St. Paul Karate-Do held its wind up mini-tournament last Monday, and 24 young martial artists were presented with new belts for to honour their recent achievements.
“We started off by awarding belts to the students who had passed their recent test in progressing. Then we did the mini tournament,” said St. Paul Karate-Do Sensei Calvin Leckie, adding that the mini-tournament was a fun way for students to display the skills they’ve learned in front of their family members. “We also did some demonstrations for the parents and the students had a chance to practice some breaking.”
Leckie added that he has seen an immense amount of development amongst all of the young students this season, and not just in terms of their physical abilities, but in their discipline and character as well.
“We’ve seen a lot of progress with the students, some students more than others obviously, but they’ve all showed progress and not just in the physical aspects of karate,” Leckie said. “The one thing that my teacher tries to instill in us is the idea that karate is to build character, and that’s really what we saw over the last year with these students. They’re developing into better people, not just stronger and tougher.”
Leckie added that some of his students will be carrying on their training throughout the summer, and that he looks forward to even bigger numbers when the program opens up to new registrants in the fall.
“Some of the kids will be continuing on through the summer,” he said. “I’m not sure how many, that remains to be seen but there will be quite a few who continue on.”
Leckie added that next week, students Leah Pagé and Gemma Pagé will travel to Lloydminster to test for their second level brown belt from Genbukai Canada chief instructor, Sensei Cameron Steuart.
Sara Iftikhar, Alexander Klene, Addison Champagne, Kelli deMoissac, Lyric Ouellette, Ehlam Iftikhar, Ashlynn Schmaltz, Fatima Iftikhar, Ehab Bajwa, Hebatullah Iftikhar, Taryn Schmaltz
Hunter Ramsey, James Kozicki, Dorian Tomlinson, Kori Kozicki, Henry Burrows, Nicholas Burrill, Bruno Burrows
Shaun Lysons, Karlie Schoff , Raylene Osatenko
Madison Pelchat
Gilbert Hunter, Michael Burrows
