Feb 18, 2016

Kilkerrin January Student of the Month

Well done to Kilkerrin Karate club member Joey and Micheala winners on Student of the Month in January. Also pictured is Seán taking home teddy for the week.

Feb 17, 2016

Dunmore Karate Kids Student of the Month

Dunmore Karate Kids Leah and Rueben win Little Wolves Student of the Month.
Tommy and Sabhdh win Childrens class Student of the Month
Well done guys , keep up the great work.

Feb 15, 2016

Thursday Tuam Student of the Month

Karate Kids Little Wolves winners of the Student of the month
Advanced Little Wolves Milo and Calem

Beginners Little Wolves Abbie and Orry.

Feb 14, 2016

Meet the Teddies

Karate Teddies took a big move from Strabane to Galway to visit Galway homes and families. They are two little furry brothers travelling around meeting new people. Catch up with them on
FaceBook - Teddy Faolchu
Instagram - karateteddies
Snapchat - KarateTeddie


Feb 13, 2016

IMAF Tournament

The Irish branch of the International Martial Arts Federation Europe hosted teams from Germany and Belgium for an international contest, held in the Ballina Sports Centre on Saturday 30th of January. Featuring competition for the disciplines of Karate Kata, Weapon Kata, Sword Fighting and Kumite (Karate Point Fighting), there were over 250 entries from young children to veteran competitors.
The competition was preceded by two seminars on the Friday evening when the Moy Valley Freestyle Dojo in Ballina hosted Vicky Fricke from Germany who focused her presentation on Japanese Jujutsu. At the same time, the Faolchu Dojo in Tuam was hosting a Karate seminar with Vicky’s husband, Jens Fricke. The feedback from both seminars was very positive as both instructors are very experienced at delivering lessons in an informative, but enjoyable way.
On the Saturday morning the competition began, and the event was introduced by Martin O’Malley, Chairman of the Irish branch of the federation. Deputy Michelle Mulherin was in attendance on the morning, and opening her address to the group she offered a multi-lingual welcome, much to the delight of the international teams. Deputy Mulherin went on to congratulate all involved on the organisation and running of the event, and in particular the local Moy Valley Freestyle group under Mr. Harry Thompson, who had done so much work to secure the hosting of such a prestigious event. This had taken a lot of hard work on their behalf, but offered great opportunities for the promotion and development of martial arts as a minority activity in the area, and to showcase Ballina and its sporting facilities on an international level. Closing her speech, Deputy Mulherin wished all of the competitors the very best in their competitions.
These sentiments were reiterated by Cllr Jarlath Munnelly, who welcomed all the visitors to Ireland and to the town of Ballina. Councillor Munnelly also spoke as a parent whose child had recently begun martial arts practice, and of his admiration of the discipline, dedication and determination of all the people involved. He too wished the contestants well in the competitions.
Finally, Jens Fricke spoke on behalf of the International Martial Arts Federation, Europe where he outlined the basic concept of the federation as one which brings martial artists together for mutual education and friendly competition. He congratulated the Irish branch on the organisation of the event, and he too wished the contestants well in the event.
With the formalities out of the way, the day began with Karate Kata for children aged 4 and 5 years and progressed through the age groups to the over 35’s. There were some excellent demonstrations of Shotokan, Shorin-ryu, Shito-ryu and Goju-ryu Kata, and earning a medal was extremely tough. This was followed by the second form of demonstration competition, the Weapons Kata division. With demonstrations of the Katana (sword), Nunchaku, Tuifa (baton), Bo (staff), and Sai (Truncheon) the skill of the participants was really revealed by the dexterity of their weapon manipulation and control.
After the initial medal presentations, it was on to the ‘combat’ divisions. These began with the ever popular Kengeki (sword fighting) divisions. Using foam swords to strike the targets, the children thoroughly enjoyed this division, while the older age groups saw some fierce competition among the teams. The day closed with the Kumite (Karate Point Fighting) divisions, where again there were some great battles between closely matched fighters. Earning a medal was certainly a tough challenge, but all three nations took their fair share.
The feedback after the event was very positive with Kris Tunen, the head of the Belgian delegation requesting the dates for the 2017 edition as soon as possible. Similarly, Jens Fricke who was there as head of the German group said that he and his team thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend, and are looking forward to the next chance to be back in Ireland.
From an Irish point of view, Martin O’Malley told us that ‘creating these events is not easy and I want to thank everyone involved, the local hosts Harry Thompson and his team at Moy Valley who arranged the competition, the Civil Defence for providing the first aid cover, and the Ballina Leisure Centre for their excellent facilities, and of course, I want to thank both Deputy Mulherin and Cllr Munnelly for showing their support for the event’. Martin added that he would ‘also want to say thank you to all those who travelled to officiate at the event and who worked hard to ensure that it all ran smoothly. Lastly, I want to thank all those who turned up to take part in the competition. Without that support we could not have had the success we did’.


Feb 12, 2016

JKS National Championships


Congratulations to Faolchú Karate Club members Dominik, Kieron, Regan, Shauna, Matthew, Ciaran, Jayden, Conor, Alyssa and Conor who travelled and competed at the JKS Nationals in Dublin. They once again did us proud returning victorious with 1 Gold, 3 Silver, 3 Bronze. A big thanks to our students for always stepping up and challenging themselves and our helpers on the day Colin, Caroline and Mark.

Feb 5, 2016

Friday Student of the Month

Sebastion and Giovani win our Friday Childrens class student of the Month, keep up the good work.

Feb 4, 2016

Tuesday Little Wolves Student of the Month

Karate kids Little Wolves Tuesday classes. Two Cillians win!!

And advanced Little Wolves Arsen .
Well done to all the boys, keep up the good work.

Feb 3, 2016

Clonberne Student of the Month

Well done to Ailish and Seán on winning student of the month in Clonberne for January. Keep up the good work.

Feb 2, 2016

Karate is Awesome

Ladies are totally kicking butt with Faolchú Karate Club in our new Tuesday daytime (10am) Ladies only class and our Monday evening (7:45pm) Girls only teenagers class.
This is our first run of these specialised classes and they are proving to be a great success. A class for women by women. Feel free to pop along and join in, send you sisters ,mothers and daughters. Get fit, have fun and learn self defence.

Feb 1, 2016

Wednesday Student of the Month

Well done to Karate kids Seanan and Jack, hard working karateka, Wednesday class student of the month winners

Results from IMAF National Tournament

Fantastic medal haul from the recent IMAF tournament in Ballina. Well done to everyone who participated and make sure to bring in your score cards to be entered in competitor of the year.

Kata

1st –        Alyssa Fahy

                Regan Warde

                Sean Flemming

                Ciaran Flemming 

2nd -        Matthew Friel

                Kiera Dempsey

3rd-         Kelly Gibsey

                Laura Daly

                Clara Muller

                Sander Muller

 

Kenjitsu

1st –        Regan Warde

                Kieran Friel

2nd -        Kiera Dempsey

                Alyssa Fahy

3rd-         Zoe Flemming

                Zak Flaherty

                Devin Tierney 

                

Kumite

1st –        Jasmine Flaherty

                Sander Muller

                Sean Flemming

                Shauna Flynn

                Zak Flaherty

                Regan Warde

2nd -        Kelly Gibsey

                Kiera Dempsey

                Keiran Friel

                Devin Tierney 

3rd-         Zak Flaherty

                Laura Daly

                Dominic Rogaliski