5th NZESJJ Summercamp - December 2014
On Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th December, New Zealand Eagle Spirit Jujitsu held their fifth annual Summercamp at Scoutlands by Lake Wiritoa.
With forty-nine of the organisations junior students present, the weekend started with a three hour grading, testing the students in a number of different ways on aspects of the martial arts syllabus.
New Zealand Eagle Spirit Jujitsu was founded in Wanganui in January 1999 and has had in excessive of four hundred students pass through it in the last sixteen years, some from as far away as Greenland, Germany, the UK, and Japan. According to a number of community leaders, it has had a huge impact on the lives of many children in the Whanganui district, teaching them valuable skills of awareness, self confidence, self discipline, and developing physical and mental ability.
The grading itself tested students on their jujitsu forms or techniques, throws and sweeps, break-falling, stand-up blocks and strikes, and ground-work skills. Each of the eight levels up to the probationary black belt have varying skills and abilities to attain and test against, getting more complex the higher the student goes up the grades. As the student reaches the intermediate level, they start to learn weapons skills, developing stick fighting and defence, and then moving up to staff skills and techniques. At the weekend, twenty-one of the more senior students took private single-stick weapons tuition from Kancho Robin Howard to enhance their skills and test their current knowledge.
The second portion of the grading put the four most senior grades to test. Jayden Bamford-Short (going for Junior Master Black Belt) , Jacob Chapman, Jessica Bamford-Short, and Tammika Wineera (all going for Shodan Ho Black Belt) were examined on their teaching skills in front of small groups of students. They were asked to teach a technique that their students had never seen before and it was encouraging to see great leadership and instructorship skills coming out.
These leadership skills were also visible later in the day with some of the bigger boys helping the little ones up over the obstacle course. A special mention to Mikaera Fonotoe and Mitai Hemi for their great sense of leadership in this activity.
As the day progressed the group was divided in to six teams, to compete in the Amazing Orienteering Challenge. Twenty-four orange labels had been secretly positioned around Scoutlands and the teams were tasked to find and log the symbols on each card against their respective numbers. There were also a number of challenge activities that needed to be completed , including the obstacle course, water-balloon volleyball, the balance-board time challenge, turning and balancing on dots, target practice kicking a ball in to a goal, and the NZESJJ Knowledge Quiz.
Needless to say by the time the family BBQ came around at 5pm everyone was ravenous !! Sincerest thanks to all families that came out to the BBQ to enjoy the community and family spirit and contributed to the evening either with the goodies they brought to share or by spending time in the kitchen cooking up a feast or both. Their help and efforts were gratefully received and acknowledged by the camp organisers.
Just prior to the BBQ, a presentation with families and students saw all forty-nine students receive rewards with four black (previously named), three brown, eight blue, six purple, eleven green, five orange, eight yellow, and four red grades being successfully achieved.
As the families drifted off, and the children that were staying the night were settling down (Yeah Right!), a session of charades provided some light entertainment, including a rare performance by Instructor Simon Merten, especially over from Palmerston North for the Summercamp. This was followed by team costume-making, where teams had to dress a member using only newspaper and then tell the story of the costume to judges Jess Howard, Jamin Hawley, and Cass Richardson, who marked their efforts accordingly.
Sunday morning started with a light session of Qigong, to wake everyone up and blow away the cobwebs. A light breakfast and then in to some more team games, lead by Instructor Matt Rayner, brought the camp to a finish just in time for lunch time. A lot of happy and tired looking children headed off for a much needed break to re-energise in time for classes to resume after the summer holidays.
A huge thanks to Whanganui Community Foundation for their continued sponsorship of this summercamp, without whom the cost to some families would be hard to bear, and the organisers would struggle to make the camp such a success. This is the fifth year that they have supported this event and Camp Organiser, Rochelle Howard, would like to extend her sincerest gratitude and thanks to the leaders of the Foundation for their support and assistance.
A special thank you to Prabh Mokha, Eleanor Arnst (camp photographer), Cass and Craig Richardson, Leeanne Palmer and Jamin Hawley for their tireless work throughout the weekend behind the scenes keeping things going. Gratitude goes to Instructors Simon Merten, Bryce Rider, Jess Howard and Matt Rayner for their experience and knowledge. Last, but by no means least, a big thank you to the managers/care-takers of Wanganui's hidden diamond, Helen and Brian Floyde, that work tirelessly to keep Scoutlands going as an excellent venue for groups and individual campers alike.
With forty-nine of the organisations junior students present, the weekend started with a three hour grading, testing the students in a number of different ways on aspects of the martial arts syllabus.
New Zealand Eagle Spirit Jujitsu was founded in Wanganui in January 1999 and has had in excessive of four hundred students pass through it in the last sixteen years, some from as far away as Greenland, Germany, the UK, and Japan. According to a number of community leaders, it has had a huge impact on the lives of many children in the Whanganui district, teaching them valuable skills of awareness, self confidence, self discipline, and developing physical and mental ability.
The grading itself tested students on their jujitsu forms or techniques, throws and sweeps, break-falling, stand-up blocks and strikes, and ground-work skills. Each of the eight levels up to the probationary black belt have varying skills and abilities to attain and test against, getting more complex the higher the student goes up the grades. As the student reaches the intermediate level, they start to learn weapons skills, developing stick fighting and defence, and then moving up to staff skills and techniques. At the weekend, twenty-one of the more senior students took private single-stick weapons tuition from Kancho Robin Howard to enhance their skills and test their current knowledge.
The second portion of the grading put the four most senior grades to test. Jayden Bamford-Short (going for Junior Master Black Belt) , Jacob Chapman, Jessica Bamford-Short, and Tammika Wineera (all going for Shodan Ho Black Belt) were examined on their teaching skills in front of small groups of students. They were asked to teach a technique that their students had never seen before and it was encouraging to see great leadership and instructorship skills coming out.
These leadership skills were also visible later in the day with some of the bigger boys helping the little ones up over the obstacle course. A special mention to Mikaera Fonotoe and Mitai Hemi for their great sense of leadership in this activity.
As the day progressed the group was divided in to six teams, to compete in the Amazing Orienteering Challenge. Twenty-four orange labels had been secretly positioned around Scoutlands and the teams were tasked to find and log the symbols on each card against their respective numbers. There were also a number of challenge activities that needed to be completed , including the obstacle course, water-balloon volleyball, the balance-board time challenge, turning and balancing on dots, target practice kicking a ball in to a goal, and the NZESJJ Knowledge Quiz.
Needless to say by the time the family BBQ came around at 5pm everyone was ravenous !! Sincerest thanks to all families that came out to the BBQ to enjoy the community and family spirit and contributed to the evening either with the goodies they brought to share or by spending time in the kitchen cooking up a feast or both. Their help and efforts were gratefully received and acknowledged by the camp organisers.
Just prior to the BBQ, a presentation with families and students saw all forty-nine students receive rewards with four black (previously named), three brown, eight blue, six purple, eleven green, five orange, eight yellow, and four red grades being successfully achieved.
As the families drifted off, and the children that were staying the night were settling down (Yeah Right!), a session of charades provided some light entertainment, including a rare performance by Instructor Simon Merten, especially over from Palmerston North for the Summercamp. This was followed by team costume-making, where teams had to dress a member using only newspaper and then tell the story of the costume to judges Jess Howard, Jamin Hawley, and Cass Richardson, who marked their efforts accordingly.
Sunday morning started with a light session of Qigong, to wake everyone up and blow away the cobwebs. A light breakfast and then in to some more team games, lead by Instructor Matt Rayner, brought the camp to a finish just in time for lunch time. A lot of happy and tired looking children headed off for a much needed break to re-energise in time for classes to resume after the summer holidays.
A huge thanks to Whanganui Community Foundation for their continued sponsorship of this summercamp, without whom the cost to some families would be hard to bear, and the organisers would struggle to make the camp such a success. This is the fifth year that they have supported this event and Camp Organiser, Rochelle Howard, would like to extend her sincerest gratitude and thanks to the leaders of the Foundation for their support and assistance.
A special thank you to Prabh Mokha, Eleanor Arnst (camp photographer), Cass and Craig Richardson, Leeanne Palmer and Jamin Hawley for their tireless work throughout the weekend behind the scenes keeping things going. Gratitude goes to Instructors Simon Merten, Bryce Rider, Jess Howard and Matt Rayner for their experience and knowledge. Last, but by no means least, a big thank you to the managers/care-takers of Wanganui's hidden diamond, Helen and Brian Floyde, that work tirelessly to keep Scoutlands going as an excellent venue for groups and individual campers alike.