Press Release
March 2008
Black Tigers
Five Black Belts were awarded recently to students of Tigers Shotokan Karate Club. The grading was held on Sunday in St. Albans where students from Potters Bar, Bushey, St. Albans, Borehamwood and Park Street were hoping to achieve their next belt - but for the famous five; Stephen Fletcher, Jackie Johnson, Robert Cockerel, James Grant and Ben Freeden it was the icing on the cake.
1st Dan (Sho Dan) is tough. After many years of training you have to demonstrate to the judges that you have maturity and understanding in your technique and application, a perfection in the skill of martial arts quite different from the Kyu (Junior) grades. One of the difficult parts is remembering all the advanced kata (forms) - some of which are confusingly similar.
The youngest, Ben Freeded (15) and James Grant (16) started learning karate when they were still youngsters at junior school. They both train at Bushey Meads class under Tigers Chief Instructor 5th Dan Vando De-Bellis. "Achieving this grade is a fantastic achievement at any age but these young men have shown commitment and maturity in their training and I hope they will have the opportunity to open their own classes one day. As for Stephen, Jackie and Robert, our older students, an excellent achievement for them too. No one can take away the amount of work and dedication they have put into attaining the standard required for a black belt, they must be extremely proud of themselves, well done!"
The beauty of Karate is that you don't have to be super fit, any one over the age of 6 can join. If you are interested in Karate and would like to train in a hard working friendly environment, contact Tigers on 01727 840773 or visit our website at www.tigers-shotokan.org.uk for more details. Pictures can be found in our gallery here.
