Kung Hei Fat Choy - Happy Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year, year of the Dragon.

Dragon years are said to be lucky for anyone thinking of starting a business or initiating a new project of any sort.  Well we have a couple of things going on this year, so with the luck of the Dragon alongside the many hours of hard work then these new business projects should be successful!

Academy members will be hearing more about these in the coming weeks and months.

The first two weeks back at Paragon have been busy and productive.  Classes have been great with some old faces back in training along with regulars and new beginners.  Hopefully everyone will keep focussed and keep up the energy as we progress through the year!

Mark Waterhouse and Katie Davies where presented with their new Black Belts having graded towards the end of 2011.  Mark has been with me many years now and earned his 3^rd Dan in the grading and Katie her 1^st Dan.  The grading itself was the last one of its kind as we change to a new grading taking place over 2 days.  If you thought the old one was tough, think again!

We have a couple of new pieces of equipment, and more will be appearing in the coming weeks.   New bags, speedballs, wall bags etc are appearing down one wall, we’re just waiting on a couple of items arriving before putting the rest up.  In the weeks after this there will be a few pieces of strength equipment arriving.

We have a busy few months ahead for the fight team.  At the end of January Mark, John and Curt are competing in a tough continuous event for National titles in the ring.  Then in February we have our own promotion Sedition Fight League here in Ilkeston, and in March the ASKO/IAKSA English Open Championships in Nottingham.  On top of that I have confirmed the date for a Full Contact Fight Night in April, there will be more on this later!

Other events include the Ref & Officials course early in Feb and a guest seminar in April, not forgetting of course our Academy gradings, Little Ninjas in Feb, Junior and Adults in March and the Black Belt weekend at the end of March.

Last off junior student of the month awards will be given out from the end of January.  Your Instructors will be selecting their pick of junior student of the month who will receive a silver salver with an engraved plaque.

There’s load more stuff going on, but we keep much of it under our roof so make sure you keep up to date with the Academy Newsletters, Memos and notices... after all we don’t want everyone knowing our business!!

Okay first things first, Selina and I would like to wish all students and families involved with Paragon a very Happy New Year.  Academy classes are back to normal from Tuesday January 3^rd.

Next up, we get loads of calls and messages from people that have been checking out the site and reading the news page for ages before they actually get in touch.  Well if you really want to give it a try don’t put it off, get in touch and book your free trial.  You’ll meet a friendly bunch of students and coaches and we have classes for all so whether its fitness, confidence, self defence or competitive sport you are looking for then we have something for you! 

You’ll find our current students, coaches and fight team despite their achievements don’t suffer the ills of ego.  If you have a problem with yours then you won’t be made welcome.

Just contact the academy and book your free trial 0115 9300090

What’s Happening in 2012

We have lots planned for 2012, and it’s going to be yet another busy year.  All info will be available in the printed newsletters and hand outs at the academy, so make sure you get yours each time they are out.

We’re totally revamping the Black Belt grading in time for the March test, the outline of which I have discussed with current and potential Black Belts, all of whom agree it is a great idea.  Along with this we are revamping the training programme for students working towards Black Belt.  You’ll all be receiving info on this in handouts and newsletters at the academy.

Over the holidays we’ve moved a few things around in the academy and there will be more new equipment arriving in the coming weeks.

I'll soon be putting some dates together for a number of special workshops for 2012.  These sessions will be covering the stuff we don't get time to focus on in day to day classes.  There will also be a few of these just for brown belts upwards.  Dates will be out soon.

The first ref and officials course of 2012 is already set in February.  These are free for our members and association members and a great way to get involved with events etc.

We'll be releasing dates soon for extra sessions for those on the coach and instructors programme.  These sessions are just for those that have attended the launch session, remember there's no fee for these sessions!  There will also be another induction launch session soon so if you are interested let us know?

We’ve got a guest instructor seminar that got put off last year.  An old instructor and friend will be at Paragon teaching a 3 hour seminar.  Everyone will pretty much be aware of my thoughts regarding the current seminar trends and photo opportunity affairs.  With that in mind you should realise that this will be worth attending.  The guest is only one of five I have invited to teach at Paragon.  If you want a place then get your name down ASAP!

Fight Team News

Fighting is NOT a compulsory part of what we do and is not required of any student.  Those that choose to can join our successful fight team and test their skills in the ring or on the mats.

We’ll be out and about at various tournaments and fight shows during 2012.  I’ve outlined a couple of events below that start the year for us.  Please remember I only list events we are directly connected to on our events page, we support several other events details of which are shared with the fight team and if interested supporters that wish to come along.

Members of the fight team will kick off 2012 competing in a tough continuous event at the end of January.  I’ll be attending with Mark Waterhouse, John Parry and Curtis Gillott.  Of course we aim to do well, but realistically for Mark and John this is just a warm up for their International Title fights in Feb!

February 19^th we have a number of fighters matched in our grass roots local promotion Sedition Fight League.  Included in the matches are Mark and John in International Title fights.  Sedition is a great little event, a no frills, back to basics event that matches tournament format fighters over rounds in match fights.  The card features some great fights with several Paragon fighters matched, and tickets are only available from Paragon at £10.00

There’s loads more events throughout 2012 including the IAKSA/ASKO English and British Championships in Nottingham and two more Sedition events, all of which we are directly involved with organising.  Along with this we have a Full Contact fight show we’re promoting featuring Kickboxing, Boxing and Full Contact Sport Karate!  This one has been a long time coming.  We’re already getting fighter details in and will confirm date and venue very soon!

Along with events we’re directly involved in we’ll be supporting a few others.  All details will be given to fight team.

As usual if you are interested in anything then let us know!

Jay

Couple of things over the weekend, and the Christmas Holidays

New Baby!

Many will by now be aware that Selina gave birth the our baby boy during the early hours of Saturday December 10^th.  Seth Dorn was born at 3.55am weighing 8lb 8½, both he and mum are doing fine.  Stan is getting to know his little brother and really liking the big brother role.  I’m sure it won’t be too long before Selina is popping in to the academy to show him off.

Nothing changes at Paragon except Selina’s classes will be covered while she is off.

Paragon Games

As usual the kids Paragon Games went really well.  Big thanks to all those that came to help out.  We managed very well without Selina shouting at us all!

Well done to all the medal winners in the events and to Best Boy Jason Allen, and Best Girl Chloe Kent.

In 2012 we’ll be running some events from the Paragon Games as mini competitions.  Keep an eye on the academy newsletter for details of these.

Christmas Holidays and Break Up Week!

Next week we close for our Christmas break.  Please make sure you are aware of the slight timetable changes for the final week, these are available in the academy newsletter and can also be seen as a notice on the wall.

The last classes of 2011 are Thursday December 22^nd

The first classes of 2012 are Tuesday January 3^rd

Selina and I would like to wish all our students and families involved at Paragon a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

We look forward to seeing you all back and on it early in 2012.

Those that have fights matched for Sedition Fight League had better be back first week of training or I’ll be cancelling their fights!

Two of our fighters, Mart Waterhouse and John Parry have International Title fights right here in their home town of Ilkeston!

Both have worked hard and earned themselves these fights over the last couple of years.  Mark Has won the IAKSA-UK and ASKO English and British Championships in both Sport Karate and Kickboxing in 2010 and 2011.  John won the English and came 2^nd in British in 2010, then did the double taking both in 2011.

Both took National match fight Titles at the newly launched Sedition Fight League in February this year.  Mark was part of a four man Sport Karate Prize Fighter where he became champion, and John faced a tough opponent for the -85k Sport Kickboxing title and after a gruelling battle took the title.

Both guys have won a few other events too, and it’s this consistency that has earned them their title fights.

The fights will take place at the February 2012 Sedition Fight League, which will be the third event since its launch in February this year.  Tickets are only available from Paragon, there is a very limited number available and with a packed card of exciting fights featuring fighters from around the UK as well as the two International bouts they will sell out fast!

Early next year I’ll list all Paragon fighters featuring on the card and give more details about matches etc.  Currently there are 16 fights matched which includes the two International Titles and Three National Titles. We’re currently awaiting confirmation of a few more fights to the undercard.  It’s going to be a very good event and I urge all Paragon members wanting tickets to book theirs ASAP!

Mark & John with their Sedition Fight League National Title Cups they won in February 2011.  Their next challenge is the International Title Belts in February 2012 against tough and experienced opponents flying in from Sweden!

Next weekend is the grading weekend, which means the whole of the week leading up to the final test is grading week!

Students have to attend their regular classes as part of the grading assessment.  All paperwork should be in by now and everyone ready to go!

Saturday is grading day for juniors and adults testing for grades up to black and white belt.  See your grading paperwork for the times.  Arrive on time, clean and tidy uniform, full of energy and ready to go.

Black Belt Grading Sunday

The Black Belt Grading is Sunday.  Start time is 10am; those testing should arrive around 9.30 and get themselves warming up and focussed on the tough test ahead.  The end time will be between 2 and 3pm depending on the grade you are testing for.

From Paragon we have Katie Davies, having just turned 16 she will be testing for an adult Black Belt.

Mark Waterhouse, who has been with me the longest, will be finally testing for his 3^rd Degree Black Belt.  Mark has been training with us since around 1994/95, so 3^rd Dan is well earned by now!

At Paragon and in our associations.... Being a Black Belt Means Something!

It occurred to me this morning while working on a few things that we have a few anniversaries.

First is the 18^th year for Paragon Academy which originally started out life as Ilkeston Freestyle in October 1993.  This ran from various centres/halls until we opened the full time dedicated academy in 2003.  From there we have gone from strength to strength.

Next we have my Neuromuscular Bodywork and Acupuncture clinic which I started in October 2001, so is now celebrating 10 years.  In that 10 years I have built up a great reputation for treating difficult cases of all types of pain and injuries.  As if I’m not busy enough I have another project involving this that I am currently working on!! More details will be available soon.  Also I think it’s about time my clinic had a website too, so I’ll get on with that!!

Finally Paragon Protect (www.paragonprotect.co.uk) launched in September 2009, so recently became 2 years old!  With Paragon Protect we offer specialist self defence, defensive tactics, personal security training etc.  These are separate and distinctive to regular martial arts training.

Still lots going on with all three of the above, which take up much of my time.  We are currently promoting 5 projects and activities involving 2 of the above mentioned and working on others we will be promoting in the New Year.

Sunday October 9^th was the International Amateur Kickboxing Sport Association and All Styles Kickboxing Organisation British Open sport karate and kickboxing championships.

As usual the event drew entries from around the UK, and as you would expect a good number of fighters from around Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.  Several of the teams entering fighters had a number of first time competitors taking part, including a few from here at Paragon.

Well what can I say about the Paragon Team? Some fantastic performances from 14 fighters that brought home 20 trophies!  Of those 20 trophies 13 where for 1^st place bringing home an incredible 13 of the 29 contested IAKSA/ASKO British Titles!  That really is something special!

Here’s the Paragon team results

Sport Karate/Kickboxing (points) Category Placings

Sam Hartshorne 2^nd

Paul Wright 2^nd

Curtis Gillott 2^nd

Joe Murden 3^rd

Darren Hill 3^rd

Sport Karate/Kickboxing (points) IAKSA/ASKO British Champions 2011

Lauren Cox

Vicky Keane

Russ Bramley

Rob Handley

Darren Hill

Kirsty Murden

Mark Waterhouse

Dave Dawson

Sadly first time fighter Tasha Green didn’t place in the Sport Karate/Kickboxing section losing out in the 3^rd place fight off.  However she fought well, just letting her nerves get the better of her, Tasha is a capable of any as the other in the section of winning!

In the Sport Kickboxing (continuous) section Paragon had less fighters competing.

Sport Kickboxing (continuous) Placing:

Curtis Gillott 2^nd

Vicky Keane 3^rd

Sport Kickboxing (continuous) IAKSA/ASKO British Champions 2011

Lauren Cox

Russ Bramley

John Parry

Mark Waterhouse

Dave Dawson

The only person not to place in the Sport Kickboxing (continuous) was Kirsty Murden.

All in all a great day, some fantastic performances from new and old members of our team.  It is something quite special with 29 IAKSA British Title categories and we won 13 of them!  Big well done to all that took part, big thanks to all that helped out on the day, and a thank you to supporters that came along to cheer the fighters on.

The next event is hosted by us, an invitational tournament, which may have a few match fights on too!  The event is Sunday November 20^th in Ilkeston.

Been a bit slack on here putting stuff up.  It's not like we haven't had things going on!

Anyway I've just changed a few dates around for October, November and December.  With the baby being due in December we've had to juggle a few dates around.

We've just had the IAKSA/ASKO refs and officials course yesterday.  Good turnout, and a few new officials taking up duties at the British Open on October 9th.

I've started adding dates for 2012 already.  All the Applied Kyusho dates are confirmed, refs and officials courses, coach and instructor course, black belt grading dates and junior and adult grading dates are also confirmed.  Just awaiting Selina confirming the Little Ninja Grading dates. 

We've put dates forward for the IAKSA/ASKO 2012 English and British Championships, and the three Sedition Fight League events.  These are all marked TBC while we await confrimation from the venues.

Been a little slack in getting this news up here, been very busy as usual!!

At the end of May we took a team to the Battle of England.  The team was our Paragon Kickboxing Organisation (PKO) team made up of fighters from here at Paragon and fighters from PKO member school East Coast Karate & Kickboxing Academy.

We had 12 fighters competing in 21 categories of points and continuous fighting.  From this the team collected 9 wins, 11 second places and 1 third place, so every team member managed a place!

Well done to all!

PKO Team at the Battle of England

We've got the Sedition Fight League event coming up on June 12th.  This event was set as another match fight event, but popular demand for our events led to it being changed to an Invitational tournament to fill the gap between the ASKO/IAKSA-UK English and British Championships.

The SFL Invitational has some exciting categories, many of them packed with quality fighters, including current ASKO/IAKSA-UK English and British Champions.  There are 9 fighters from Paragon taking part.  The event is held locally so come along and support your academy team!  Spectators entry fee is just £5.00

We'll be having a break from the competition circuit after the SFL event until September when we kick things off again. 

There are lots of other things going on at the academy at the moment.  Some very exciting times ahead!!

We have a busy weekend grading coming up.  Sunday sees seven juniors grading for Cadet Black Belts, along with two adults testing for 2^nd Degree Black Belts, one adult grading for 1^st Degree Black Belt and One adult grading for 3^rd Degree Black Belt.  Of the eleven students on the Black Belt Grading eight are from here at Paragon Black Belt Academy, the other three being from PKO member schools.  Unfortunately one of our students is unable to attend and will be testing on the next grading.

Everyone is well aware our Black Belt Grading is a tough and challenging affair and candidates are not always successful.  All candidates are well prepared and up for the challenge.

The day before the Black Belt grading we have Applied Kyusho assessments which are being held in May and June.  Candidates will be demonstrating their skills and knowledge on the subject of pressure points.

Everyone completing our grading should be very proud of their achievements.  It’s worth pointing out that some associations accept our failed, provisional and probationary rankings as full ranks.  For example provisional or probationary levels awarded by our panel to those not ready for the actual 1^st or 2^nd Degree level by our standards, are actually accepted by some associations as the full grade!  They will ratify the grade we didn’t see them good enough to get without further testing by their own panel, or contacting us for any background information.

So if associations like this, that are always promoting standards, recognition and doing things right can accept our provisional and probationary awards as full ranking, then those that actually do pass Black Belt Grade  with us must be held in very high esteem.  Something the grading panel at PKO/ASKO & IAKSA-UK are very proud of.

“The standards won’t be lowered to accommodate the students; the students must rise to the standards”

Jay

Fantastic day yesterday (Sunday April 10^th) at the British Open Kumite Championships.  We formed a Paragon Kickboxing Organisation (PKO) team with one of the other full time academies in the PKO, East Coast Karate-Kickboxing Academy (ECKA) based in North East England.  ECKA is run by Steph Young, who is no stranger to many at Paragon as she is a regular visitor down here attending courses, training, fight shows and tournaments.

The team PKO itself consisted of 11 fighters, 8 from Paragon and 3 from ECKA.  All except for one competed in both points and continuous categories, and all fighters managed to place.  Interestingly the trophy haul was all the sevens with seven of each 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd places!

British Kumite Champions are Curtis Gillott who won both the points and continuous, Mark Waterhouse won the points and Russ Bramley won his points section.  Affiliated members from the North of England  that took firsts where Steph Young who won the points, Daryle Jobling won her points section and Louis Gallagher won the points.  Fantastic for a small team to take seven British Kumite titles.

Second places went to Lauren Cox in both the points and continuous, Daryle Jobling in continuous, Louis Gallagher in continuous, Kirsty Murden in continuous, Steph Young in continuous, Joe Murden in points.

Third places went to Jake Bagshaw in both points and continuous, John Parry in both points and continuous, Kirsty Murden in points, Mark Waterhouse in continuous and Russ Bramley in continuous.

Everyone really enjoyed the day, we had a great team spirit and attitude, and fantastic atmosphere amongst us. 

The PKO Sport Karate & Kickboxing Team & Coaches for the

British Open Kumite Championships Sunday April 10th 2011

Great day yesterday at the event we co-organise…. The IAKSA/ASKO English Open Championships.

First off big thanks to the Paragon members that are officials and helped out on the day timekeeping, judging etc.  Events like this need good officials to keep the day going smoothly.

On to the results, we had 10 members competing and came away with 15 trophies.  Four 1^st, Seven 2^nd, Four 3^rd, so not a bad day.

Our firsts, and new 2011 IAKSA & English Champions:

Katie Davies Continuous

Curtis Gillott Continuous

Mark Waterhouse Points

Mark Waterhouse Continuous

Second Places went to:

Lauren Cox Points

Curtis Gillott Points

Jake Bagshaw Continuous

Kirsty Murden Points

Russ Bramley Continuous

John Parry Continuous

Joe Murden Points

Third Places:

Lauren Cox Continuous

Katie Davies Points

Russ Bramley Points

Kirsty Murden Continuous

Hard luck but good effort to Jake Bagshaw, John Parry and Dave Dawson for their efforts in their point fighting sections, but sadly didn’t place this time.

We are planning attending another comp in April, anyone interested see me for details.

Jay

Paragon promoted Sedition Fight League was a great success.  The event held here in Ilkeston had 18 well matched fights with fighters attending from across England and Wales.

Big thanks have to go to Martin at Double Four Taxis who helped the event to go ahead, sorting the venue and sponsoring the Main event 4 man Prize Fighter.  He also came in and helped set up the venue and stayed behind to clear up when we’d finished.

The match cups and fantastic champions title cups went down very well, provided by awardstrophiesandmedals.com

Sedition Fight League Cups.  Supplied by Ilkeston based awardstrophiesandmedals.com

First up we’ll mention the top of the bill fights which featured two of our own Champion Fighters Mark Waterhouse and John Parry.

Mark was in the 4 man prize fighter event which featured two North of England fighters and two Midlands fighters.  The two guys representing each area had to have a fight off, the first two bouts of the day to decide who would fight off in the final for the IAKSA sanctioned Sedition Fight League National Champion Title.  Two great fight offs over 3 rounds each put Mark Waterhouse and John Wright through to the final, the last bout of the afternoon.

Mark made no mistakes in the final, winning each of his 3 rounds (as he had done in the qualifier) to take the Title, £100 prize money and the fantastic Champions Cup.

John Parry was facing a tough, strong and very game Leicester opponent for the -85k Continuous title over 3 rounds of 2 minutes.  Very few people are aware that John was unable to do his usual preparation for the fight due to injury.  But rather than pull out we decided the fight would go on, and if lost we could always challenge for a rematch later.

It was always going to be a very close fight as they are both very closely matched.  But in the end it was as close as it could be with John scraping the win by just 1 point.  Which is basically just one punch!

Well done to John and Mark on their new titles!

Sedition Fight League Champions Cup Title Holders Mark Waterhouse and John Parry

Curtis Gillott had a champion v champion Prestige fight over 3 rounds to points rules.  Curtis never really got into his stride and didn’t look his usual strong , fast and powerful self and lost each of his 3 rounds.  I’m sure he’ll be back in the future!

Dave Dawson was matched in a veterans points match over 3 rounds.  He started well enough taking the first round.  In rounds two and three he took the lead, but let it go both rounds giving his opponent a chance to seize the victory.

Kirsty Murden stepped up with just a couple of days notice to take a 3 x 2 minute round points fight with no preparation.  It was always going to be a challenge, and although Kirsty lost the fight she did very well considering the couple of days notice and took the lead at a couple of times during the fight.

Daniel Wray gave a very good account of himself in a 3 x 1.5 minute round continuous bout.  Dan pretty much controlled the fight, doing little wrong to take all 3 rounds.  A very good performance that if it continues will be putting pressure on team mate at the same weight John Parry to hold on to his title!

Russ Bramley fought in a novice 3 round fight over 3 x 1.5 minute rounds of continuous.  Unfortunately his opponent was unable to continue at the end of round 2 giving Russ the win.  Russ did very well in the two rounds he fought showing good hand and foot speed.

All in all Sedition Fight League was a great success.  I’m really pleased with our fighters, the ones that didn’t do quite as well as they should understand where they went wrong!  Thanks to all the UK wide fighters that took part, and thanks to all our members that came along to support the team.

There will be two more Sedition Fight League events in 2011 with some rematches, title eliminators, new blood bouts, prestige fights, title defences and new titles to fight for!

It's this Sunday!  The first Sedition Fight League takes place Sunday Feb 20th, as mentioned in the post below.

As promised here's a picture of the Champions Cups for the two title fights.  Not sure the picture quite does it justice.  Sure it looks good, but when you see it for real they look fantastic!  They are big, shiney and heavy!

All the fighters cups including the two title cups have been provided by Ilkeston based awardstrophiesandmedals.com      

Two of these cups will be fought for on the day.  One for the -85k mens continuous title, the other for the mens heavyweight points title as part of the the four man prize fight which is sponsored by Ilkeston Taxi firm Double Four Taxis.

For great local deals on awards, trophies and medals and to deal with a real person click the link to go to the online showroom at awardstrophiesandmedal.com

Well it's a little over a week until the first Sedition Fight League event!  This first event features a Champion v Champion title match to continuous rules with our own John Parry current IAKSA/ASKO English Champion and Summer Open Champion facing off againt current IAKSA/ASKO Britsih Champion Ivan Malinka.  Both John and Ivan have wins over each other and both are looking forward to this 3 round challenge for the Sedition Fight League National Title.

Our own Mark Waterhouse is also featured in a title clash, however this is a four man prize fight challenge for the heavyweight points fighting title.  Mark faces off against 3 other champions, 2 from the North of England and another from Nottingham.  There will be two 3 round fights early on the fight card to decide which two fight for  the champions cup, SFL Title and £100 cash prize sponsored by Double Four Taxis.

Next week I will put up a picture of the fantastic cups John and Mark are fighting for in the Sedition Fight League!  They really are something special!

Curtis Boothby (AKA Gillott) is the last Pargon member in a Champion v Champion match.  As current English points champion he will face the current British Champion in a Prestige fight over 3 rounds.  Two very good, strong, fast and evenly matched lads this is set to be an exciting bout!!

Also matched we have Dave Dawson in a veterans points match, Russ Bramley in a novice continuous match and dan Wray in a novice/inter continuous match.

There's a real buzz around the academy at the moment for this event, all tickets are gone and it's set to be a great day! 

I'll put up a picture of the fantstic cups next week, they are big, heavy and really are something worth fighting for!!

Jay

Happy New Year to all the students and families at Paragon Black Belt Academy and members of Paragon Kickboxing/Karate Organisation.

We’ve had a great 2010 and we’re all looking forward to a great 2011.  We’ve got lots going on in 2011 and members will be receiving all details as we progress.  Some details ore on the events page so please keep up to date by checking these dates.  Other event details will be put directly in your hands.

Looking forwards to reopening on Tuesday January 4^th, we’ve been busy painting the training studio and entrance area to give us all a nice clean fresh start to 2011.

Kids Paragon Games and Party went very well on Saturday.  Kids really enjoyed themselves and behaved very well throughout the day.  Medals got shared out amongst the new and experienced kids in all the usual favourite events.

Best Boy award went to Jason Allen, and Best Girl went to Katie Davies, well done to both.

Well done to all the students that have graded recently.  The last few weeks have been busy with separate grading sessions for our students.  We’ve had the Little Ninja grading day, the grading session for the Beeston classes, and of course the Black Belt grading at the end of November.  On Saturday December 11^th we held the last grading of the year spread across 4 separate time slots through the day.

Well done to all those that passed.

Little Ninja and Junior & Adult grading dates for 2011 are listed on the events page already.  I just need to add the Black Belt grading dates to this list.

Paragon Turns 18 in 2011

2011 is a very special year for us.  It’s 18 years since the original club that went on to become Paragon Black Belt Academy first opened!  It’s not been easy at all, but it has been very worthwhile simply due to all the people we have been able to help since we began in 1993.

I opened those first classes back in 1993 teaching a syllabus made up of Freestyle Karate, Kickboxing and Kick-jitsu (which at times went under other names depending who ran the events and is basically a form of mixed martial arts), all martial arts I had trained, graded and competed in.  I clearly remember people quite happily telling me that it would never last! Particularly the grappling/kick-jitsu. We have at various points in time given the grappling/Kick-Jitsu a rest for a while, but this is seeing a bit of a resurgence around the UK and Europe at the moment, something I’ll talk about later!

Party Time!

Anyway back to the Birthday.......I recently confirmed a very special seminar with one of my old instructors and a true legend in the World of Martial Arts.  We’ve also booked a local venue for a party afterwards!

You’ll be hearing more about this around the academy in the New Year, but for now put the Special Guest Seminar and Party date in your diary...... Saturday April 9^th 2011.

Special Guest Instructor Seminar & Evening Party

Saturday April 9th 2011

All Times TBC

Book Your Places Now!

See Jason or Selina

Join us To Celebrate 18 Years!

Last night I was very proud to present Curtis Boothby and John Parry with their Black Belts!

John has trained for over 5 years and Curtis for over 7 years.  Curtis had previously passed his cadet Black Belt and at 15 being a big lad we decided to test him for his senior 1st Degree Black Belt along with John.

Black Belts top off a great year for these two, read the entries below about their excellent year at the tournaments and their National Title wins!

 Next year we should have Lewis Davies testing for 1st Degree Black Belt, Dave Dawson for 2nd Degree and hopefully my longest serving student Mark Waterhouse will be encouraged to finally take his 3rd Degree Black Belt!!

Jay

2010 Sport Kickboxing Champions

Selina Dorn Points and Continuous Sport Kickboxing English, Summer Open and British Champion.  Selina made her mind up at the start of the year she was retiring and not even the chance to fight on the England Team can change her mind!

Mark Waterhouse Points and Continuous English & British Champion + National Prizefighter Champion.  Great wins for Mark, the amazing thing is we haven't even seen Mark above 60% fit for the last 7 years!!

John Parry Continuous Sport Kickboxing English Champion, Summer Open Champion and Championship 2nd place.  Things are finally clicking into place for John.  By his own admission he's not a points fighter, but his continuous fighting continues to improve.

Curtis Boothby Points English Champion, Continuous Summer Open Champion, Continuous British Champion.  Great year for Curt.  Only fought continuous in two events and won them both, and when he didn't win the points section took 2nd place!

Some of the senior members of the Paragon Sport Kickboxing Team with their trophies from 2010 IAKSA & ASKO Tournaments.

2010 has been a great year for these guys with plenty of National Championship Titles and qualifing for England and UK National Teams.  Well Done!

They Are All Winners!

Stan Dorn following in the footsteps of Mum and Dad!

Stan Dorn aged 3 years 5 months with his Mum Selina Dorn

Pretty much eveyone at Paragon knows Stan!  He's the son of Pargon owners Jason & Selina Dorn.  Following in the footsteps of Mum and Dad, Stan has just taken his Little Ninja Yellow Belt!

Paragon Little Ninjas is a Fun Packed, Educational Martial Arts programme for 3 to 6 year olds.  Classes are held here at Paragon Black Belt Academy, Ilkeston.  Paragon Little Ninjas focus on the development of key life skills through a kids martial arts program that combines Modern Karate, Kickboxing & Tae Kwon Do.

Parents interested in kids martial arts in Ilkeston should contact Paragon for details..... 0115 9300090

A Great day at the International Amateur Kickboxing Sport Association 2010 British Open Championships in Nottingham on Sunday November 7^th.  Teams from around the UK attended the event with well over 200 competitors fighting it out for 30 IAKSA British Sport Kickboxing Titles!

Add to this there is the possibility of the best of the bunch from the 2010 events being selected for the IAKSA National Squad to compete in the World Championships in May next year and you had an exciting tournament!

Of the 30 new British Champions six of them are at Paragon which is excellent news for us, add to that our performance in the rest of the series this year and we potentially have a good number of National Squad members right here at Paragon!

Semi Contact (points) Sport Kickboxing

In the boys under 150cm semi contact points sport kickboxing Jake Bagshaw fought very well to bring home the first win of the day for Paragon.  In the face of some tough competition Jake came through to become the new IAKSA British Champion.

Sam Hartshorne was fighting in only his first competition and did very well to reach the final of the boys under 160cm category.  In the final he faced a much more experienced competitor, bought fought a very good sensible fight showing good defence and attack skills and lost by only 3 points.  Second place in British Championships isn’t too bad for his first time so well done Sam.

In the boys over 160cm Curtis Gillott fought his way to the final winning one fight with the maximum 10 points ending it early.  As you would expect he met a good opponent in the final and both lads picked up fast points on each other.  As time was called Curt was one point behind so narrowly missed out on the British Title and took second place.

Sadly Lauren Cox missed out on a place in the girls over 160cm.  She fought well but as the least experienced and youngest in the section couldn’t quite match the opposition.

Russ Bramley took part in the mens lightweight novice and intermediate points section.  This was the first time out for Russ but he gave a good account of himself in a talented section and came away with the third place trophy.

In the mens advanced grade heavyweight section we had John Parry, Daniel Wray and Mark Waterhouse.  John’s the first to admit points fighting isn’t his thing, but fair play to him he always enters and has a go.  John went out early on in the section.  Daniel Wray ended up facing team mate Mark Waterhouse in the semi final.  Dan was looking sharp and picked up early points on Mark.  Mark started pulling points back and took the lead.  Dan went in with a strong reverse punch which scored the point, however unfortunately for Dan, Mark was chambering for a kick at the same time.  This led to an accidental clash between Mark’s knee and Dan’s nose!  Obviously Dan’s nose came off worse and the medical team withdrew him and sent him off to hospital with a suspected broken nose.

Having been withdrawn by the medical team Dan was unable to fight for third place.  A great shame really as he was looking quick on the day.  Mark went on to the final and won to become the IAKSA British Champion.

In the Ladies points section we had Kirsty Murden and Selina Dorn.  This section was well entered with some fast and talented ladies.  Kirsty fought well to reach the semi finals where she faced a much taller, strong and very fast opponent.  Kirtsy couldn’t find her way in, but never gave up trying, but unfortunately lost.  She later fought for the third place trophy and unfortunately missed out.

Selina Dorn worked her way through the qualifiers to the final where she faced the lady that had beat Kirsty in the semi’s.  This time her reach, speed and strength where no match for Selina who fought very well picking up counter punch points and strong attack points to win the match and become IAKSA British Champion.

Light Contact (continuous) Sport Kickboxing

Over in the Light Contact Continuous Kickboxing we went on to pick up more wins and trophies.

Jake Bagshaw was unlucky not to be up there in the medals in the continuous.  In a very busy category Jake won his first 2 fights to put him in the semi finals.  In the Semi's he was withdrawn by the medical staff due to a heavy blow.

Curtis Gillott was back in action after taking 2^nd in the points section.  Curt was hungry to become British Champion after fighting continuous for the first time in August when he won the Summer Open.  There were some good, strong technical lads in his section and Curt did well to work his way to the final.  In the final Curt faced the same lad he had faced in the Summer Open.  These lads have bags of good technical kickboxing skill and are a pleasure to watch.  It was a close fight which went to Curt to crown him IAKSA British Champion.

In the Men’s under 85k section we had John Parry.  John had already won the English Championships in May and the Summer Open in August.  He made his way to the final and faced an opponent he had previously beaten.  Perhaps underestimating his opponent John didn’t do enough and had to settle for second place.

In the ladies we had Kirsty and Selina again.  Kirsty doesn’t usually do continuous but decided to give it a go.  She did really well but lost in the semi finals leaving her to fight for third place.  Making no mistakes in this fight and determined to come home with a trophy she fought well to take third place.

Selina had already won the points and really wanted the win in the continuous.  She was under some pressure too as not only was the section well entered but she had won both the points and continuous in the English Championships and Summer Open.  So the continuous win would make it a clean sweep in 2010 IAKSA & ASKO Championships.  Add to this Selina had also decided she was retiring after this event and wanted to go out on top with nobody being able to say she retired following a loss to them!

Selina cut her way through the opposition right through to the final winning quite convincingly to add the IAKSA British Championship (continuous) to her impressive collection.

I’ll write more about Selina’s retirement another time!

Finally we had Mark Waterhouse in the continuous.  Mark’s no stranger to competition and this year had already won the IAKSA English Championship in both points, continuous and the IAKSA Prize Fighter championship on the same day!  At today’s event he had picked up the British Championship for points, so a win in the continuous would give him Five National Titles for 2010.  A number of pull outs on the day in this section which went from eight, down to two fighters left Mark to face a good, strong and technical fighter from Wales.  Both put on a good show of technical Sport Kickboxing which when time was called and the judges gave their decision proved Mark to be a worthy IAKSA British Champion.

All in all another great day coming home with six British Champions, two second place trophies and two third place trophies!

I’ll write more about the fantastic tournament year and our many champions of 2010, Selina’s retirement and some news on IAKSA National Squad which if it goes ahead we have a number of fighters qualified for to represent England in the IAKSA World Championships in May 2010............ Exciting times!!!!!

Thanks to everyone for all the help and support, you know who you are!!

Jay

Sunday November 7^th will be the British Championships event of the International Amateur Kickboxing Sport Association (IAKSA) and the All Styles Kickboxing Organisation (ASKO).

The event, in Nottingham has categories in Semi and Light Contact Sport Kickboxing as well as open hand and weapons forms.  I only took on the role of IAKSA England-UK President early this year, and this is already our third event and the first IAKSA British Championships for a few years!  Our previous events, the IAKSA & ASKO English Championships in May, and Summer Open in August both went very well.

It was a case of 3^rd time lucky for John Parry with his Full Contact Kickboxing career.  John kicked off his Full Contact career almost 1 year ago when he had his first fight on the Warriors fight night.  That toe to toe battle ended in a draw, which really was the only fair decision!

John had his second fight in April this year, it was a close fight and we all thought John had done enough to get the win, but the decision went against him.

For his third fight it was back to the Warriors Fight Night on Saturday October 16th, same promotion but a new venue.   A great show with plenty of good evenly matched bouts.  Anyone involved in any of the combat sports will appreciate there’s nothing worse than miss matched bouts with one opponent having way more experience than the other and as a result ending things early.  Not something you see at this show but not something you see at this show, but something common in many Kickboxing, Boxing and MMA shows.

John did well in every round and seemed much more at ease in this fight.  His opponent barely troubled him, although John did at times do his favourite “toe to toe” with his opponent which is his thing.  Frustrating for me in the corner, but hey John likes a scrap!!

It has to be said his opponent was a tough bloke, John hit him with some good blows in each round and his opponent stayed on his feet, he was also very game and up for it, so fair play to him for that.

John really deserved the “W”; he’s worked very hard and has only narrowly missed out in his other two fights.  Many people where rooting for John as is evident by the number of texts, emails, calls and messages I’ve had asking to pass on their congratulations.  Along with the number of people that wanted to come along to the show that couldn't make it.

It’s great working with people like John, he’s not interested in impressing me, his friends or family or chasing local press headlines.  He just fights for himself, and in doing so at the same time is proud to represent Paragon.  What more can you ask for?  Because if you are going to compete, which isn’t a compulsory part of training with us, then for us that’s what it’s all about!

Thanks to those that came along to support us.

We have some great action coming up in 2011 for our Boxers and Full Contact Kickboxers with events in the diary already including another Warriors show in February and a big venue show in March!

Also don’t forget we have the IAKSA/ASKO British Open Sport Kickboxing Championships in a few weeks over in Nottingham.

Jay

Unfortunately I have made a slight error and double booked myself on the date of the Pressure Points Healing Course!

On the same day (Sunday November 28^th) I have promised to conduct a Black Belt grading for some of our association members and associates in the North of England.

I will be rescheduling this course; however I doubt we’ll fit it in this year with so many other things going on between now and the end of 2010.  I’ll look for a date early in 2011 to cover this important and often overlooked part of martial arts!

Sorry folks, I know there are a few people that looked forward to doing this that couldn’t make the last one.

On Sunday October 3^rd we had a Charity training day for members of our academy and Kickboxing Organisation.  To get a place on the course students had to donate a minimum of £35.00 to a charity of their own personal choice.  A number of people that made donations where in the end unable to attend on the day due to reasons such as illness, work etc, but the group that did attend had a great day.

Discussing the head as a target

Grading

Saturday September 18^th was grading day for all levels.  A good number of students tested for their next level of coloured belts, along with Lewis Davies for his Deputy Black Belt.  On top of this we had Curtis Gillott taking the first part of his upgrade from junior 1^st degree Black Belt to senior 1^st degree, along with John Parry taking the first part of his 1^st degree and Dave Dawson the 1^st part of his 2^nd degree.   Lewis, Curtis, John and Dave all did very well so Curt, John & Dave will test this November and Lewis early next year.

All the coloured belts did very well, completing all their requirements for promotion.  The next junior and adult grading will be December.

Full Contact Fight

John Parry will be having his next Full Contact Kickboxing fight in October, for tickets see me.  John has been doing really well in the Light Contact tournament format this year with two good wins, one in the very busy IAKSA English Open Championships, and another in the IAKSA Summer Open.   So we’re hoping he can transfer this to the ring in October.

Charity Training Session

We’ve got the charity training session on Sunday October 3^rd.  To get a place students must make a charity donation.  I’ll be teaching Wrestling, Boxing, Submission Fighting and Kickboxing on the 6 hour seminar.

British Open Championships

The IAKSA & ASKO British Open Championships will be on Sunday November 7^th 2010.  The event is in Nottingham, so right on our doorstep.  We will again have a team competing.  All details of IAKSA & ASKO events can be found at www.kickboxing-pko.co.uk

Other

We have lots of stuff going on around Paragon at the moment.  As I type this we are in the process of planning some great future projects................ more will be revealed on this as we progress.

Jay

I've had to change the tournament results on the last post.  I'd typed Dan in 2nd and John 3rd for their points category, when it should have been the other way around John taking 2nd place and Dan 3rd.  I have changed it around on the post...... sorry John!

John will be in action again in October on a Full Contact show.

Jay

I’ve been a bit slack getting this report up from the Summer Open Championships in Nottingham on August 15^th.   Been so busy with so many different things that I haven’t had a chance to sit and type up the details!!

Anyway the event we co-promote with Ian from Dragon was again a great success with a great number of entries, far exceeding what we thought we would get with it being August.  Teams attended from around the UK to compete in Semi Contact (Points) and Light Contact (Continuous) Kickboxing.

With the holidays our team numbers where down a little, as where many others which made it such a surprise the actual numbers that entered.

Every member of the team came back with a trophy, which considering the skill level of the fighters present and the fact some of the team are just starting out competing is very good indeed.

In the kids sections Tom Caines fought very well in only his second tournament making his way to the final of his points fighting section and taking second place.

The other three kids competed in both points and continuous, and all of them placed in each category!

Lauren Cox took second place in both points and continuous.

Katie Davies fought very well looking good, sharp and strong in both points and continuous.  Katie reached the final in points and a close fight ended with Katie in second place.  Over in the continuous she pretty much dominated her opponents to take first place.

Curtis Gillott made his way to the points final where he faced a very sharp and accurate opponent.  The score went backwards and forwards and was close all the way to the end when as time was called Curtis was a point behind taking second place.  Over in the continuous Curtis looked very good in this his first ever time in continuous.  He moved extremely well, attacked with some excellent combinations with good control.  Having fought his way to the final Curt faced a quality opponent (like many of the fighters of the day!!) who fought a draw at the end of time.  In the 30 seconds extension Curt landed plenty of good clean scoring shots while making his opponent miss which gave Curt first place.

Over in the adults we had four fighters entered, three of them doing points and continuous, one doing just points.

Daniel Wray was taking part in only his second tournament.  In the same categories was John Parry.  In the points both lads fought well with Daniel taking 3^rd place and John 2nd.  Over in the well entered continuous section both lads made their way to the final to face each other.  John took the 1^st place leaving Dan with another 2^nd place trophy.

Kirsty Murden and Selina Dorn both fought their way to the final of a well entered Ladies open Weight advanced grade points category.   Both had some good challenging fights on their way to the final.  In the final Selina took the first place leaving Kirsty pleased and smiling with her second place trophy.

Selina was in action again in a very well entered continuous section.  Selina again fought her way to the final and again took first place coming home with two great first place trophies.

Another great day for Paragon, and for the IAKSA & ASKO tournaments.  I’m really proud of the team and it was yet again mentioned by our fighters, supporters and officials (as it was in May) that there is a noticeable new buzz and vibe around the team.

Next fight events are a Full Contact show in October and in November we have the IAKSA & ASKO British Open Championships, which looks like being a great day!!

Jay

We’re back from our holiday and classes are back to normal (whatever that is) from tonight!

We’ve got one or two things coming up too, so keep an eye on the events page.  There’s the ref and officials course this month, see me for details if you want to come along.  In August is the Summer Open Championships in Nottingham, we’ll have a team competing, see me if you want to compete.  We’re hoping to have a couple of our guys on a Full Contact Kickboxing show in September too.

There’s loads going on around the academy too with a few small changes to the adult timetable going down well.  The instructor changes to the kids classes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays have been very well received indeed with nothing but positive feedback from the kids themselves and their parents, with some saying we should have changed this way back!!

The new venue at Beeston is doing very well under the guidance of Kirsty with both the adults and junior classes developing at a nice steady pace.

We’ve got more things going on too we’ve just got to sit on them for a while longer!  As we come out the summer there will be more great improvements and developments and we’ll keep you informed every step of the way.  Further forward will see us involved in some exciting projects for 2011…………………

Jay

Great pressure points session on Saturday, really pleased with the way people are coming on with their understanding and applications.  We have a summer break now for pressure points, the next session is in September.

On the subject of pressure points I have to finalise dates for this years intake, I'll be letting all those interested know the dates ASAP!

Coming up is the grading later this month........PLEASE get your forms in quick!!!

In July we have another ASKO/IAKSA Refs and Officials course on Sunday 25th........ remember you pay just one fee of £15.00 and can attend any future refs and officials courses.

In August we have the IAKSA Summer Open Sport Kickboxing tournament in Nottingham.

Plenty going on, and we've got a few other plans too, details soon!!

Jay

Selina and I were very proud Mum & Dad on Wednesday this week (Wed June 9^th) when our boy Stan joined in his first full Little Ninja class!

We tried him in the class some time back, but he wasn’t quite ready.  But on Wednesday he joined in the whole class, which is of course taught by his Mum Selina.  This particular class Selina was assisted by John Parry and Kirsty Murden, both of whom are fantastic with the Little Ninjas.

Selina and I were very proud of him, particularly as he still isn’t quite three years old just yet, not long though, he’ll be three next weekend…………. Doesn’t time just fly by!!!

A few photographs below of the many I took during the class!

Stan loved the class and will be a regular now he’s made a start.

Jay

We’ve got a busy summer ahead of us here at Paragon!

First off I say this every year, but this year we are doing it for definite, particularly with the World Cup being on too!  We are going to have a new timetable for the summer which will start the same week as the World Cup.  No major changes, just with the hot summer months and all the football on TV it’s best to merge a couple of classes.  Check at the academy to see if your class is one of the couple we are merging.

We’ve also got the IAKSA Summer Open Championships over in Nottingham on August 15^th.  Following up on the success of the English Open earlier this month, will be another great day of points and continuous fighting.

Sometime between now and then there will be another referees and officials course, so anyone wanting to get involved in that side of things have a word with me.  The course covers every official duty of the day, from checking in to actually refereeing and managing an area.

We’ll be closed this coming bank holiday Monday, and please make sure you check our calendar so you know when we are closed for our summer holiday.  Also let us know when you’ll be away.

Jay

Well yesterday (Sunday May 16^th) was a fantastic day at the International Amateur Kickboxing Sport Association and All Styles Kickboxing Organisation English Open Championships.  The newly trained referee’s did a fantastic job, as did all the desk officials.  Well done to all and a very big thank you to each of them.

The feedack from those teams from around the UK that took part has been fantastic.

As expected there was a good standard of fighter attending, which makes for a great competition.  Paragon fighters did themselves proud as usual.  Tom Caines didn’t make it to the trophies narrowly losing out in the third place fight off.  It was a good start for Tom though in his first ever competition considering he was drawn against the best fighter in the section in his first bout!

Katies Davies fought her way to the final of the girls -160cm light continuous and after a good fight had to settle for second place.

Jake Bagshaw managed to pick up two 3^rd place trophies in both points and continuous.  Lauren Cox got a 3^rd place in points and 2^nd in continuous.  Curtis Gillott stormed through the big lads category crushing his opponents with the maximum points of ten to be IAKSA/ASKO English Champion, well done Curt!

Over in the adults Daniel Wray fought his way through a well entered novice men over 80kg points section to make it to the final.  In the final Dan struggled with his opponents height and reach and after a hard fight had to settle to 2^nd place.

Over in the advanced ladies points Kirsty Murden was unlucky to make an early exit missing out by one point.  Selina Dorn in the other side of the draw blasted here way to the final where she beat her opponent 10 – 3, to become IAKSA/ASKO English Champion.

We had three fighters in the advanced men over 80k points, both Vince Higgins and Mark Waterhouse fought their way to the final, with John fighting for 3^rd place.  In the end it was a Paragon 1^st and 2^nd with Mark Waterhouse taking the English Title and Vinnie close behind taking 2^nd place.

Dave Dawson narrowly missed out on first place by one point in the veterans points section.

Selina Dorn was back in action in the light continuous with another good win giving her, her second IAKSA/ASKO English Title of the day.

Ben Johnson was up in the men -75k light continuous which was a well entered category packed with great fighters.  Some great fighting put Ben in the final against a very skilled opponent.  The tight final was close with Ben just edging the decision bringing yet another title back to Paragon.

The -85k men light continuous was a very well entered category, we had three Paragon Kickboxers in this section.  Daniel Wray fought his way to the quarter final, meeting the guy he had lost too in his points fighting final.  Again Dan struggled with the height and reach and lost a tough fight.  John Parry and Vince Higgins fought their way through the draw to make it to the final.  The lads both gave it their all in the final with John taking the victory and the IAKSA/ASKO English Title. 

Mark Waterhouse was up again in the over 85k men light continuous where he again fought well to lift his second English Title of the day.

If that wasn’t enough for Mark he also took part in the open weight Prize fighter section, a winner takes all cash prize and open weight English Title for the winner.  John Parry also took part finishing 4^th.  Mark Showed in this event exactly why he is the fighter the rest of the Paragon team have always looked up to, putting in some great kicks, including a beautiful hook kick round kick combination which both hit the target!  A good day for Mark, his third English Title and a cash prize too!

Great day for Paragon team, eight new English Titles and a selection of 2^nd and 3^rd places, well done all.

Jay

Well I suppose I’ve been a bit slack on here for a couple of weeks.  It’s not that we don’t have anything going on, it’s that we have so much going on I’ve been too busy to update what’s actually going on!

As well as everything we have going on at the academy itself, which keeps us busy enough, I have been working on the All Styles Kickboxing Organisation and International Amateur Kickboxing Sport Association English Open Championships.  This event takes place in Nottingham on Sunday May 16^th.  As well as being a partner in promoting the tournament, as well as UK IAKSA & ASKO President, I have also been training our own academy team to take part.  Looking forwards to a great day there and hopefully next time I write on here it will be about our successes and perhaps new ASKO & IAKSA English Champions!

On top of this I’ve been working hard on a couple of other projects centred around the pressure points stuff, and I’ve had a number of offers put my way regarding this leaving me with plenty to do and a great deal to think about.

Jay

Another fantastic three hour session of Applied Pressure Points today (Saturday 24^th) wrapped up another great week at Paragon.  Again joined by our friends from North East and North West England who all made the journey on a nice sunny day to train alongside our own students and others from around Nottingham.

Application was the focus of today, with some of the group starting their assessments for graduation too.  I showed some of my own favourite applications as well as starting the group off with an entry from which they could work from.

Really enjoyed the session, it’s really pleasing to see people piecing in all together, particularly the ones that attend our principle training workshops as well as the pressure points, I’m seeing some real big leaps in improvement and understanding in these students which is what it’s all about.

All in all a great end to a week which included the opening of the first of our new partner schools over in Beeston Rylands. 

Not long now until the IAKSA/ASKO English Championships, everything is organised and ready to go.

Jay

So much happening at the moment, both Selina and I are keeping really busy!

We’ve got the new Partner School opening over at Beeston Rylands next Tuesday, with open days on Tuesday 20^th and Thursday 22^nd of April with taster sessions for Kids, Adults and Ladies Only.  Good luck to Selina and the Team over there; they have all worked very hard promoting the new school and generated plenty of interest with many booked in and the phone still ringing!

We’re less than 5 weeks away from the IAKSA/ASKO English Open Championships over in Nottingham www.kickboxing-pko.co.uk which looks set to be a great day!  Categories in Semi Contact Points and Light Contact Continuous with entries from around the UK, obviously we have a team fighting.

This Saturday, April 17^th, we have John Parry and Russ Henshaw fighting on a full contact Kickboxing show, John over 3 rounds in only his second full contact fight and Russ over 6 for a British title at super cruiserweight. 

Saturday April 24^th is the next instalment of the pressure points training, with part of the class doing there first assessments working towards a graduation at the end of 2010. 

There are lots more things going on too as we roll out more of our plans in the coming weeks and months.  Members will be first to know.

Paragon is always a great place to be, that’s why more people locally train with us than with anyone else and why people travel for miles to attend our special courses and workshops.

Jay

Great training workshop today covering development of a defensive game and how poor refereeing & judging in sport karate and kickboxing can affect the defensive strategy.

Luckily for those in attendance only twelve attended this time, any more and I would have had to change the drills we practiced.  We also covered some tips, tricks and skills on footwork positioning and one of my favourite attack combos which a rarely share and hope to see put to good use by those I shared it with today!

I had two aims with the session, one being the defensive strategies, the other being linking the point and continuous fighting skills together for use in light continuous tournaments.  Everyone seemed to understand and pick up on everything and I was impressed with the obvious improvements of all in the group.

Another great day with good people, which reminds me why I put these workshops on!

The next one is in October which is going to be a very special one that I am really looking forward to doing.  Those that need info on this can get it from me or their own instructor.

Some pictures below from the day, thanks to all those that atttended, big thanks to those travelling from North West and North East England for the session.

Jay

Hope everyone had had good Easter break, I know we did.  But now it’s all back to normal (whatever that is).  Lots of good Karate-Kickboxing & Boxing sessions this week should work off the chocolate!

Lots going on with all the usual Modern Karate, Kickboxing and Boxing classes throughout the week.  Sunday we have a workshop for PKO members covering Sport Karate and Kickboxing principles, it’s also going to cover some aspects important for refereeing for all those that have recently done the refs and officials course.  The main session is 10am to 1pm then we have a 1 hour boxing session to follow for those interested.

We’ve got several exciting and important announcements coming up over the coming weeks and months.  These involve various aspects of Paragon including the Academy itself, our Martial Arts associations PKO, ASKO & IAKSA England/UK (www.kickboxing-pko.co.uk), our Self Defence, Personal Security and Conflict Management training programs (www.paragonprotect.co.uk), Pressure Points Karate and Instructor training programs (new site being developed) and lots more besides.

Yes there are lots of things going on, and those that need to know will be the first to know.  Those that want to know all my business and continually go around sticking their noses in will just have to wait their turn; you’ll find out in the end, we don’t have any secrets.  Until then I’d recommend getting on with your own business, or if you really do have that much time on your hands then put in some extra work in the gym or just simply sit back a chill a little!

Jay

Yesterday (Sunday March 28^th) we did the IAKSA England/UK & ASKO refs and officials course.  Big thank you and well done to all that attended the course, all will be receiving their first ref and officials certificate and working towards their next levels at the May event.

Hope everyone remembers we are closed over the entire Easter weekend Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  Back to normal Tuesday.

Our next Karate-Kickboxing principles workshop is Sunday April 11^th.  On April 17^th we have two fighters matched on a Full Contact Kickboxing show (see me for details).  Then April 24^th is the next applied kyusho pressure points session.

We’ve also got the all new School of Champions sessions on Mondays, kids at 4.45 and adults at 8.15, see me for details.

Selina and I are working on lots of cool new stuff too, all will be revealed in the coming weeks and months.

Jay

Well done to our new deputy black belts in Modern Karate & Kickboxing.  Gaining a Black Belt or Deputy Black Belt in Modern Karate & Kickboxing with us isn’t easy, every student that gets this far has worked and worked very hard.

On Saturday March 20^th seven juniors and one adult went through their paces for two hours showing their Karate and Kickboxing skills.  All of them passed and will now enter into focussed training for their 1^st Degree Black Belts which includes regular classes, workshops, seminars and Black Belt Boot Camps!

Selina is extra pleased as six of the seven students started in her little ninja program 7 years ago!  These six have worked their way through the little ninjas, graduated to juniors and are now working for their Junior 1^st Degree Black Belts.

Well done to all of them.

Jason

Seven New Junior Deputy Black Belts

John Parry New Adult Deputy Black Belt

Excellent grading Saturday (March 6^th), three separate grading slots of one and a half hours for kids, adults and the ladies only programs.  The process is based on ongoing assessment throughout training.  Those that are ready then enter into the final assessment week, those that pass that enter to the final assessment day, which in this case was Saturday.

Assessing the students was Selina Dorn 3^rd Degree Black Belt, Russ Henshaw 2^nd Degree Black Belt and Myself.  Selina also opted to join in part of the grading with her ladies group, an important part of the work towards 4^th Degree Black Belt promotion.

All students showed great Karate & Kickboxing skills and passed the assessments for their new rank.  Well done to all.

The next grading will be Little Ninjas in May, then adults and juniors in June.  Keep an eye on events page for dates.

Fight Event Derby

Today (Sunday 7^th) we had 6 fighters in Light Continuous Kickboxing show in Derby hosted by ACE Fighters.  Our team was made up of Ben Johnson, Dan Wray, Tim Jackson, John Parry, Russ Henshaw and Nicole Straw.

It was first time for Ben, 3 rounds and he did excellent every round followed my instructions to get himself a good win.  Tim was up next although he didn’t perform particularly well managed a draw.  John was up next, typical John toe to toe style in a fight that could have gone either way, unfortunately for John it wasn’t going his way today and he lost.  Another loss followed with Nicole seemingly ignoring instructions in each round.  Russ was up next and had a great fight to take another win.  Dan was last on and had a tough fight which he won.

Not a bad day with 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses.

Another busy full week of martial arts action over, just a few hours rest tonight and then back to in Monday morning!

Jay

On Sunday February 28^th four PKO members from Dragon Freestyle in Nottingham came to Paragon for their Black Belt grading.  Darren Wood, Chris Lamb and Naseem Anwar all tested for 2^nd Degree Black Belt, and Adrian Redgate for 1^st Degree.

As usual the grading was a tough challenge of mind, body and spirit with all four candidates on the actively on the floor for well over four hours.  No waiting their turn, no watching others doing their bit before they do theirs.  All four where on the floor doing their thing in front of myself and four other examiners for the whole time.

The grading went well from start to finish with all candidates putting in 100% from start to finish.  It’s always nice to see people choosing to go through this type of grading instead of being tempted by the many easy option/paper tiger routes available today.

Well done to all four, and to Ian their Instructor who I promoted to 4^th Degree Black Belt on the same day.

The next black belt grading is November

Jay

Been a little busy organising a few things for the tournaments and fight shows.  I have recently taken on the role as president for the International Amateur Kickboxing Sport Association for England/UK and our tournaments will now be run as IAKSA & ASKO (All Styles Kickboxing Organisation) events.

There's way too much going on to write it all here, click the logo below to see what's going on with the tournaments and fight shows and with the IAKSA and ASKO over here.

Jay

Today is the Chinese New Year, the year of the Tiger.  The Tiger is both feared and respected, and their wisdom sought.  This got me thinking about how the majority of martial artists used to be, most where respected, sometimes even feared, they had knowledge and wisdom.  When I look at many of today's sadly all I see are Paper Tigers.

Anyway here's some facts on the Tiger (real not paper) from a Chinese zodiac perspective

2010 - Year of the White Tiger

The Tiger (associated with good fortune, power, and royalty), is viewed with both fear and respect; hence, their protection and wisdom is sought after. Many people believe the tiger, and not the lion, as the true king of beasts.


Chinese Name: Hu

Ruling Hours: 3:00 am - 4:59 am

Season/Month: Winter/February

Similar to Western Horoscope Sun Sign: Aquarius

Lucky Color: Green

Lucky Numbers: 2, 3

Direction of Orientation: East Northeast

Polarity: Yang (Male)

Fixed Element: Wood (But in 2010 - Metal)

Positive Traits: Agile natural leaders, alert, energetic, independent, far-sighted, charming, friendly, well-liked, loyal, intelligent, confident, courageous, powerful, strong, self-reliant, sacrificing, optimistic, relentlessly competitive, good strategists and tacticians

Negative Traits: Unpredictable, vain, distrustful, impatient, impulsive, quick-tempered, quarrelsome, rebellious, tend to risk their luck too often, often disregard others, are sensititive to criticism and have difficulty keeping their restless nature under control

Associated with Food: Bread, poultry

Associated with Human Anatomy: Respiratory system and lungs (Chinese Medicine)

Jay

Today we did the first of the 2010 workshops covering Karate-Kickboxing principles.  The seminar was attended by 23 students from Paragon, and PKO members from Mansfield, Nottingham as well as North East and North West England.

The session was 3 hours of Karate/Kickboxing principles which started working on footwork and movement before moving on to power.  This was a recap of two of last years workshops.  The main focus of today’s session was to get an understanding of technique speed and timing, then link this to movement and power.  What I wanted was everyone to be moving efficiently while hitting faster and harder.

It definitely worked and everyone left with a good understanding of footwork, speed and power and could all certainly hit hard and fast!

At the end of 3 hours a few of the students left, leaving the rest of the group to work on skills and drills from our boxing syllabus.  For this we worked defence skills of parrying and evasion, followed by working the jab with footwork and correct body management principles.

All in all a great day enjoyed by myself and all that attended.  Looking forward to the next one.

Jay

The seminar attendees from the session, thanks all for attending!

Check our www.kickboxing-pko.co.uk for details of our tournaments and fight shows. 

Looking forward to these events.

Jay

Had a great day today at Burns School of Black Belts in Newcastle where I was invited to teach my Pressure Points.  Was a good turn out of friendly hard working students all of which got stuck in and made the points work for them.

Nice to see those that are regulars on the sessions here at Paragon putting the pieces together and making it work.  Also nice to introduce the material to new people and hopefully I’ll get the chance to return to do more sometime in the future.

Thanks for having me up there, can’t believe there was over  four inches of snow when I turned up!

I’ll put a picture of two up here and on facebook when I can.

Jay

The BSBB members that attended my Pressure Point Karate seminar.  Thanks all, and thanks very much for all the kind words and feedback over on facebook. 

Thanks

Jay

Myself and my good friend Ian Harrison have decided the time is right for us to launch our fight events.  I ran my first of many successful events in 1995, and it was through one of these events Ian was introduced to me in 1998 at a very successful and busy tournament of mine (just to remind Ian he received a concussion at this event and I make the effort to remind him whenever possible!!) and has been a student of mine, as well as a colleague and friend since.

It’s not the first time Ian and I have co-promoted an event.  Some of you will remember the event in Nottingham in 2005 we did.  Again this was another great and successful event with fighters travelling from around the UK to take part in points & continuous style kickboxing categories as well as grappling.

This time we have decided to split the events up into separate and what will be annual events.  The first of these is the Kumite Semi Contact Open Championships on Sunday May 16^th.  This obviously focuses on semi contact (points) fighting and is open to any and all clubs, schools, styles and associations.

Then on November 7^th we have Sedition Light Continuous Championships which concentrates on light continuous in the tournament format.

Our last event is December 12^th when we’ll be hosting a fight show with matches over 3 rounds in semi and light contact, as well as full contact matches!

All the events are to be held in Nottingham and full details will be available soon.  As I write this clubs from various parts of the UK have already said they will be attending, and I have only just mentioned it!

We’ll be running some PKO ref and official course soon so anyone wanting to get involved in the official side of things let us know.  And of course if you want to fight let us know!!

Both Ian and Myself are looking forward to these events and making them work.

Jay

Sunday February 7^th is the first of this years special workshops covering important training and fighting principles.  Last year the workshops focussed on movement, balance and power.  This first workshop will be recapping these important principles and expanding on them by looking closely at distance, timing and speed along with more power principles.

The first 3 hours will be working on Modern Karate & Kickboxing elements, after a brief break we’ll then be covering elements of our all new boxing program for the next hour.

The session is looking good already with our friends from Nottingham, Mansfield, Manchester and North East England already booking places, as well as our own students.  These courses are always well received with everyone taking a lot from them regardless of how long they have been training.

If you want a place get your name down quick!

I’m looking forward to it and hope to see you there!

Jay

The new boxing program has been running for 2 weeks now with no promotion (which will start soon) and I have to say I am happy with the way it’s going.  It’s obviously attracted interest from our current Karate-Kickboxing members, and a few that have heard about it by word of mouth or on our website.

The program is designed to both stand alone and to complement our already successful Kickboxing program.  We’ve got a lot going on with the boxing in the coming year with some great innovations and plans.

Anyone interested in Paragon Boxing should see me.

Jay

First Week Back at Paragon Academy!!

We’ve seen the New Year in here at Paragon with some great classes.  The weather may have put a few off over the week, but the majority made it in and made a start on their 2010 training.

The new boxing classes have got off to a great start, and we haven’t even promoted them yet!  Anyone that fancies trying the boxing sessions needs to contact me.  The classes are open to all.

There’s a few changes taking place over the coming year as we try to further improve what we do and how we do it.  2009 was great, but 2010 is going to be even better.  Some dates are on the events page, others are not; see me for full details of what’s what, when and where!

With the weather conditions we really didn’t expect the first pressure points study group of 2010 (Sat Jan 9^th) to go that well.  Snow locally overnight Friday and Saturday morning made it difficult for some to attend, and difficulties with travelling the A1 meant our friends from the North East didn’t make the trip down (can’t blame them, that A1 can be a nightmare!!).  However many did make, more than we thought would, including Michelle making the trip from Manchester (including her really cool hat).  Those attending covered a good mix of material from level one and two.

Overall a good start to what is sure to be a great year!

Jay

2009 has been another great year for Paragon.  I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continued support.

We have some great things planned for 2010.  First of these is the launch of the new boxing program in January which is already getting a fair amount of interest!

There’s loads more for 2010 and into 2011 but I’m not going to cut into my well earned break and write about them here!

Anyway I hope everyone is having a great Christmas and enjoying their break too, and I hope you all have a fun New Years Eve, I know I will….. Best wishes for 2010

Jay

Excellent night last night at the Full Contact show with 3 wins and a draw for us!  Thanks to all the supporters for making the effort and making some noise for the lads.

Tim Jackson followed my instructions well to win a unanimous decision in his first ring fight.  Picking off his opponent with crisp clean hands and landing some well timed kicks.

John Parry was in a toe to toe war for his first full contact fight.  Both lads gave their all and a draw for this one really was the fairest decision.

Russ Henshaw caused his opponent a few problems from the start, following instructions Russ looked good and strong.  His opponent didn’t come out for the 3^rd round giving Russ the win.

Ian Kitchen looked good landing some very good heavy right hands on his opponent in a good fight with both lads going for it.  Ian got a majority decision.

Well done lads, great night, great action and some laughs in the back!  Thanks again to the supporters for getting behind me and the lads.

Already busy next year we’ve got a sport karate & kickboxing tournament in January, full contact shows in February and March.  Any of our students that want to get involved with the fight team should let me know.

Thanks

Jay

I’ve got the tickets for the full contact show on the 28^th.  We have four of our fighters matched on the show so it’s a busy night for me!!

Tickets are £15.00 see me if you want one.

Jay

Excellent session today in the pressure points.  Shame those that travel for these sessions got held up on the M1, and that some couldn't make the session as this was last one of 2009.

Covered some traditional Kata bunkai, Boxing/Kickboxing applications, Self Defence applications, and control and restraint using pressure points.

The session went very well as usual.  I don't usually single anyone out but Michelle Zelazowski stood out today showing very good strong traditional karate skills further enhanced by what she has learned on the Kyusho programme.  I am sure Russ will have several bruises to prove this!!

Looking forward to getting everyone back together for the 2010 events, lots of progress will be made next year and we should see graduations at both level one and some at level two.

Jay

October has been busy as usual and November and December will be the same.

During November we have gradings, first aid training, and the full contact fights at the end of the month, hopefully have some ticket info at that next week.

Plenty of things in December too before we close for Christmas.

Part of why I am so busy, and why I was in London for a week in October is this  www.paragonprotect.co.uk 

Check it out and let me know what you think?  The site pretty much tells you what the project is all about.

Another thing we are busy with is planning 2010, Selina and I have been planning on a few improvements for the new year, so when these plans are ready you'll be hearing all about them!

There are a few other things too but we'll keep those under wraps for a while.

Jay

Starting in 2010 we will be launching ‘Black Belt Development Training’.  The full concept isn’t finalised just yet, but it will obviously involve PKO Black Belts, and may involve Black Belt candidates, i.e. high kyu grades.

The basic idea is that we will hold two of these a year, and all Black Belts (possibly candidates too) will need to attend at least one of these.  The core of the training will be furthering the understanding of Kickboxing and Modern Karate and making sure everyone is heading in the same direction.

Further to this we are considering a ‘New Black Belt Award’ in recognition of those following our cross training options (submission fighting, boxing, pressure points, kali etc).  This will be a higher level award and will challenge candidates physically and mentally.

I’ll have more news on this and the first date for 2010 soon.

Jay

Just run the fight stoppers course this morning, nice turnout with a few faces I haven't seen before and a few old ones.

The session was all about learning to deliver powerful shots to specific targets on the body for maximum effect.   I introduced the group to a variety of tools and tricks to achieve a powerful shot and as we got towards the end of the session everyone was obviously hitting harder, which came as a shock to some!

Nearing the end I then introduced a couple more drills, the first a drill to increase straight punch power, which increased their shots even more.   Then a drill to that took the power into more dynamic situations, training them to hit with movement.   The last drill went down well with those that took part and showed another good increase in power by helping them tap into the primitive instincts, with some excellent results.

To finish off the session and pretty much finish off the group we did some exercises to help with punching and endurance.

All in all an excellent day,   everyone enjoyed it and got what they came   for.

Jay  

Some of our fighters have got matches confirmed for the November full contact show, just waiting for a couple more to be matched up.

Will be a good night out and it's not too far away either.  I'll let everyone know about tickets etc, and as usual any tickets we get will be going to Paragon members first.

I'll sort further details as soon as I can.

Jay

Well it’s been a long time coming but I have finally decided the time is right to go ahead with the Humane Pressure Points Tactics (HPPT) program I am certified and licensed to teach.

I was introduced to the HPPT program in 2005/06 and certified level 1 and 2 in 2007, level 3 in 2008.  I’ve not really done anything with it, except teach snippets of it on the pressure points program.

HPPT was originally devised for Law Enforcement and Security officers in the USA and Canada.  It’s since been adopted in the USA, Canada and Australia by not just law enforcement and security but hotel staff, airline attendants, shop and store workers, pretty much anyone that comes into contact with the public!

My reasoning for not really doing much with it is that I wanted to do something a little more with it.  With a background in specialist security and working the doors etc I can see its value to the security industry.  But I also think it makes an excellent short course of Self Defence for the general public.

So basically what I’ve done is use the original HPPT as the core of our program, and shaped it to suit the areas I want to offer it based on my own experience.

The program will launch in 2010 offering a range of HPPT Self Defence programs.  There’s a page on here offering some basic info.  There will be a new site up and running soon with full details of  HPPT and some other closely related special projects!!

Jay    

Had loads of fun as usual with the pressure points today and really enjoyed working with level one and level two students.

Of course we all know (because those that know it all) tell us that pressure points don’t work!  So we wasted 3 hours today showing exactly how pressure points don’t work in boxing and grappling scenarios!

Excellent session and I am sure everybody got a lot from it.

Thanks to everyone for coming, it’s a real pleasure to work with all of you.  Big thanks to the North East crowd for making the regular trips down here to follow the program.  See you all at the next one in November.

Thanks

Jay

We’ll be back in action Full Contact Kickboxing in November.  We have a choice of events to put fighters forward on, but the later dates suit our schedule better.

I’ve submitted names of five fighters to an event we’ve never supported before to be matched on their event.  If this doesn’t come off we’ll be putting them to another event.

We’ve got Russ Henshaw and Ian Kitchen picking up where they left off last year with Full Contact fights.  John Parry will be having his first Full Contact fight having performed well in Light Contact.  Then we have Nicole Straw trying to get a match to Light Contact rules to pick up her Kickboxing career, and lastly Tim Jackson stepping up to a Light Contact Kickboxing fight as a stepping stone towards a future Full Contact career that will hopefully start for him in 2010.

Anyone wanting to support the fighters need to see me regarding tickets.  I have no details yet regards prices and availability.

Jay

Had some fun and really enjoyed the Pressure Points Therapy session today.  Was good to show the other side of the coin!!

The therapy side alone is a vast subject and always difficult to know how to pitch it, but judging by how the day went I think I got it just about right.  If anything I think an extra hour would be a good thing to allow things to be slowed down a little when using the techniques.

I hope everyone enjoyed the session and got something from it and can see how valuable this sort of thing is!

I know many people where quite upset at not being able to attend, so I’m going to do my best to repeat the session.  Be good for those that came today can come back and we can take the whole thing further!!

A few aches, pains and old war wounds showed up during the session and hopefully responded well to the treatments.

Thanks to those that came along.

Jay

Good day at competition yesterday coming home with a good collection of first and 2nd place trophies.

Russ took first in both points and continuous with Mark taking 2nd in both.

Tim took 2nd in points.

Dave 1st in points.

John 1st in continuous.

Selina nowhere near her best took first in  points.

Jared was unlucky this time and just missed out on 3rd place in the fight off.

The White Tigers performed well coming home with a second place trophy and continuing to improve.  Ric had an excellent fight with John from ours and it could have gone either way.  Ric will be pushing for a a place in the trophies very soon and John and all the others in that section better watch out!!!

Jay

Good comp yesterday, good challeging fights for all.

Russ Henshaw got 1st continuous & 2nd for points.  I think enough was said on the day about a particular ref in the final of the points!!!  But lets remember folks, we've seen a lot worse, and there's only one way to make people see!

John Parry got 2nd in both points and continuous.  John had some great fights to get to the final, and his final fight was probably the best and most exciting of the day with John being unlucky not to get the win!  Same story for the continuous, really could have gone either way.

Jared Hunt took 3rd in points making it two 3rds in two outings, not at all bad for a 16 year old that has made his fighting debut in the mens black belt section!

Was a good comp with great standards of fighting I think everyone will agree.  Well done to the White Tigers, step by step getting better, taking it all in, listening and learning.  At times it seems obvious to me that you are listening more than my own fighters are!  (hint hint to my lot)

Jay

Had fun today teaching the clinch seminar and hope people got what I was trying to put across.

I try to make these seminars interesting and informative with just the right amount of content.  What I’m really after is getting people to understand principles of what we’re doing.

These sessions definitely are not for the technique collectors, although the session contained plenty of technique work.  There are plenty of seminars on for technique collectors if that’s what people want.  These are for people that want to expand their knowledge or perhaps get a deeper understanding of knowledge they already have.

The drills I included will really develop tactile sensitivity and fighting skills of those that took part.  Hope everyone enjoyed it and got plenty from it.  I could have carried on teaching for many more hours, I enjoyed it and really only scratched the surface of material I could have covered on this one subject alone!!

I’m wondering now where we go with the other two scheduled workshops and will be putting a few ideas forward for consideration.

Jay

Just recieved my copy of Frank Shamrocks newly released Mixed Martial Arts book.

Selina and I are listed in the book as the only UK Instructors in Shamrock Submission Fighting (SSF), which is Franks approach to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).  Selina and I trained for the SSF qualification in 2005 during a two week training trip to the USA.  It was a hard two weeks training MMA, Judo, Grappling and SSF!  We came back with coaching awards in Judo and the SSF Instructor awards.

SSF makes up part of the Submission Fighting/MMA program at Paragon.  Stay tuned for some news on this program in the next month or so!!

Me & Frank during Shamrock Submission Fighting Instructor Training in 2005

Jay

Well done to the team today, took part in a Kickboxing comp fighting points and continuous.  The event was well run with good officials and quality competitors, the whole team really enjoyed the day, as did I.

Selina took 3^rd in points (after a foolish mistake!!) and 1^st in continuous.

Russ took 1^st in both points and continuous.

John Parry took 3^rd in coloured belt points

Jared Hunt took part in his first ever comp at 16 years old in the adult black belt section and did really well to take 3^rd place.

Dave Dawson took 3^rd in  the mens veterans.

Vince Higgins took 3^rd in his points, 1^st in veterans points and 2^nd in continuous.

Well done to everyone.

Well done to Sam Wood and her White Tiger team who all took part in their first event and did very well competing against quality and experienced opponents.  Well done and I look forward to working with you all again soon.

Jay

Not been on here a while, been really busy with a thing or two we have going on at the moment.  Pick up a newsletter to see what's what!  Loads happening around here.

Remember we are closed over the Easter Weekend.

Jay

Did the workshop on fundamental movement on Saturday.  Not sure if it’s what people expected, my guess is it wasn’t quite what they expected.

Rather than covering exactly how to move the aim of the seminar was to train the eye to watch movement, and program the nervous system and muscles to respond.  We worked the key components of response, and how we could speed this up.

Next we looked at a couple of ways to speed up a few common techniques and finished with how to put it all together in sparring.

Hope everyone got what I was trying to get across, this sort of thing goes beyond the punch & kick taught in the majority of Kickboxing establishments.  For that reason people sometimes just don’t get it because on the surface it can appear complicated.  Take time to work in what you learned from the seminar and it will start to work for you.

Looking forward to doing the next workshop in April.

Jay

I turned 40 last week.  Here's a few pictures of the cake Selina got for me.  Complete with boxing gloves, Paragon logo and my dan grade stripes.

One half of the cake was chocolate (obviously Selina ate most of that) the other half was fruit.  It was made by Rachael Dowd, one of our students here at Paragon. 

Jay

Well done to Kirsty Murden who passed her Black Belt test on Sunday February 1^st.

It’s worth mentioning that Kirsty did really well bouncing back like she did after the hiccup at last years test.  Last year Kirsty left me with a difficult decision having completed the test with borderline marks.  After much discussion with examiners and instructors, and based on the fact we knew Kirsty could do better it was decided she would test again this year.

 Very well done Kirsty.

We’ve got another Black Belt grading in March when a number of juniors will be attempting their Junior Black Belt and Selina should be attempting her 3^rd Degree Black Belt.

Jay

My training trips to the USA have been fun and very productive.  Hard work, but worth it.  Here’s some more from my 2005 trip.

Dan “The Beast” needs no introduction to any followers of early Mixed Martial Arts events, particularly the early UFC events.

Dan was on hand passing on his takedown and ground and pound skills.  This all tied in very nicely with my Kickboxing, Sambo Wrestling & Judo knowledge.

The Beast also offered some great advice as well as giving Selina and I a signed photograph which lists his many years in Wrestling along with his Black Belts in Judo, Ju Jitsu and Combat Sambo and another of him with the Three UFC Belts!

When I was promoted to 5^th Degree Black Belt by the International Modern Martial Arts Federation, Steve Stewart had The Beast as a signatory on the Diploma in recognition of my Grappling, Wrestling & Submission Fighting skills which was pretty cool!

Jay

Back in 2005 Selina and I made a trip to the USA for two weeks of intense Grappling & MMA training.  The training would include Judo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, MMA, Submission Wrestling & Wrestling Takedowns.

Prior to the trip we both had Grappling/Wrestling experience.  I’d been doing some on and off for years, and Selina had done some too.  And for 2½ years prior to the trip we’d been working with our coach Tim Thomas on Sambo Wrestling, Judo & Olympic Freestyle Wrestling and had qualified as Sambo Wrestling Coaches.

One of the people we trained with was Mike Swain.  Mike Swain is a Judo legend in the USA as a former World Champion and 4 times Olympian, taking Bronze at the 1988 Olympics.

Obviously Mike has great Judo and Grappling skills and is equally well versed in the throwing and ground grappling aspects.  He is also a great coach and we where very lucky to not only train with Mike in a group environment but also a semi private session.  Mike presented both Selina and I with Level 2 Judo & Grappling Instructor certificates through his Judo & Grappling Assocoation.

Selina & Me with Judo & Grappling Expert Mike Swain

I've got a few more pics from the trip that I'll put up in the future.

Jay

Thursday Fitness & Conditioning got off to a good New Year last Thursday (Jan 8th).

I always recommend this session for any Black Belt candidates and to anyone wanting to fight Semi, Light or Full Contact.   The sessions vary, we can be using Kettle Bells, Weights, Bags, Resistance Exercises etc.

This particular session was a full hour of bagwork, 2 minutes on the bag with one minute in between doing a variety of press ups or sit ups.   Good session and everyone did well!

Well done to all, and keep it up!

Jay

We got our first real taste of being worried parents over the Christmas Holidays.  On Friday January 2^nd Stan was taken into Queens Medical Center hospital for an emergency operation.  The problem was an abscess which the GP originally treated with antibiotics.  Although this appeared to be doing the trick another GP decided on Friday the 2^nd that a trip to QMC was needed.

Anyway he had the op that night and all is well, just a few more doses of antibiotics, trips to his GP’s to see the nurse and a final check up back at QMC to go!

Here’s a few pics of Stan having a play around in one of the kids ‘Fun’ sessions on December 23^rd the day we broke up for the holidays.

At 18 months old he is having a play around.  He’s been doing his version of Jab, Cross, Front Kick since around 17 months old!!!

His Mum adjusted a kit and white belt so he could look the part.

I'm wondering just how long it will be before Stan wants to join in the Little Ninjas?

Jay

Happy New Year to all regular students, their families and to our growing number of seminar students and their families.

We've got some great stuff lined up for 2009 including more competitions in semi & light contact along with options for those wanting to do full contact including Thai & K1 rules.   We've got regular squad sessions both for kids and adults.   After a long hard look at the Kyusho Jitsu/Body Science program we've decided on a restructure and from this year attendance is only every other month making it far more appealing.   So far I've sceduled four definate special workshops for students to get a deeper understanding of Kickboxing/Fighting principles, and we could well be doing more of these!

As for weekly classes we have re-introduced the Kids Mat Rats Grappling/Wrestling classes as from Monday January 5th 2009.   Soon to follow will be an all new Beginners Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) / Submission Fighting class for adults.   Selina and I have talked about this for a long time and feel that removing these classes during 2008 left a gap in what we had built into an Holistic curriculum.

2009 is set to be a very busy year for us a Paragon, and we look forward to sharing it with our dedicated and loyal students.

Happy New Year

Jay & Selina

Got a few pics of me and/or Selina with some great grappling/mma coaches we have trained with.  Will be putting them up over coming weeks along with some old Kickboxing pics too!!

Grappling has been part of my training for many years and I have trained with some great instructors.  But this guy really is great.

For the past six years now I have been working my grappling/wrestling with Tim Thomas.  Tim is quite possibly the UK’s best kept secret when it comes to wrestling/grappling.  He is like a walking encyclopedia, with a working knowledge of all wrestling/grappling systems.  His specialty being Freestyle Wrestling, Sambo Wrestling & Judo.  People regard him as a groundwork expert, but he is equally well versed in throws and takedowns.

Tim Certified Selina and me first as provisional coaches then as Club Coaches in Sambo Wrestling.  A simple way of describing Sambo Wrestling is that it is made up of the three Olympic Grappling systems, Greco Roman Wrestling, Judo & Freestyle Wrestling.  But in truth there is far more to it than that as it has a great many submissions.  As an actual sport Sambo is jacket wrestling, however it is often practiced no jacket too.

Oddly we never got involved in Sambo Wrestling competitions, no other reason than they usually clashed with other events on our schedule.  However we did get involved in other grappling and submission wrestling events with great success, both Gi and No Gi.

I always consider us lucky to get to work with Tim, he is rather fussy about who he works with, but he does enjoy coming here.  When I work with Tim I am often left reminded of exactly how much I don’t know about wrestling/grappling!

Jay

Here’s a few pictures of Tim & me doing Sambo Wrestling.

Leg Lock Escape

Arm Lock Escape

Clinch Work

Got this old picture from many years ago of me competing.  No idea of the year, but if I remember correctly it was in the coloured belt final of some version of either the English or British Championships.  Not even sure if I won that one or not!!!!

I’m the green belt with the hair!!  The fighting was to continuous rules.

Not sure what’s worse the hair or the white suits.  Also you may notice that I am slightly (ever so) lighter weight back then too!!!

They where the days (I really don't think so).

Got a collection of old photos from years ago, some with Russ & Mark on as youngsters.  If my scanner was working I'd get them up too!  So until I get around to buying a new scanner we'll have to wait, unless of course someone else fancies scanning a few for me?

Jay

After much discussion between Selina and Myself we have decided that from January 5^th 2009 that Kids Wrestling/Grappling will be back on the curriculum.

Wrestling/Grappling has always been a part of our curriculum, even long before we opened Paragon and before it became as popular as it is today grappling was part of our regular training.  Over the last 12 months we dropped much of it to concentrate on other things for a while.  But the kids have continually asked for it, so back it comes.

We’re going to concentrate on NO Gi (non jacket) Submission Wrestling.  Both Selina and I will be teaching the classes together.  We are both qualified coaches is Judo & Grappling, Sambo Wrestling & Submission Fighting.

It will be good to get back into the grappling, in many way it’s a shame we had a break from it.  Those that competed in Grappling/Wrestling events did very well with both junior and adult grapplers winning a number of medals in both Submission Grappling and Strike & Grapple (MMA) type events.

We’re still considering the adult classes.  A few have asked if we would bring them back, so we’ll have to see what happens!

Jay

We held the kids Paragon Games on Saturday December 13^th.  All the usual events took place and this year we had a continuous sparring section alongside the points sparring, this was at the request of many of the kids that attended.

As we discussed the games afterwards all involved in running the event said this was the best yet.  Every child tried their best in every event and earned themselves the Gold Special Award medal.

A special mention the Selina’s Little Ninjas that have only graduated to the junior program this year.  They all behaved very well, tried their best and some placed among the medals too which is a fantastic achievement.

I’m not going to list all the event medal winners, but I will say well done to all those that took part.  Special mentions go to the best boy and best girl of the games.  Best Boy went to Storm Parker, and Best Girl went to Graci Henshaw.

Three Juniors, Curtis, Alice & Joe took part in their last games as they will be moving to the adults in January.  Maybe we'll see them come along and help out and offer their support to the youngsters in future?

Big Thanks to Kirsty, Russ, Elle and The Oaf for helping the day go smoothly.

Lots of Paragon Games regulars asked why we don’t do two a year anymore and if we can do two net year?  It’s simply been down to time, because of our busy calendar we struggle to fit two in.  However if we can fit in two next year we will do!

Jay

I had a really good time yesterday morning teaching a course on ‘Applied Kyusho’ to a group from two clubs based in Nottingham.  Thanks to Ian Harrison of Dragon Freestyle and Sam Wood of White Tiger Kickboxing for having me over and to their students giving up 3 hours of their Sunday morning and taking an interest in what I do!

The course was a mix of Kyusho Jitsu with some principles from our core system at Paragon thrown in.  I tried to get across (and hopefully succeeded) the importance of accurate targeting and correct body mechanics.  I taught alot of material I usually only teach my own regular students.

The group first learned to locate the target areas and get a feeling for the reaction of the body when these targets are struck or manipulated.  Each point was utilised in combination with others for self defence and sport scenarios to give a feel for the all important application.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and I enjoyed teaching it.

Special thanks to Ian & Steve for being the crash test dummies for the session, and the guy who I think was named George for keeping me entertained with the ‘sorry bro’ every time he was a little over enthusiastic with his partner!

Jay

Keep an eye on the events page of the website.  There is no reason not to be up to date with what's going on at Paragon, just keep an eye on the regular newsletters and th events page!

Loads of stuff already on there and more dates to be added.  Keep an eye out for Junior & adult squad training dates.

Kyusho dates for 2009 are already on there.  Also dates for some special courses/workshops to help you understand and develop your skills further.  These courses/workshops start in Feb and all will have limited places, so book your place early!

Jay

I've just added a new date to the events page.  On December 7th I'll be teaching a course in Nottingham on Applied Kyusho - Pressure Points.  Anyone from Paragon that wants to come then see me for details.

I've also agreed to put on a few workshops for a couple of other clubs in 2009.  They will be held here at Paragon, the first of these will be Feb/March 2009.  These workshops will be covering techniques, tactics, concepts, drills etc from our Karate-Kickboxing syllabus. 

It's been a while since I have done any of these and they usually go down well, and often shock long term studnets when I teach material even they haven't seen before!  I'll let everyone know when the dates are set, if you are interested let me know ASAP as places will be limited!

Kids Paragon games is set for December 13th, a leaflet will be out soon confirming times etc.  Places are already filling up so don't miss out.

Selina is organising the Christmas night out for adult members between Christmas and New Year.  See Selina for details of this.

Finally, we are starting a new class with it's own distinct syllabus in January 2009.  We've given lots of thought to the changes and been talking about it for a very long time.  For details of this speak to Selina or Me.

Thanks

Jay

Finally got around to making some changes to the website and updating some bits.  Managed to reduce size of almost all of the images, will get the rest done soon!!

Added a mailing list feature, started work on a Pressure Points / Kyusho Jitsu page, but will eventually build a site of it's own for this.  Added an Instructor page, a Karate-Kickboxing page and made some changes to the Self Protection page to inform of the new classes.

Got lots going on at moment too, so I'll get around to finishing site soon and fill everyone in (that needs to know) what's going on!!

Jay

We had Iain Abernethy with us at the weekend.  What can I say that I haven’t said already about Iain.  His Applied Karate is fantastic; his knowledge very extensive, his passion for Kata is quite contagious, the way he teaches is great.  I could go on and on!

On the whole it was a great day, everyone enjoyed it.

Thank to those that made the effort to attend.

Jay

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here.  I’ve been really busy getting on with a few things.  Most know that we had a problem with a lying parasitic scum bag trying it on.  This held up a few things, so I’m now busy playing catch up.

As for the scum bag.  Well we really didn’t have to do too much in the end.  He tripped himself up with his web of lies.  Apparently the family isn’t well liked and have tried similar things before.  The truth always comes out in the end. 

Obviously I can’t come right out and name Daniel Sparrow as the scum bag here on my blog.  So I’ll just leave his name out of it and say bad luck.

Jay

It's been a while since I have been on here.  Been really busy.  I am sitting on a few bits of news that I want to put on here, but it will wait for a while yet!  Anyway last night was a good night for us.

Good night last night at the AFK show in Sheffield.

Ian fought very well in his first outing, pretty much dominating every round.  Forcing his opponent to take 2 standing 8 counts in the last round, he was unlucky not to stop him with his opponent being saved by the bell.  I have had many good comments from people in the crowd and from the promoter regarding his first fight.  All good stuff, and I am sure Ian will do well with future fights.

Russ fought a tough and rated Thai Boxing opponent to professional K1 rules.  Although Russ got the victory on the judges cards, the fight was disappointing for both camps in a way.  By that I mean the rules, because we where under the impression that the clinch was limited, and they seemed to work towards unlimited clinch.  We where under the impression there was no leg catching, it appeared they where under the impression it was allowed as in Thai rules.  This should have been made clear before the fight.  But anyway Russ did well enough to get the win, so well done.

Really good to see and hear the supporters from Paragon, and nice to all get to have a chat and a laugh at the services afterwards.

The only downside to the night for me was the footwear Dan chose to wear!  What on earth was he thinking; surely he must have been wearing them for a bet?

Thanks everyone for the support, well done to Ian and Russ, and please don't wear those boots again Dan, my side hurt me from laughing!!

Jay

We took 9 fighters to the Revolution English Open Championships on Sunday April 27^th.  We came back with Six Gold, Three Silver and 1 Bronze medal from the nine students entering 13 categories.

In the Kids Semi Contact points sparring Jamie Fanning took a Bronze, Joe Murden a Silver and Curtis Gillott a Gold in their individual weight categories.  Sadly Georgia Matthews didn’t place this time.

In the adult Semi Contact points Nicole Straw took Gold, Russ Henshaw took Gold and Vince Higgins a Silver.  Ian Kitchen failed to place.

In the Light Contact Kickboxing (adults) Russ Henshaw took Gold in the mens heavy weights with Vince Higgings taking Silver.  Ian Kitchen took the Gold in the mens light weight, and Selina took the Gold in the Ladies.

Negatives from the day would have to be the Light Continuous sections.  The lack of a strong refereeing in these sections led to yet another ridiculous display of what is supposed to be LIGHT CONTACT!  In particular the fight with Vinnie, with Vinnie going down twice to full contact blows, and him putting his opponent down three times with full contact blows.  This would be enough for any Full Contact ref to have grounds to stop the fight for fighters safety, any one of the knockdowns would be enough for this, but two or three would definitely see the end of a novice level Full Contact bout.  But these where allowed to continue under light rules, rules where this sort of thing should not happen.  The ref actually warned Vinnies opponent after the first knockdown.  But after the 2^nd, when I questioned him he said ‘it was a straight punch, the other was a wild swing'.  So by that we can safely assume that at this particular tournament if the technique is technically correct, then you can deliver it with full power.  In which case then it is not Light Contact, but Full Contact.

I am not having a go at this particular event, as the light contact problem is the plague of many tournaments.  But to be fair many are making an effort to correct this.  Also I don't have a problem with Full Contact, Vinnie is quite happy to fight Full Contact, as are a few others.  But they also try to follow the rules of Light Contact, because that is what I ask of them.

I can’t even begin to put into words the incident regarding the scorekeepers.  Absolutely ridiculous, everyone makes mistakes fair enough.  But to repeatedly make the same mistake and refuse to listen when it’s pointed out rates among some of the worst behaviour of officials I have seen in 25 years in this sport.  And I wont even try to describe how I felt when the female scorekeeper gave me the talk to the hand when I tried to point out the problem.  I think it was obvious to all what/who the problem actually was.

It was nice to have telephone conversations with a couple of instructors today, both offering their support regarding the behaviour of the officials, and further supporting my opinions of the incident and the light contact issue.

I’ll be posting further tournament discussion here very soon, with a few very interesting items of news…….. Watch this space folks!

Jay

Over the last few weeks both Selina and I have taken calls from members of the public regarding the sales teams that knock on the door selling membership to the local karate club.   OBVIOUSLY THEY ARE NOT OUR TEAMS AS WE DON’T SUBSCRIBE TO THIS PRATICE AT ALL!!  But I suppose we have become the central focus for martial arts locally and people want our opinions on this group.

Of course neither Selina or I comment on this group over the phone.  But what I do advise is that you google them and take a look at what people are saying in the UK about this group, their ‘self defence consultants’ and their methods.  Obviously there are a couple of their own ‘ego massaging’ sites around, but you will find the vast majority are the exact opposite.

I’ll talk quite openly to anyone (even their own ‘self defence consultants’ if they fancy popping in to see me) face to face about them.  They are particularly well known, however for all the wrong reasons.

It takes a certain type of person to join a group like that.  The bottom line is that people that are foolish enough to buy into groups (there are others that mirror them) like that are buying into an extremely poor replica of Martial Arts.

What always gets me is why on earth do people part with their money up front on the doorstep and join them without checking them out first.  I think the old saying about a fool and his money just about sums these people up!

Russ will be fighting to the American rules full contact over 3 rounds.

The June show looks like it is changing dates to June 1^st. We have Russ, Vinnie and Ian on this show.

Got loads more full contact shows coming up, so those wanting to take part in Full Contact will be busy for a while!!

We hold sessions for fight training on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.  These sessions are a must for anyone interested in fighting semi, light or full contact kickboxing, or those that just want to give a little boost to their fitness, improve their skills and get involved with our fighters.

Jay

Well I sat on the news about the Spain fight and released it only days ago really, only to be told by email Monday night that the show is off!!

This is pretty typical of the fight game in general.

However on a positive note it means we will have 3 fighters on the Sheffield show in June.  With Russ Henshaw, Vince Higgins and Ian Kitchen all fighting in Full Contact Kickboxing bouts.  With Sheffield being a little closer to home than Spain I hope we can rely on some support!  The show is June 7^th.

I will have some more news on Full Contact Kickboxing in the coming weeks.

Jay

We had a team take part in the Revolution Yorkshire Open Championships on Sunday March 2^nd.  A mixed team of junior and adults took part, some for the first time.  We took a total of 7 Gold, 4 Silver and 5 Bronze medals in points sparring (sport karate) and Continuous (Kickboxing) categories.

I was impressed with everyone, win, lose or draw everyone gave it a good go.  It was nice to have a good crowd of supporters too, big thanks to all those that came along to support.

The next points & continuous comp is April 27^th at the same venue.

We also have some full contact kickboxing bouts comings up.

Feel free to give us some support in any/all of these events!

Jay

The Steve Stewart seminars went really well over the weekend.

Friday Steve went through a taster of some advanced principles and subject matter from Kyusho.  I think much of what was taught Friday perhaps went over the heads of those in the group.  However I could clearly see that on Saturday things where just falling into place for those that attended Friday as he dropped in a few keys to what he was doing on Friday.

Saturday morning was the kids seminar, which went down really well.  The kids learned some basic points and applications and had lots of fun.

The main seminar Saturday afternoon was excellent.  Steve covered basics for those new to Kysuho, along with more advanced stuff for those with a little knowledge.  Those that did the Friday evening seminar got a real treat on Saturday and their Kyusho knowledge was taken to a whole new level.

Five students where awarded Black Belt 1^st Degree in Kyusho Jitsu, Three awarded probationary Black Belts in Kyusho Jitsu which will be upgraded when they achieve their 1^st Degree Black Belts in our Karate-Kickboxing system.  On top of that I was presented with my 3^rd Degree Black Belt in Kyusho Jitsu.

Steve and I went over a great deal while he was here, he is genuinely very impressed with my own work and research in Kyusho and the direction I am trying to take it.  He was very complementary about my own standing in the Kyusho World and supportive of what I am working towards.  We have set out a 3 to 5 year plan for Kyusho Alliance UK and there is a great deal of work to be done!!

Steve, Selina and I have discussed plans for next year which is going to be even better than the last two years.

Big Thanks to everyone that attended, and please leave your comments.

Jay

I have been sitting on this info since January and thought it about time I released it!!

Russ and I will be flying out to Spain during May as Russ is fighting on a show in the Costa Del Sol.  The whole fight card is made up of good English fighters against tough Spanish opponents in their own back yard.  If all goes well for us on this show it is possible that Russ could be working his way towards a shot at the vacant European Title.  The fight is also paving the way for more of our fighters to compete in Europe.

Preparations for the fight will be beginning soon.  As usual everyone plays a part in preparation in normal classes, just mae sure you do your best when sparring with Russ to help bring out the best in him.  Just don't go breaking his nose this time Colin if he is stupid enough to do what he did last time!

As for extra training/sparring sessions if you want to come along and play your part just let me know.

The fight is on Friday May 23rd, which is actually Bank Holiday weekend.  It would be great to have some members travel over to support us, and of course the rest of the English lads.  Flights are pretty cheap, and accomidation isn't a bad price either.  At least one hotel in the area is doing a deal for travelling supporters.  If any students feel like making a weekend of it and giving us some much appreciated support then just ask me for the details.

A couple of weeks later we have Ian and Vinny fighting on a full contact show in Sheffield which is always a great show.  Also Russ has a chance of a shot at a title here in the UK around November time, I'll get more details out on this nearer the time.

I am sitting tight on one more bit of info on the full contact show front.  Hopefully I will be in a position to share this info soon.

Thanks

Jay

It's no secret that with the back problems I have hardly been able to manage a challenging training session for at least 2 years.  When I did it usually meant more time off and under treatment.

Well finally this week I have stepped it up and had the best week of training I've had in ages, all with no back problems!  I've had 3 gym sessions including treadmill and weights.  2 sessions of speed and agility training.  1 session of sparring and a boxing and wrestling session.  Midweek week I also had a great stretching session which really helped.

I am really happy that through all off this I have no twinges in the back or shoulder.  My recovery has been long, but I am very positive about it having paid off.  I'm already looking forward to next weeks training.  And who knows if it continues a comeback may be on the cards, so we'll wait and see?

Jay 

Just to let you all know the nutrition products have been in now for over a week!!  I know a number of people have shown an interest in these, but I haven't really had much of a chance to get the promotional info sheets completed.  I will have a basic info sheet of the products and prices available by the end of today.

Basically what we have at the moment is a range of our own label products for general health and to help with recovery from hard training sessions.  They are quality products and all carry the Paragon Nutrition logo.  We have an excellent Super Foods Vitamin and Mineral formula, L Glutamine, Whey Protein, Nutri Meal, and Hoodia at the moment.  Coming soon is Creatine Monohydrate, along with a herbal fat burner, and a qualty probiotic.

Ask for details

Jay

Well the speed and agility session went down well last night, everyone made huge improvements to their speed, agility & balance.  Except for a couple of hiccups in the sparring everything went well, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

Next week I will cover some key points to sparring success and introduce you to more speed, agility and balance training.

Jay

I have been working hard on a project launching our own brand of health and nutrition products for some time.  Finally we are almost there and the first of these products will be launched in the coming weeks.

Amongst the products is an excellent Super Foods vitamin and mineral complex, whey protein, Glutamine, Meal replacement drinks, some excellent diet & slimming products along with a selection of general health supplements.

These are all quality products that the body can absorb easily.  You will definitely find cheaper products, however many of these are not absorbed by the body making them a waste of money.

People associated with Paragon will get a discount on these products.  I will be doing an extra special deal on first purchases allowing you to test the products.

Anyone serious about their health should consider these products.  It should go without saying that anyone in serious training for competition actually needs these very prodcuts to help their body recover between training sessions.

Full details of all available products will be available soon.

Jay

There's been alot of talk about the session we had after class on Monday, everyone that attended really enjoyed the session (add your comments here), and I really enjoyed coaching it, even made me think of making a comeback!!!

The session will be a regular every Monday covering more of the same and from next Monday (Feb 4th) we will be introducing some more cool stuff!!

Jay

I have got the blog back up, still not sure what the problem was, although I suspect it is something to do with the other computer I use which seems to have a few technical problems!

We have a few posts missing too, one of which is the Kudo which I'll try to get back up.  Now the blog is back up and running I have scrapped the news page.

Jay

Happy New Year to everyone, I hope you have all recovered from the party season and ready to get down to training.  Selina and I have been in this morning and given the academy a top to bottom clean.  Selina will begin her 2008 training program tonight, I started my mental aspects (very important) this morning and my own physical will begin first thing Thursday morning and I am really looking forward to it.

Looking forward to this year we have much going on.  Kicking off our 2008 seminars we have Dr Stewart in February.  Very popular last year, and the list is filling up this year.  Get your name down if you want a place.

The first part of the Black Belt grading takes place in January, with the second part on March 1^st.  This is quite special as Dave Dawson is taking his 1^st Degree Black Belt and Dave will be the first Black Belt to have come purely from Paragon since we set up as a professional school.  All the others on the grading have been with us long before we opened the doors of Paragon.

That reminds me that 2008 sees us reach 15 years old!!  It’s 15 years since I opened the doors to my first club which went on to become Paragon.

We also have a Black Belt grading in February for those training in Kyusho Jitsu.  I’ve got to say I have really enjoyed introducing Kyusho to the curriculum and I am really looking forward to taking my students through the advanced levels and launching a new class for level one.

Over to our core Freestyle program you’re going to see a mixture of some old an new drills introduced over the coming months to develop important attributes.  Selina is working hard on improvements to the junior program.  In the Cambo/Judo class we are going to be going right back to the roots with some good old school basics, something else I am really looking forward to.

All in all you can look forward to another year of quality Martial Arts training and I hope you all look forward to taking part in it as I do teaching it to you.

Thanks

Jay

Just to let you all know that we have Iain booked to return in April 2008.  I'm sure we'll be in for another great day.

Nottingham group did module 2 of the Kyusho Jitsu today.  It was great to see them having those 'wow' moments as things started to click into place.  It was good how people spotted how the actual science behind Kyusho proved itself with some of the very basic techniques we covered.

With the eight simple points we covered I could see many of the group seeing how they could fit them into waht they already do, which is great.

As always I really enjoyed teaching the seminar, it was great fun for me, and I hope everyone else enjoyed it.

Remember folks, if you have any questions contact me by any of the methods on the contact details sheet I gave out at module one.

Looking forward to teachning module 3 to you all, and introducing my group to module 8 next week.

Thanks everyone

Jay

Great seminar with Iain on Saturday 22^nd September.  I was looking forward to it, as was Iain, and neither of us where disappointed, neither where those that attended.

I have been thinking about it since the seminar, so a few of my own thoughts follow.

Iain is a great guy, great instructor, really knows his stuff and you can see he is truly passionate about it.  This is what made the seminar so good.

Naihanchi Kata is fantastic; it has a really interesting history, and some great applications.  It’s easy to see why some consider it one of the most/the most important Kata in Karate. 

I found it interesting how many of the applications closely resemble the kind of thing we do anyway.  Many of you will have heard me say before that the way we practice much of our Freestyle Karate is much closer to Traditional Karate than what many of the traditionalists actually practice.  I think Iain’s Applied Karate methods and interpretation of Naihanchi actually support this.

I can even see some of what I taught in the last adult phase 2 class before the Seminar (Thursday 20^th).  Those of you that attended that class and Saturdays seminar give it some thought.  Think about the jamming, crashing, smothering, balance destruction we covered.  Can you see the same principles/concepts and some of the techniques in Naihanchi?

Those of you into the Kyusho, can you see PP’s in there?

We’ve been considering a Kata class for a while now.  Let me know your thoughts on this idea, do you want it or not?

We will definitely be having Iain back again next year, and I am already looking forward to it.

Would really like to hear your thoughts/comments on the seminar and what I’ve said here.  Add a comment on the blog or tell me in person, or both!

Jay

Taught Kyusho Jitsu module 7 to group one today.  They are over halfway towards the 1st Degree grading and exam now.  Today was a big revision day covering previous modules, followed by Kata and applications which seems to be just about sinking in now.

The new material introduced was self defence applying Kyusho.  I introduced 3 seperate applications which resulted in 3 knockouts!  Although knockouts are done with little effort it is important to remember in a 'live go' not to play around with little effort.  Use the points, but hit em bloody hard!!

Like to know what group 1 feel about the Kyusho so far?

Jay

Just finished teaching module 1 of 12 for the Nottingham group from Dragon Freestyle.  Great bunch, nice to see some of the old faces and a few new ones.

Module 1 is always hard to teach, there is so much I want to put in, but only so much people can take in.  The right balance is important.  Hopefully I got the balance right.  I covered just what is needed for module one, and went with the flow taking opportunities to show more advanced techniques and concepts from Kyusho Jitsu.

Really hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I enjoy teaching it.  Looking forward to seeing it all fall into place over the coming modules.

Well done to everyone and thanks for giving me the chance to share my knowledge in the vast subject.

Jay

Remember we have the Iain Abernethy seminar on Saturday 22nd September.

Starts 12.30 for 3 to 4 hours.

Spoke with Iain yesterday and he is looking forward to the seminar himself, as I know some of you are.

Places are filling up so if you want to come you must let me know ASAP!

Jay

At last the website is finally here.

Members check out the events page for all grading dates, seminars, fight nights & comps.

I'll try to post info, dates etc on my blog to keep you informed.

Jay