Villari's Self-Defense Center

The Relay for Life, sponsored by the American Cancer Society, will be held June 22-23, 2012, at the Barnstable County Fairgrounds, 1220 Nathan Ellis Highway, in East Falmouth.

We will be running a board-breaking booth on Friday evening, where members of the public can try their hand at breaking a board, and doing a demo on Saturday morning.

We will be looking for volunteers to help out at the board breaking booth Friday evening. See Sensei Joe for more details. Students attending Friday evening should bring sparring gear and weapons; the studio will provide glow sticks and reflective tape.

We will be doing a demo at 10am Saturday morning as part of the Relay’s “Strike Back Against Cancer” ceremony. This will take the place of classes on Saturday, and everyone is expected to attend. We will start assembling at 9am on Saturday morning. Look for the studio banner and for Michael’s team.

A reminder to parents: The studio will be closed today on Thursday, May 24th. Remember to check the studio website or voicemail if there are any questions regarding class schedules or particular events.

Registration closes soon for the second tournament of the season. Anyone who plans on attending the Children’s Classic should sign up as soon as possible.  The folks who host this tournament are very strict about the ‘no walk-in’ rule, as they want to make sure that all the competitors have a safe and enjoyable time.  I’ll leave the link up until they stop accepting entrants, but telling me that you are going to compete does not count as signing up!

May is a ramp up month at the studio, with many of our summer events happening in early June and July.  Keep an eye out on the studio wall for information on the Relay for Life, 4th of July parades (there are several), and VisionWalk fundraisers.  We want to build on the success of our presentations last summer, and we can’t do that without some work beforehand!  While each individual student can work on his or her forms and weapons, we need to get everyone together to make the pieces into a working demonstration.  We want to have partner forms, weapons, and breaking working this year!

Unlike the previous years, this Memorial Day weekend Villari’s will be closed starting on Thursday, May 24th until Monday, May 28th, with classes resuming on Tuesday, May 29th.  Students that normally take private lessons should get in touch with me to reschedule, and students that would miss class on Thursday or Monday are welcome to attend any of the other appropriate-age classes that week, regardless of rank.

The new rush of interest in weapons at the studio has prompted me to offer a second specialty class for weapons only.  Class will be initially offered on Saturdays, 11am – 12pm.  Anyone who has a form that needs work, or wants to try something new is welcome to add it to his or her schedule.  Students who are specialized in one particular weapon can use this time to make sure they are continuing to maintain and improve their forms, while students who are just getting the feel of a new weapon can do so under careful supervision.  Costs for the additional class will initially be handled on a per-attended basis, just like our sparring class.    A note to parents: while there are a few different weapon sets that can be borrowed, I strongly recommend getting your student his or her own weapon.

Even with all the footage from the black belts on the scene, we are still missing shots of many of our competitors! Here’s some of what we accumulated in the midst of competing! Keep the images coming, and we’ll add more as quickly as we can.  Enjoy the show!

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Congratulations to everyone who participated in the rank evaluations the week of February 22nd/23rd!  Enjoy your new rank, and be prepared to demonstrate the enthusiasm and responsibility inherent in the new rank.  Those that worry about such things, your new ranks will in no way affect your performance at the tournament.  Go out and challenge yourself to prove that you deserve the rank you are wearing!  The next belt evaluation will not take place until sometime after the tournament, more then enough time to work through your tournament events, and only then look ahead.