob’ is an orange belt, and ‘Bill’ is a yellow belt, ‘Bob” can gift “bill” his Orange belt when ‘Bob’ grades to purple. ‘Bill’ still has to test, but he gets to wear ‘Bob’s’ gifted belt when ‘Bill’ passes the test.
- New Belts
If you prefer new, we can order new belts or provide links for you to order them yourselves. Sizing belts can be a tricky affair – it’s really easy to get confused and order the wrong size. We’re happy to help and in time, I hope to buy a set of “test belts” for people to try on for size.
Training Equipment:
The biggest expense for people is always the gear. Remember, we aim to keep this as affordable as possible.
The following gear is needed as students progress:
Beginners:
Mouthguard and gloves – any sports mouthguard is fine. Consult a dentist for further information if you have braces or dental problems. For gloves, we use Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) gloves – these are lightly padded, fingerless gloves and are (unfortunately) one of the most expensive pieces of equipment. Until students have both, and wear them in class, we have to restrict some levels of training for safety reasons.
Bo Staff:
The first weapons people need will be a 1.8m staff. The cheapest and easiest way to buy one is at Mitre 10 or Bunnings (link for Bunnings) – dowel is about half the price of a hardwood staff, however they do break. If you can afford a full bo/staff, please consider purchasing one as it will be cheaper in the long run.
Students under 1.5m tall: Youth Bo
Above 1.5m tall: Regular Tapered Bo