The Explanation

So, this is it? The Blogger world in all its glory. Well between you and me I'm terrified!


Not only is this my first attempt at blogging, but it is a mere four hours before my Accountant In Business exam, the biggest, baddest exam there is. If it were a bowling ball it would weigh ten stone and have teeth:

As I have mentioned in the 'About Me' section of my profile, I am a member of the 'Association of Shotokan Karate (ASK) Cowbridge' club. We are a small team of highly dedicated karate ka that compete in traditional karate tournaments called 'Shobu Ippon' (one point match). This is a fast, hard-hitting sport in which the aim is to throw one technique that a referee believes would end a real fight instantly. As most dedicated karateka enjoy a bit of drama you will also hear Shobu Ippon tournaments referred to as:

"One Hit One Kill!" and "SUDDEN DEATH!"

This year alone we have walked away with gold’s in The Legend Tournament (a tournament of legends) and The International Tournament (an international tournament).

So now we're looking to go serious, now we want to take on the world. Literally. In October 2010 there is a Shobu Ippon World Championships being held in France and we have our sights set on bringing back some trophies in the name of Welsh Karate (it's a dirty job but someone has to do it). Not only will this be a dirty, gruelling, sometimes painful job, it is going to be a very costly job, costing approximately £400pp. With seven of us going we're talking a massive £2,800!!!! That excludes the costs of training, buying decent gear and getting our hair cuts to make us look "well 'ard!".

Naturally we're all doing our best to raise money for the club which can be put towards all the costs involved. Personally I am planning on spending the next five months pushing myself to my limit in every possible way and telling you all about it right here. I have been told that there is a way to receive sponsorship through pay pal and as soon as I've figured out how that works I'll include a link in each blog.

I'm not a massive talker so I invite you to provide me with feedback, requests and suggestions of what else to do to make this more interesting for you to follow. At current my plans include:

• Running a triathlon (3 mile run, 10 mile cycle, and 750m swim);
• Building up to 100 push-ups five mornings a week;
• A food & drink diary along with details of weight loss;
• Honest descriptions of all my training.

Toward the end of each blog I may include some links to cool karate stuff, funny videos and maybe even have a 'joke of the blog' kind of thing going on. I won’t be able to give you a blog every day, but I promise to provide at least one blog a week (that do anything for ya?).
For today here's a link to the News section of our club:

http://www.cowbridgeshotokankarate.com/news.html

For those of you not too sure about karate take a browse down the page for some awesome "One Hit One Kill" videos, and there's even a picture of Sensei Banfield showing off his tan for the ladies!

Finally, a massive GOOD LUCK to my class mates in the final exams!

Hope you've enjoyed my introduction, I'll post again by the end of the week.

P.s. Sorry for the formatting of the page. I copy & pasted into Word to do a spell check and it freaked out when I tried to copy & paste it back in :?/