Monthly Archives: March 2015

Grading

Shodan Grading – March 2015 – We did it!

This may very well be one of the most mentally and physically challenging things you’ll ever do. It’s usually over in 15 minutes, but it takes months and even years of (often) blood, (always) sweat and (sometimes) tears to complete successfully.

I’m talking about your Shodan Grading!

This past weekend, the 14th of March 2015 to be exact, four from the Solis Ortus family were assessed and awarded with their Shodan or 1st Dan:

Marcel Wouda, Dewald Bekker, Liam van Rooyen and Morney Plescia.

Shodan Grading - March 2015 in-front: Sensei Eugene Oosthuizen right-to-left: Dewald Bekker, Liam van Rooyen, Marcel Wouda, Morney Plescia
Shodan Grading – March 2015
In-front: Sensei Eugene Oosthuizen
Right-to-left: Dewald Bekker, Liam van Rooyen, Marcel Wouda, Morney Plescia

 

This post is brief description of the run-up and the actual grading from a personal point of view – I hope it gives future Shodan candidates an idea of what to look forward to and work towards.

Continue reading Shodan Grading – March 2015 – We did it! →

Club

Valentines Theme

You all would have noticed that we are bringing in a theme for each month where the students may dress up according to that theme at the end of each months. February’s theme was Valentine. See attached the pics of the students who participated in this theme! This month’s theme is NINJA……looking forward to seeing how you all will dress up for this theme!

Competition

KSA Children, Cadet and Junior Championship

This past weekend Solis Ortus attended the KSA Nationals with 5 of its students.  Nobody had any idea what time they will compete, thus the days were long and at times frustrating.  Nevertheless, our 5 entries performed well and we received 4 medals overall.

Thank you too all the karatekas and their parents who endures the hard work and long wait.

Very proud of each and every Solis Ortus athlete.

OSS

Events

Karate Instructors Camp

They say exciting or bad experiences make for good stories. Well, that’s how the saying goes and true to the saying that’s what happened. Solis Ortus Karate decided to have an instructors camp, called a gashuku. Sensei William was the team leader because sensei Eugene had an unforeseen other event. Sensei Adrian and sensei Lilian, sempai Annerien and Heilieth went on the camp. Like a bunch of school teenagers we all huddled into the Fortuner Toyota.
I spy with my little eye something starting with ….. Was the main game in the vehicle on our way to Ribeeks kloof near Middelburg, about an hour and a halfs drive from Pretoria. Laughing all the way there we arrived to a breath taking amazing sun set on the 20th Feb 2015.
Friday night was spent getting to know each other a bit better round the camp fire.
Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn. We went  driving up the mountain trail with the 4×4, sensei Lilian we realized is a bit scared of heights. Saturday afternoon sensei William sat us down for a serious discussion about what we need to do in our karate Solis Ortus club. Then we played a prank on sensei Lilian when we all got dressed in our Gi’s and woke sensei lilian up from a deep afternoon sleep. We then proceeded to take some
beautiful photos in our gi’s in various poses and on various objects.

We climbed a part of the mountain near by and posed for pics which
came out amazingly well. Being late afternoon we noticed that a generator was on near the pool which was becoming annoying. The generator was located about 50 meters from our chalet and housed inside a small stone house. So sensei Lilian and Adrian decided to go switch off the darn thing. That’s when things became dangerous
which makes for a good story. Apparently what sensei William and the rest noticed was a change in engine noise followed by loud shouting to the tune of “run its gonna blow,” followed by sparks and smoke. Then Lilian and Adrian were running for cover. Adrian fell and lay motionless for a while in the dark and Lilian grabbed him up and ran towards the camp site. At this stage sensei William was visibly distraught and came running down shouting ” fix it fix it!”
I guess the flee fight or freeze mode “thingy” works different in every one. Its strange how quick things can go wrong. All we wanted to do was switch the darn thing off. Anyways a long story short we called thee owners of the chalets and they sent out a maintenance guy who fixed it.

Sunday morning we actually practiced proper karate mostly fun stuff like jumping flying kicks into the dam giving the word “dam duiker”, a new meaning. And so a good time was had by all making for a great weekend. Moral learned was don’t try to fix something that isn’t broken and run like hell when sparks and smoke is near a 50 liter diesel tank. Oss.
Written by Adrian Bonafede

Competition

23rd Eagles Champs

With serious focused and fit karateka, our Solis Ortus karate competitors took part this past Saturday 28th February 2015 in the 23rd Eagles Karate Challenge held at Wits University Johannesburg. These determined karateka had been training hard for this since the beginning of the year and it paid off. We had 14 entries in 25 divisions. Cullin Elson recently qualified as a Regional Judge and was his first time present too as a judge. Sensei Lillian Mynhardt and Sensei Adrian Bonafede assisted with the coaching. Our sensei Eugene Oosthuizen was also present to help with coaching and inspire our karateka. It was a great day with good results that we can be proud of.

To all of you who did not get a placing we are still proud of you, well done!

Thank you for the coaching, judging and sensei Eugene for inspiring us to better heights. Solis Ortus we are proud of you!

Written by Adrian Bonafede