As a dojo, Tuam Karate Club does not focus our training on competition, preferring self defense based martial arts as opposed to competition oriented "Sports Karate". Despite this, we always make a point of encouraging and facilitating as many of our students as possible to attend the All Ireland Open Tournament as it provides students with an excellent experience of competing in a national event and most importantly gives everyone a very good opportunity to exercise the all important "courage muscles" and learn to deal with the fear and adrenaline one experiences in a self protection scenario. Also, win or lose, competing can often be a lot of fun and always leaves students and Karateka of all experience levels with lots to think about!
The standard at the Open was, as ever, very high, with stiff competition to be found in all divisions. Nonetheless, the club easily held our own amongst those dojos who focus on tournament training an everyone who attended did the dojo proud and performed excellently, in spite of their nerves. We hope to build on this success and return to the event next year with even more members attending and maybe even a few more medals too! Thanks to Sensei Brian Toomey, 6th Dan, and all at Kenbukan Dojo in Fermoy for an enjoyable and well run event. OSU!
