SUMMER AT THE DOJO – JUNE, JULY, AUGUST 2023

The dojo doesn’t slow down just because it is summer – in fact we went double time!

The months of June, July, and August saw four different week-long karate camps for our age 7+ students who had the opportunity to focus on weapons, grappling, sparring, kata, and play fun karate games! They were intensive weeks of training and bonding with our karate friends.

We also welcomed our friends from the Charles A. Melton Arts and Education Center’s New Directions program back for our second The Magnus Foundation sponsored week-long karate camp. It was awesome to have our friends from the Melton Center return to the dojo to practice karate with us! Our Leadership Team even got involved in the camp volunteering their time to assist with the week’s activities.

While our Leadership Team breaks from their regular workshop schedule for the summer they also had the opportunity to attend a week long Leadership camp. This camp week features a blend of one-on-one coaching training, assistant instructor prep courses, and advanced content training for our current Leadership Team members. The Leaders also had the opportunity to present mock karate lessons and received feedback and guidance from the Teaching Team.

Our teen and adult students also had the opportunity for an intensive training weekend this summer when Shinshi Tony D’Angelo and Sensei Tommy Ravell joined us at the dojo. This three day training focused diving deep into advanced Okinawian kata technique.

In July we spiced up a week of regular classes with “Glow Week”. During this week our age 7+ classes featured glow sticks for all students during lights out – black light and party light lit – training. In addition to our regular classes throughout the summer we held our monthly grappling classes and three different weapons clinics – an eskrima clinic, a bo clinic, and a sai/tonfa clinic for our weapons practicing age 7+ students. All of our summer schedule additions were a ton of fun and offered our students lots of new martial content.

Our summer schedule also saw our annual Leadership Team trip to Hershey Park for one final day of fun and bonding to close out the season. As well as our quarterly belt testing and belt promotions for our age 7+ students.

It was a busy summer at the dojo but we had a ton of fun!