NINJA SA 2010 NEWS

I think I should start off with thanking all the instructors of Ninja SA for all the hard work they put into 2009. It was a great year for Ninja SA as we had record growth all around. The Sensei stepped up to take on the challenge of teaching and developing their students into better martial artists. Not to forget the dedication and perseverance of all the students, the training although the training is rewarding it can be tough and sometimes painful but the rewards are defiantly there. I’m sure each one of you has felt and seen the developments in your lives, from the study of Ninjitsu.

Let’s get to the happenings of Ninja SA in 2010. We have had a very busy year so far, allot of it has been behind the scenes and out of sight from most students. The senior instructors have given up most of their weekends in January and February to meet and discuss the Ninja SA curriculum. We have met nearly every weekend to go through the syllabus and enhance it to ensure positive development and keep it up to date with the times. They have worked through the system from 9th kyu to 1st kyu and have had some interesting results on some of the techniques. The students will be benefiting from these developments in their lessons to come. All the study group leaders will be getting this Black Belt training on DVD for their groups to develop along with the rest of Ninja SA. This system review is done annually to ensure that the latest and greatest of all our techniques are kept up to standard. Ninja SA is endeavours to be dynamic and ever expanding.

So what else has happened this year, well our official Durban Study Group opened mid January under Ravie Govender. Ravie is a long time student of Sensei David Field, he has shown excellent leadership skills and a real passion for Ninjitsu he moved to Durban and found himself missing the training and requested permission to open the study group, after a few months of setup and recap, he launched his study group and is enjoying every minute he gets to train. Thank you for those that have signed up to learn with Ravie. I will be down in December to meet everyone and get some training in.

Our next event for 2010 is our Pretoria dojo opening, in Menlo Park under friend and colleague Sensei Brian Acton. He has an impressive martial arts CV and the experience to go with that CV. He holds a 2nd Dan with Ninja SA. I have always enjoyed training with Sensei Brian, as his technique and skill are on par with the best I have seen. He will be opening the Dojo on the 2nd of March 2010. We have had an amazing response online and hope to attract more ninja enthusiasts into the school. The venue is located in Menlo Park, Pretoria East, just off Atterbury road. Visit our web page for the latest news on this dojo.

The Bloemfontein Study group has shown remarkable development; Andre has really been the in the forefront of Ninja SA distant learning. Being a very experienced martial artist in other arts, he has picked up the Ninja SA style easily and perfected everything that has been shown to him. His group is constantly growing; the students are enthusiastic and have a great training attitude. The feedback I get from the class always puts a smile on my face. We have included a few articles in this newsletter from the study group. Furthermore Andre ran a camp in the first half of Feb 2010 and had an outstanding attendance, the feedback from the students on the camp, was positive but really funny, they loved the training and the knowledge taught to them, but found the training in the sun too hot, I can only imagine Andre teaching military fashion out in the bush in the lovely bright South African sun. Tip for ninja camps, take sun lotion!

In addition we have a potential new study group opening in Witbank. This group is close enough to our main dojo so the study group leaders will have a more of a personal and hands on instruction from our senior Sensei. They are currently training for the next few weeks under Sensei Nathan Lee in Randpark Ridge along with the distance learning program. To add to this, Senpai Carel will be making visits to the study group on a regular basis to help guide and teach the group. This study group have already reserved their training hall, and are just tooling up for the opening, so keep a look out on our site for updates and the opening dates. www.ninja.co.za

June Regional Grading.

We will be hosting a regional grading in June, this will be held in Gauteng, the main dojos will be required to attend, if any of the study groups want to attend they are more than welcome, arrangements can be made with Sensei Nathan Lee.