Saturday, January 9, 2010

Happy 2010!

Shihan and I would like to take this opportunity to wish for all of our students great accomplishments and an abundance of blessings for 2010!

Shihan Michael Bernardo and Sempai Tammy Bernardo

Saturday, November 14, 2009

WKC Dublin Ireland

Be sure to check out our Photo gallery! I just uploaded over 100 pictures of our Bernardo Karate Students from the World Kickboxing Championships from Dublin, Ireland!

Enjoy!
Sempai Tammy

Thursday, November 5, 2009

WKC Finals in Dublin, Ireland

Sorry for the delay gang; having some computer issues in rainy Dublin!! No wonder it is so 'green' here....non-stop rain! Even their summer months were rainy and it seems to be taking it's toll on the Irish folk.....but at least it is green and beautiful here!

Yesterday's finals were very exciting! The day was long but overall Canada is #1 in the medal count. Shihan and I are still waiting on some of the results (they may be finally posted as I am updating this blog) but we do know for sure that Canada won the most medals overall.

Bernardo Karate Student's medals: Adults:

Tom Roberts - Gold in Point Fighting, Gold in Team Fighting
Connie Baker - 2 Golds in Continuous Kickboxing, 1 Silver in Point Fighting, 1 Bronze in Point Fighting and 1 Bronze in Team Fighting
Florence Enns - Gold in Point Fighting, Silver in Point Fighting, 2 Silvers in Continuous kickboxing, Bronze in Team Fighting
Terry Falardeau - Gold in Continuous Kickboxing
Linda Williamson - Gold in Traditional Forms
Stephanie Jones - Bronze in Point Fighting, Bronze in Team Fighting
Karri Kolbaska - Bronze in Continuous Kickboxing
Candace Thody - Silver in Continuous Kickboxing, Bronze Team Fighting
Tracy Trotman - Bronze in Weapons
Chris Easterbrook - Gold in Weapons, Silver in Traditional Forms, Bronze in Weapons
Henry Law - Silver in Continuous kickboxing, 2 Bronze in Weapons
Roger Hyde - Bronze in Weapons
Andrea Carey - Bronze in Continuous kickboxing

Juniors:

Alexa Littleton - 2 Golds in Weapons, Bronze in Continuous Kickboxing and Bronze in Traditional forms
Fatima Muhammed - Gold in Continuous Kickboxing, Gold in Team Fighting, Bronze in Point fighting
Saleena Morrison - Silver in Weapons
Jessica Ticehurst - Silver in point fighting
Alysha Morrison - Bronze in point fighting
Nasrudeen Mohammed - Bronze in Continuous kickboxing, Bronze in Weapons
Kevin Dang - Bronze in Continuous kickboxing

I apologize if I am forgetting something; not all of the results have been completed on the WKC website but hopefully by the end of today everything will be updated.

Once again, we thank you for your support and for checking up on our student's results. Shihan and I are very proud of each and every one of our students. They all competed with alot of heart and it was exciting to watch all of their forms and sparring matches. Myself, I really enjoyed coaching this year. It was an honor to be asked to Coach and I was so excited for each and every point that was scored (in our student's favor of course!). At times, it was difficult to stay focused on Coaching and trying to cheer at the same time!

Some students had to return back to London today, but some of us have a few days to travel around Dublin and do some sight-seeing. We all have tons of pictures and stories to share with every one when we get back home!

We'll see you all next week!! Signing off from Dublin, Ireland!
Sempai Tammy

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Day 3 WKC Dublin, Ireland
World Karate Championships - Day 3 Our final day of competition before the finals! Our Bernardo Karate student's results:

Adults: Forms: Linda Williamson and Christina Easterbrook will be competing in the Gold medal finals for the Women's 35+ (years) Traditional forms division. Christina will also be advancing to the Gold medal finals for Traditional weapons and the 35+ (years) Creative Weapons. Tracy Trotman did an amazing form with her Tonfas and will also be in the finals with Chris in the Traditional Weapons division. Henry Law and Roger Hyde will be in the Gold medal finals for the men's 35+ (years) Traditional weapons and Henry will also be in the finals for the 35+ (years) Traditional forms division. Well done ladies and gentlemen! Your hard work in the dojo is definitely paying off and we look forward to your finals on Wednesday.

Our Men's Team Fighting: Sempai Tom Roberts, Eric Vidicaire, Robbie Lavoie, Marc Monsour and Cody Desbourg crushed the Irish Team and are advancing to the Gold Medal finals tomorrow against the USA Team. Should be a good Team fight as the USA Team boasts quite a few men from the heavier weight classes.

Our Women's Team Fighting: Candace Thody, Cassie Desbourg, Connie Baker, Stephanie Jones and Florence Enns are taking home the Bronze medal after fighting down to the wire against Team Italy. Every lady on the Team competed and fought hard for Team Canada.

Girls: Continuous Light Contact Kickboxing: Alexa Littleton had more tough fights today, particularly against an English competitor who had very heavy hands! Alexa finished the girls 13-17 (years) -55 kg division with a bronze medal. Well done Alexa! Fatima Mohammed will be fighting for Gold in the girls 13-17 (years) -65 kg division against an English Competitor who likes to push forward with non-stop punching and kicking. Fatima outsizes her competitor and will use her slight height and reach advantage to keep the pressure on this fiesty English athlete. We will be cheering Fatima on to win the Gold medal tomorrow!

Boys: Point fighting: Nasrudeen Muhammed fought a south-paw Irish competitor with amazing kicks! The Irish athlete got ahead by a few points right off the bat and Nas finally figured out how to get around his leg but ran out of time before he could surpass him in points. Nas fought hard and we are very proud of his efforts!

Tomorrow: All finals are on Wednesday, November 4th. It will be a very long day but when it is all said and done, Canada should be on top once again in the Medal Standings. Hopefully I will be able to post an approximate medal count by the end of the day!

The athletes are carb-loading for dinner and heading to their rooms early for a restful night of sleep!

We are extremely excited and proud of all of our Bernardo Karate students and Team Canada. Our students have been very respectful athletes to all of the competitors and judges and we have definitely left a very good impression with all of the other Country's Presidents, Coaches and Officials.

We are all cheering loud for all of our athletes and you can feel the excitement in the air for tomorrow's finals.

Be sure to visit the official WKC website at www.worldkickboxingcouncil.com for pictures from today's competition and also a list of all of the finalists and who all of the athletes will be competing against. Thanks again for checking in on us......one more day to go!

Sempai Tammy

Monday, November 2, 2009

WKC World Championships

Monday, November 2, 2009

Dublin, Ireland, WKC World Championships
Day two of the World Championships: Be sure to visit the official WKC website at http://www.worldkickboxingcouncil.com/ for full results from today's competition and for official photos.

Our Bernardo Karate student's results: Adult Point fighting: Our ladies had some tough battles in today's point fighting divisions; Candace, Terry, Andrea and Stephanie all fought well but missed out on advancing to the second round of competition. Karri and Connie both won bronze medals in their 18-29 (years) point divisions. Florence and Connie will be meeting in the gold medal finals again in the 35+ years point fighting and continuous fighting divisions....it will be fun to watch our ladies battle it out for the silver and gold medals. Florence is having an amazing World Championships and will be going for gold in four divisions this year (two against Connie, listed above) and one in the women's 42+ years point fighting division and one in the women's 42+ years continuous kickboxing division. She is fighting amazing and will be coming home with some serious hardware! Sempai Tom Roberts fought amazing and 'spread' an Irish competitor by 10 points to advance to the Gold medal finals on Wednesday.

Our Adults will also be Team Fighting on Tuesday and I will also announce the members of those teams tomorrow as well.....once I get word and confirmation from Shihan! ;-)

Boy's Continuous kickboxing: Kevin Dang fought well for his first World Championships; he failed to advance to the second round, but he gained alot of experience and is already looking forward to next year. Nasrudeen Muhammed is advancing to the gold medal round on Wednesday after a tough battle against an English competitor who towered over him. Nas fought amazing and never gave up!! It was also fun to watch his sister, Fatima coach him with alot of passion! (Mom "Florence" was too nervous to watch until she heard us cheering loudly for him!)

We are having alot of fun having 'chanting' wars against the other countries, especially the USA team. All the other Countries think it's hilarious to see who is cheering the loudest and of course Canada is winning those battles for sure! Most of us have sore throats and no voice left to prove it and it's only day two!

Girls forms: Alexa Littleton is going for gold on Wednesday in three different girls 13-17 (years) forms divisions; traditional hardstyle forms, creative weapons and musical weapons. Saleena Morrison is also going for gold on Wednesday in the girls 12 and under (years) creative weapons division. We wish our girls amazing success on Wednesday.

Tomorrow our Adults fighters will have a day off (except those chosen for Team fighting) and our Adult forms competitors will take over. Linda Williamson, Tracy Trotman, Chris Easterbrook, Henry Law and Roger Hyde will be representing Bernardo Karate and Team Canada in the forms divisions.

Also on tomorrow, our girls, Fatima Muhammed and Alexa Littleton will be competing in their continuous kickboxing divisions and Nasrudeen Muhammed (Fatima's brother) will be competing in the boys point fighting divisions.

Team Canada is very excited about the finals. Be sure to visit the official WKC website (listed above) to see what countries our students will be competing against in the finals. We wish all of our Bernardo Karate students and Team Canada huge success on Day 3 (the final day of competition before the gold medal finals start on Wednesday!)

Shihan, Sempai Don Harper, Sempai Les Wolfenden and Sempai Darren Farnel are all working hard with the other Countries officials and judges to make this World Championships a huge success. Everything is running on time and all of the athletes are pleased with the judging and competition. I'll be back again tomorrow with more updates from rainy Ireland!

By the way - we just found out from one of our Irish friends that there is a chocolate factory here to see (who knew Cadbury Chocolate originated in Ireland!!) Several students will be visiting the Guiness Factory and we all know which factory Shihan will be visiting.....ha! ha! Thanks for checking in on us! We appreciate your support!

Sempai Tammy

Dublin, Ireland, WKC World Karate Championships

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Day One Dublin, Ireland
WKC World Kickboxing Council Day One, World Championships, Dublin, Ireland
Team Canada is off to a great start! All finalists from today's Championships are listed on the WKC website at: http://www.worldkickboxingcouncil.com/
Day One: results of our amazing Bernardo Karate competitors: Adult Continuous (light contact kickboxing): Terry Falardeau, Florence Enns (two divisions), Connie Baker (two divisions), Candace Thody and Henry Law are all going for Gold on Wednesday in their Continuous Fighting Divisions. Andrea Carey won a bronze medal at her first ever World Championships in her -60 kg Continuous kickboxing division. Karri Kolbaska also won a bronze medal in her +65 kg Continuous kickboxing division. Roger Hyde, Katie Reid and Stephanie Jones all had tough matches today and fought well but just missed out on the medal rounds.
Boys forms: Nasrudeen Muhammed is currently seated 4th in the boys weapons division and will go for gold on Wednesday.
Girls point fighting: Jessica Ticehurst will be fighting for Gold on Wednesday in the girls -50 kg (girls 12 and under). Fatima Muhammed and Alysha Morrison both won bronze in their point fighting divisions. Alexa fought well but ended up drawing last year's Gold Medallist from Italy as her first fight and just missed on advancing to the next round with a final score of 5-4.
On tomorrow's schedule (Monday, November 2nd): Men and Women's point fighting, girls forms and boys continuous fighting.
It's been pretty rainy here and damp, but our Hotel is apparently Ireland's premiere Conference, Leisure and golf resort (the Ryder Cup was held here before) and everyone loves it here. We are still working on adjusting to the 5 hour time change; hopefully tonight after a full day of competition we will all finally get a good night's sleep.
Back tomorrow with more updates!
Sempai Tammy

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Exciting Times!

Our students are working harder than ever this month! February is always a busy time, not only because it is a shorter month (not a 'leap' year....we only have 28 days), but also because several of our students are busy preparing for multiple events and tests:

We have students grading for Kyu belts on Wednesday, February 25th at the South School and Thursday, February 26th at the North School; we have Brown Belts preparing for Pre-test #1 (which will take place on Friday, February 27th at the Oxford School at 6:30 pm) - this is the first of four pretests which will take place as prerequisites for their Black Belt grading in September 2009; we have students preparing to compete at Army Rizzo's tournament in Hamilton on Saturday, February 28th; and finally, we have students in the final stages of their preparation for the Ontario Provincial qualifiers for Team Canada which will take place here in London on Saturday, April 4th!!

It is important for our students to make plans, stay organized and take appropriate actions; they must plan every day in advance in order to stay on track with their goals. As Alan Lakein says, "Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now."

And we have all heard of the saying, "Failing to plan is planning to fail." How many times have you found yourself scrambling at the last minute because of mismanagement of time or failure to prepare properly?

We want each and every student to be successful at whatever it is they are working towards. If you need help sitting down and preparing for your Black Belt test or any other event at our School, please speak with Shihan or Sempai Tammy; we would be more than happy to help you organize your training schedules and help with goal setting and time management skills.

Close to 15% of 2009 is now gone and completed. Time really does go by quickly. Have you scratched any short-term goals off of your New Year's Resolution list? Have you completed at least 15% of your long-term goals? Are you on the right track?

It's never too late to start....make a decision today and move forward!

Have a great day!
Sempai Tammy Bernardo