Alfs Blackbelt Academy Freestyle Karate, Kickboxing and Jujitsu

The Academies committee and instructors wish our students and their parents a Merry Christmas and the very best for the New Year, whoever you spend the festive period with make sure you have the best time and stay safe.

We look forward to seeing you all in 2024.

Our students last competitive action came at the BUDO FIGHT SHOW held in Liverpool on Saturday 2nd December, this was the eight in the fight show series and the seven fighters we had on the fight card did us proud.

Whilst things did not start too well with Brady Stanistreet and Braxton Windle losing their bouts what followed was a remarkable run of wins starting with Brayden Dearden and Ethan Casey both winning their fights which included an additional fight for Brayden resulting in him fighting two bouts of three one minute rounds each and coming out on top in both, a truly great effort! , Oliver Wade followed fighting for an Area Title and he continued the excellent form he has maintained throughout the year in recording a convincing win over his opponent from Streetwise in the five round contest.

Mia Woodward and Tejay Bacon were competing for International titles in contests that were again five rounds in duration, both were up against Portuguese opponents who pushed them hard throughout the entire distance of the fights but both Mia and Tejay proved to be just too good and registered wins to finish off a really good evening for the Academy. 

Our congratulations to you all on a great performance and a fitting end to the fighting year.

Twenty-five of our students took their respective grades over two days in early December at the Academy. After a lot of effort from everyone a 100% pass rate was achieved which is a terrific result.

The instructors were really impressed with the standard of the grading from everyone on both days which resulted in everyone passing. Well done to you all

Only four of our students made the trip the Merseyside in November but they came back with an impressive haul of medals comprising four Golds and two Silvers. 

Two of the Golds went to Oliver Wade who was victorious in both Light and Semi Contact with our other winners being Ethan Casey in Light and sister Ava in points, Silver medals went to Braxton Windle and Ava Casey in Light contact and Ethan in points.

Thirteen of our students made the short trip to Preston to compete at the NSKA Inter Club tournament, amongst our thirteen were tournament novices Louie Toft, Alfie Leyland and Hewitt Wilson.

Our squad of fighters secured seven wins with Dylan Jourey, Tejay Bacon, Tegan Dearden and Oliver Wade x 2 winning in Light Contact and Tejay coming out on top in his Semi Contact division and also in the Men’s Open Weight, Second places went to Layo Hampshire, Dylan Jourey, Ava Casey Brayden and Tegan Dearden in light contact with Tegan competing in two sections and Leon Nuttall in points.

Third places went to Ethan Casey, Leon Nuttall, Hewitt Wilson, Braxton Windle and Oliver Wade in Light Contact and Alfie Leyland in points.

Well done to everyone especially Alfie, Louie and Hewitt who all made their competitive debuts.

The Academy will be closed over the Christmas – New Year Holidays.

Our last lesson of the year will be held on Thursday evening 21st December, we will reopen on Wednesday 3rd January operating to our normal lesson schedule.

The academies Student of the 3rd Quarter is Brady Stanistreet who is pictured below receiving the award. Brady has made big strides over the summer months and entered her first tournament in August competing at the IMAC in York where she won in both Light and Semi contact. She then followed that by winning her very first bout at a Fight Night when competing in a ring for the very first time at the Budo Fight Show in Liverpool at the beginning of September. You can’t really make a better start to your fighting career than that can you…?

Brady receives a £25 pro shop voucher and gets to have the shield in her bedroom for a couple of months, remember to give it a polish…!.  

After fifteen years serving the academy in the roles of Club Treasurer and Club Secretary Lynda and Nigel Fagg will be vacating their respective roles at the end of this year.

Lynda and Nigel were original members of a committee that was formed after the academies students returned from the World Championships in Karlsruhe, Germany in late 2008. At the time the club’s membership could be counted on two hands and the few students we had were training in a gym with no heating, poor lighting, minimal equipment and cracked windows. In the winter it was that cold that ice would form on the inside of the windows.

During Lynda and Nigel’s tenure the academy went through a massive transformation taking it to where it is today with an excellent temperature-controlled facility for our students (which continues to be the envy of many martial arts clubs who have visited us) and a mini coach to transport students and parents to tournaments and events. Both Lynda and Nigel were the major players in obtaining funding for these projects by getting significant donations and securing support from suppliers by building relationships with businesses who were willing to help the academy, many of these businesses have continued to support us by donating to many of the fundraising events we have held over the years including our famous fight nights staged at the academy.

When Lynda and Nigel took on the most important roles on the committee their key remit was to deal with all the administrative tasks associated with running the academy leaving Alf to focus on what he did best ‘Coaching’.  It was clear that the membership level urgently needed to be increased and one of the key factors that helped achieve this was the introduction of the academies website which was designed by Nigel and the team at ISSL to provide a site for people enquiring about the academy and also as a source of information to our students, this along with other projects such as demonstrations in schools, Funday’s, Bag Packs and the introduction of the school collection service boosted our membership to over a hundred students at its peak.

When the Covid pandemic came along the consequences of it made a big impact on our membership with us losing over 40% of our students. We had to continue paying bills but had little money coming in, the reserves we had built up over the years of careful stewardship by our treasurer were disappearing fast and it was only through Lynda managing to secure several grants that we were able to get the academy through probably its most challenging period in its thirty-two-year history.

Several of the remaining committee members are looking to modernise the way the academy is run so it is likely you will see changes in how things will be done in 2024. If you want to be part of the future direction of the academy and are interested in taking on the important roles of club secretary or club treasurer then please apply to the Club President James Casey candidates should ideally be in a position to start in the roles from 1st January 2024.

Lynda and Nigel, who will continue in their roles until 31st December 2023 ask that everyone respects their decision and understand that they are taking a total break from any involvement in the academy in the future, they also wish the academy every success as it enters a new period in its long history.

On Sunday 8th October whilst the warm autumn sunshine made it feel like a summers day seventeen of our students travelled to Cannock to compete in the WKU English Open a qualifier for the 2024 WKU World Championships, amongst the seventeen were Logan Collier, Brady Stanistreet, Layo Hampshire, Leon Nuttall and Chris Windle who had little to no experience in tournament fighting.  

The reward for our fighter’s efforts was an excellent 12 firsts, 9 seconds and 5 thirds on what was a tough day of competition where two of our less experienced fighters really impressed winning their categories with Chris Windle recording a  double win in his Novice Light and Semi Contact divisions and Leon Nuttall winning in Semi Contact, our other first places came from our more experienced fighters with Oliver Wade and Mia Woodward recording double wins and Ethan Casey, Brad Derbyshire, Kyran Henry – Jones and Tejay Bacon winning in Light Contact and James Casey winning in low kick. All our twelve winners received a WKU belt which made a nice change from the regulation trophies or medals.

Second places went to Leon Nuttall, Brady Stanistreet, Tegan Dearden, Shannon Bacon and Brayden Dearden in Light Contact along with Tejay Bacon, Kyran Henry – Jones, Brad Derbyshire and Shannon Bacon in semi contact. Other medallists included Ava Casey in both Light and Semi Contact, Brady Stanistreet and James Casey in Semi Contact and Layo Hampshire in Light Contact.

Unfortunately, Braxton Windle narrowly missed out being placed losing in his quarter finals and Logan Collier also did not get amongst the medals, however they both went on the mat and gave it everything in what were big sections so a big well done to you both and congratulations to everyone on what was a tremendous result for everyone involved.   

Seven of our students headed off to Doncaster in September to compete at what is becoming a quality competition the ‘Ippon Challenge’. It was left to our most senior fighter on the day Tejay Bacon to showcase all his skills in winning both his Light and Semi Contact categories to register a double victory, other winners included Oliver Wade in Light Contact and Kyran Henry – Jones in Semi Contact. 

Silver medals went to Ava Casey and Kyran in Light Contact and Brayden Dearden and Oliver Wade in Semi Contact with Bronze medals going to Ava in semi contact and brother Ethan in both disciplines.

Oliver Wade also secured a third place in the semi contact open weight whilst Tejay found his light weight an issue as he was unable to progress in the men’s open weight category.

Three of our fighters competed at the latest in the BUDO Fight Show series held on 2nd September in Liverpool.

Brady followed her fine performance at the IMAC OPEN in making her boxing ring debut by winning her bout, Tejay continued the winning run defeating his opponent and Oliver made it a clean sweep of wins for the academy stopping his opponent in the third round of his title fight bout to retain his title.

Eight of our students made the trip across the Pennines to compete at the IMAC Open in York, this was our fighters first tournament for a few months but there appeared to be no sign of it in their performances.

Amongst our eight were three students making their tournament debuts Leon Nuttall, Hewitt Wilson and Brady Stanistreet. Leon made an instant impact by winning in semi contact but Brady went one better securing wins in both her light and semi contact divisions, a really impressive start to what we hope will be a long journey competing in tournaments. Other wins coming from our more experienced students included Tejay Bacon and Kyran Henry – Jones in Light Contact and a double victory for Oliver Wade, something that is becoming a regular occurrence for this young man.

Second places went to Ava Casey in Light Contact and Tejay, Kyran and Ethan Casey in semi contact whilst our third debutant ‘Hewitt Wilson’ claimed two third places joining Ava who won third in Semi Contact and Ethan who did the same in Light Contact. 

Our small team returned with a total of seven firsts, four seconds and four thirds an impressive result.  

Gail Derbyshire is our winner for July and receives £40. Remember you can also be a winner all you need to do is join by paying £4 per month for further details contact Tracy Petterson on 07835 990416.