ACMAC News

 

2012 REVIEW

 

I could never have imagined how amazing a year 2012 would be. 2011 was fantastic but we surpassed it big style this year.

 

SEMINAR VISITS

 

Once again we brought the very best Instructors on the planet to ACMAC including:

 

• Master Dave Turton teaching his SDF Street Combat methods
• The amazing Billy Robinson teaching Catch as Catch Can Seminar and 3 day Certification Camp along with Jake Shannon & Sam Kressin.
• Points Fighting World Champion Drew Neal teaching Team ACMAC and private lessons to our staff
• Kyoshi Dave Kovar returned for another full days Instructor Training and also taught seminars for our Students
• Bill “Superfoot” Wallace returned once again to show his Kicking skills but also showcased his awesome Boxing too.
• Guro Mark Wiley did a 2 day Serrada Escrima seminar
• Chris Clarke & Paul Lynch taught this years Revolution Sparring Seminar

 

OTHER ROLES IN ASMAA-SDF, WTKA GB & SCIENTIFIC WRESTLING

 

I continued to work within the ASMAA-SDF Organisation and went from being a Technical Director to being listed as Deputy Head.

 

In my role of European Representative of Scientific Wrestling I organised Billy Robinson’s tour of England and Italy as well as the first Certification Camp outside of North America.

 

I hooked up with WTKA GB in 2012 after being very impressed with their European Championships, I took on the role of Chief Referee of All Styles. I ran a Referee’s course in November and will be doing a lot more in 2013. Also Mrs P, Dave Turton, Rick Burns & Chris Jones were added to the Board of Directors. 2013 will be a big year for WTKA GB.

 

I would like to thank Dave Turton, Jake Shannon, Billy Robinson, Mark Rooker & Terry Johnston for having faith in me.

 

REVOLUTION TOURNAMENTS

 

Revolution Tournaments rocked again in 2012. Both Balby Carr Tournaments were packed to the rafters as always and this year we run a North East Championships in Newcastle in partnership with Rick Burns which was also a huge success, this will be an annual Tournament now and so will the South of England Championships which will be run in Basingstoke in May 2013 in partnership with Aaron Bannister, Don Linton & Matt Braybrook.

 

Our English Championships was run over two days this year, Fight Night just was Points & Continuous and we had separate Forms & Swords Championships. Both events were very high standard with many World Champions competing in all 4 areas.

TEAM ACMAC

 

Our Competition Team goes from strength to strength every year. Our Points & Continuous team continued to progress and our Forms & Swords competitors really caught up this year showing a great strength in depth across the board with both Adults & Kids excelling.

 

As well as individual success we had a great night in Tamworth for our first Team Fight event, we also won Revolution team Award by a big margin and most importantly we went outside of the Martial Arts world and won “Doncaster Sports Team of the Year Award” at an awards night organised by the Free Press at the Keepmoat Stadium.

 

The Team won 245 medals in total!! Which is a record for us including 7 World Championships, 7 European Championships, 48 National Titles & 23 World & European Medals.

 

So many people contributing to the medals this year which is nice, last year there was the magnificent 7 but this year well over 40 people competed and 22 people winning National, European or World Championships.

 

Our members competed in 5 International Events this year in 4 different countries (England, Italy, Holland & Canada) including 3 World Championships (WTKA, WKC & ISKA).

 

Jess & Liam became our first ever World, European & British Champions. All in the same year and Jess did it twice (Patterns & Swords)

 

We are lucky to have great strength in depth and fantastic caring coaches in all aspects of the team. Our goal is to be the absolute best Competition Team in the Country.

 

MY PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENTS & FAMILY’S

 

Going in 2012 I was excited to achieve a big goal for me, my 6^th Dan. The event was amazing with so much support from everyone it was a massive achievement. I also was inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame something I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams. Two massive honours in one year.

 

Also I was very proud to have qualified in 3 styles that I have been studying for some time under some great masters. Catch as Catch Wrestling (Billy Robinson & Jake Shannon), Serrada Escrima (Mark Wiley) & English Martial Arts (Terry Brown).

 

Tournament wise I thoroughly enjoyed competing in Sport Sword winning Silver in European Championships and Gold at the British, next year I want to win the European Title and go to the World Championships.

 

Lucy & Tiffiny both did great in 2012 so lots of medals and trophies in our house this year, Lucy had a great year winning 4 Golds and 2 Silvers at Revolution and won the Revolution English Title and Tiff won a handful of medals at Revolution and Gold at the WTKA European Championships in Sport Sword.

 

Tiffiny also achieved her Black Belt in 2012 making it a full house of Black Belts.

 

NEW SCHOOLS

 

We opened our Bawtry School in January, David Colley and Jordan Rowe did a great job with that this year and half way through the year Hayden started classes in Carcroft which moved to Adwick and Nat started teaching in Mexborough. We open our 10^th School in January which will be run by David in Blaxton. All the Schools work together and get on which is very important to me, its lovely to have everyone together on gradings, id like to have more time to visit all students in 2013.

 

DUNSCROFT FULL TIME CENTRE

 

Our Dunscroft Academy became the first School to go full time in December. We found a property on Station Road which is very close to the classes that are currently being run.

 

It’s a smaller space than Balby but big enough for what we need, it has a great feel to it and Jess, Liam & volunteers have made it look great. I am sure this will mean a big growth in 2013 and will hopefully be the first of many schools to go Full Time.

 

10^TH ANNIVERSARY

 

2013 is our 10^th year since I founded ACMAC. So much has happened that it needs to be celebrated so we are having a 10^th Anniversary special night of classes and also filming our new promo video.

 

The pressure is on for a big year. The only students I still have from day one that have trained every year are Audrey Parker, Craig Oxley, Kev Miller, Jordan Rowe, Keith Whitton, Craig Ford & Claire Dalton. These all moved from Kim Stones, then the likes of Liam Wilkinson & Luke Cullen who joined in the first year.

 

GOALS FOR 2013

 

Our Ultimate goal for 2013 is without a doubt to grow our Schools. We need more members in 2013 to serve our members to the highest standards which they deserve and to give our Instructors a better standard of living.

 

It would be nice for some of our more established Schools to follow the path that Dunscroft has taken and go Full Time in 2013.

 

Revolution Tournaments are expanding this year so im hoping that we can have as much success in other areas as we have in Doncaster. Each year the quality is better and better and we create a higher standard of English Champion year on year.

 

I would like to improve on team ACMAC’s success over the last two years in particular, people may not think this is possible but with the team we have it is. Double figures on World & European Champions, 50 National Championships and 250 medals is easily achieveable without going to any more Tournaments than we already do.

 

Personally my goal competition wise is to win the European Title and represent my country at the WTKA/WKA World Championships in Italy alongside my family and students.

 

As the Chief Referee for Great Britain I will be representing WTKA GB as a Referee but if I qualify in Sport Sword which I am currently top of the Leaderboard for my division I will be entering my first World Championships.

 

Id like to get more people involved in the Adult Multi Skilled Martial Arts program, the curriculum is fantastic with some world class Instructors teaching involved in it from a variety of Nations. Also I want to spread the SDF Systems further in 2013. Everyone can benefit from Dave Turton’s teachings.

 

THANK YOU

 

ACMAC would not be the same without so many fantastic people so thank you to

 

Students

 

We have an amazing group of supportive students across our Network of Schools. You guys are the product and your dedication to training is important to inspire the new students who come into our Schools. If your reading this please spread the word of what we do, we need your friends and families on our mats in 2013.

 

Parents & Supporters

 

The role of the parent is underrated. You guys sacrifice your own time to bring the kids to training.  Thank you so much, you may not get the appreciation now but they will appreciate it when they are older.

 

Without my Mum & Dad there would be no ACMAC as they supported my journey 100% from day one to now.

 

My Instructors, Mentors & Others

 

Many thanks to all the people who support us. So many fellow Martial Artists that I network with or who myself or other staff train with. I am lucky to have some great friends in the Martial Arts who I network with regularly like Rick Burns, Craig Long, Colin Beddow, Terry Johnston, Chris Jones & Ian Harrison. Also our great suppliers who we have worked with since day one especially the likes of Mike from Witchprint & Shelly from Geoff Happs Trophies.

 

Id like to personally thank Master Dave Turton Head of ASMAA-SDF for all his support over the years,

 

Alastair Bell Photography

 

Massive thanks to Alastair, his photos provide some great memories and are the back bone of this year book.

 

Instructor’s, Staff & Leadership Team

 

I would like to thank the superbly talented and hard working members of the ACMAC Instructor Team who have worked hard to produce such great results in 2012 across our network of Schools.

 

First of all my fiancee Lucy Shaw for all her help behind the scenes and for all her support doing everything at home so i can focus on the business, not forgetting her teaching role at HQ as well as running her own school.

 

All the guys out in schools teaching across Doncaster not only at Balby but at their own Schools as well. These individuals along with Lucy are the back bone of not only the Instructor Team but ACMAC as a whole. Great Martial Artists and Teachers. Jess Corish, Liam Wilkinson, Nat Loy, Hayden Lindley, David Colley, Jordan Rowe and of course Mrs P. Audrey Parker has been a rock from day one and continues to be.

 

Also Mr Oxley & Mr Miller who have also be involved in the Instructor Team since day one and offer experience and leadership to the team. Its great to have such experienced Martial Artists on the team not to mention talented.

 

Darrell Frizzell & Terry Fox who are absolute role models and do the best job possible getting our Cycle Students ready for Black Belt Grading. Nobody could do a better job than these 2 and a great double act.

 

Tommy Long & Jon Glarvey for leading the way in the SDF class and keeping the fridays going or filling in when im away. 2 great SDFers respected by their peers.

 

Kelly Ashbridge & Alison Bramall for stepping up in 2012 and starting teaching classes and setting an example to all others on the Instructor program. Their dedication and time they have put in has got them to where they are.

 

Tia Rowe, Stefan Johnson, Cieran Ashbridge, Ellie Saxton & Jack Malone for helping in classes all year and attending Boot Camps, they are really developing into valuable members of our team.

 

Also to all the new Leadership members who have joined us this year Adam Cooper, Jordan Brown, Shaun Bell, Owen Taylor, Brooke Sockett, Andrew Wilkinson, Sophie Hawkins & Lauran Renwick. We have such a strong team to work with in 2013.

 

Amy Atmore, Connor Cardwell & Tia Rowe for all their hard work on reception and keeping me filled up with coffee (and the occasional tea - Tia)

 

Finally everyone who has stood in the corner of Team ACMAC members around the country this year it is appreciated, Mr Lindley as always is a true leader and someone who hasnt already been mentioned has been a great coach and lead by example is Suneil Singh, who has really grown up this year. I hope he gets more involved in the Instructor program in 2013.Also we are lucky to have fantastic Black Belts who are role models in our Schools.

 

I am extremely proud of all the Team, they are the reason for our success.

 

Personally

 

I want to thank all my friends and family for their support over a 25 year journey, 16 year career and 10 years at ACMAC! Thanks to my Dad for his constant support, he has been doing the books for me for 10 years now as well as supporting me in every way possible especially this year with the Schools expansions. Thank you to my Mum for her inspiration, I wish she was here to see ACMAC turn 10. She pushed me so much to do it after the trouble I had with my previous employers.

 

Also special thanks go to Lucy, she does so much for me which allows me to put all my effort into ACMAC. If it wasn’t for her I would be wearing the same socks every day! She is amazing and manages to juggle Housework, Kids, Balby ACMAC Stuff, Rossington Academy, After School Clubs and managing to still train and compete at a high level. Well proud of you babe, you are awesome. Im so happy that I have you, Ebony & Tiffiny in my life. Makes the hard work worth while.

 

If I have missed anyone I am sorry.

 

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I hope you can help me and my team make 2013 the BEST year yet and continue the growth of Andy Crittenden’s Martial Arts Centre.

 

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2012 ACMAC AWARDS & ATTENDANCE CERTIFICATES

 

At our December Graduation we presented our Annual Awards. These are for Student of the Year for all of our Schools and overall ACMAC Awards.

 

ANNUAL AWARDS

 

Balby Junior Student of the Year 2012             

Jayden Bogan                        

 

Balby Senior Student of the Year 2012                       

Mick Woodhall

 

Dunscroft Student of the Year 2012

Callum Nicholson        

 

Bentley Student of the Year 2012

Sam Webster               

 

Conisbrough Student of the Year 2012

Max Peart          

 

Rossington Student of the Year 2012

Rubi Hoe            

 

Bawtry Student of the Year 2012

Dave O’Connor  

 

Edlington Student of the Year 2012

Helena Abell                 

 

ACMAC Dedicated Student of the Year 2012            

Cieran Ashbridge

 

ACMAC Leadership Member of the Year 2012                            

Kelly Ashbridge

 

ACMAC Instructor of the Year 2012

Lucy Shaw

 

ACMAC Black Belt of the Year 2012

Callum Taylor

 

ACMAC Competitor of the Year 2012

Jessica Corish

 

ACMAC Special Award 2012                                     

Tia Rowe

 

ATTENDANCE CERTIFICATES

 

100% Gold Award

Cieran Ashbridge (5^th year running), Louise Butterfield, Jayden Bogan, Dylan Dunn, Aaron Dunn, Jon Glarvey, Stefan Johnson, Jack Malone, Bradley Mason, Kieron Stuart (1^st person to fill his card in 2012), Callum Taylor, Callum Whyte, Dave Wortley, Mick Woodhall (1^st Adult to fill his card in 2012), Thomas Andrew, Aidan Poppy (Dunscroft), Dylan Satchwell (Bentley) & Jordan Brown (Conisbrough).

 

95% Silver Award

Kelly Ashbridge & Ben McGarey

 

90% Bronze Award

David Colley, Jess Corish, Shaun Bell, Tia Rowe, Alan Orwin, Jack Mawman & Rubi Hoe (Rossington)

 

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NEW BLACK BELTS

 

On Sunday 16th December we held our Black Belt Grading, we had students testing in Multi Skilled Martial Arts & Kick Boxing.

 

We had students testing for 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd Dan so it was around 4 hours worth of hard graft. The students went through all aspects of their respective syllabus for the grades they were testing for. First of all Nat came in for half an hour on her own as she was testing for 3^rd Dan then came in Cieran, Bryn & Jess for half an hour before the 1^st Dan candidates came in.

 

We pride ourselves on pushing our Black Belts to the limits and making sure they understand that they have earned the right to wear the prestigious Belt.

 

I would like to personally congratulate the following students on their achievements.

 

3^rd Degree Black Belt

Natalie Loy (Kick Boxing)

 

2^nd Degree Black Belt

Jessica Corish (Kick Boxing)

Bryn Simpson (Kick Boxing)

Cieran Ashbridge (Multi Skilled Martial Arts)

 

1^st Degree Black Belt

Alison Bramall (Kick Boxing)

Jarrod Allsopp (Multi Skilled Martial Arts)

Carl Spilman (Multi Skilled Martial Arts)

 

Also massive thanks to all the Black Belts who came in and assisted on the grading especially my co-examiners Mrs P & Mr Miller

 

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SDF & JU-JITSU GRADINGS

Before our Grading week we had a series of individual gradings mainly in SDF Modern Street Combat.

 

There was some great heart and skill on show as the following people were up graded in SDF.

 

6^th Kyu – Red Belt

Bradley Mason

 

3^rd Kyu – Green Belt

John Lowe

 

2^nd Kyu – Blue Belt

Russ Yellott

 

1^st Kyu – Brown Belt

Stefan Johnson & Elaine Simmonds

 

We also are very proud to announce the following people achieved Dan Grades, graded by myself and Master Dave Turton head of ASMAA.

 

1^st Dan Ju-Jitsu

Jordan Rowe

 

Jordan has now completed his journey to Black Belt that he started almost 10 years ago with Paul Murphy, he showed great skill.

 

1^st Dan SDF

Steve Lawley

 

Steve had a great grading, surprising Master Turton with his supreme conditioning and pain tolerance, a very high standard.

 

2^nd Dan SDF

Tommy Long

 

Tommy became the first 2^nd Dan at ACMAC in SDF, he showed his usual grit and determination to get through the gruelling test. He is a role model to all SDF Students at ACMAC.

 

Thanks to everyone who supported everyone on their gradings by coming in as attackers.

 

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LAST TOURNAMENTS OF THE YEAR AND VISITING MARTIAL ARTISTS

First of all Kwon Battleground in Tamworth was a great event. Im so proud of the Kids, they did amazing. We went to test ourselves knowing how good TKA were and i was so prpud of the kids especially the ones who had never fought outside of Revolution. You guys are the future stars of Team ACMAC. Well done Shea, Aidan, Jayden, Callum and Team Captain Tia who proved she was a leader how she nearly brought us back from 11 down. We lost but gained respect in a close match 32-28 winning 3 of the 5 fights. Rematch already arranged for 2013.

The adults were equally awesome. Great team with strength in depth, lost a close fight 32-31 should have been more with the points but thats how it goes, ive spoke to Lance about it and we will get our shot at Kwon next time. Great performance and camaraderie. Hayden proved he is among the elite in this country by beating Rob Taylor who only a couple of weeks ago won the ICO World Title and everyone fought so well and supported each other so well done Nat, Hayden, Dave, Sunny and Captain Miller. 2 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw great stats for our first team event.

Thanks to Lance Manyer, Del Sampson and all involved.

After getting home about 2am we was up the next day early for WTKA Best of British 2012, it was held at the fabulous English Institute of Sport in Sheffield where Revolution was born in 2006 before moving to Balby Carr. Its a fantastic venue and very prestigious with the likes of Jessica Ennis training there.

It was a very rare "non sparring" event so it was just Hardstyle Forms, Korean Patterns, Weapon Forms & Sport Sword.

We took 11 people and came back with 11 British Titles, 2 silvers and 5 bronze, with everyone medalling in everything they entered against the cream of the crop in the UK. WTKA has the best standard of forms competitors in this country so its great we can hang with them. Sport Sword is relatively new to us and up until a year or so ago we only had 1 forms competitor at a high level so our results were very pleasing.

Sam Orwin
British Champion forms

Kieron Stuart
British Champion swords
3rd place forms

Dylan Satchwell
British Champion forms
3rd place swords

Jayden Bogan
2nd place forms
3rd place swords

Owen Taylor
British Champion swords
3rd place weapon forms

Shaun Bell
2nd place swords

Tia Rowe
British Champion forms & swords (2 categories)

Alastair Bell
3rd place swords

Liam Wilkinson
British Champion swords

Jess Corish
British Champion swords & forms

Andy Crittenden
British Champion swords

11x 1st place
2x 2nd places
5x 3rd places

 

We went over 200 medals and trophies for 2012 with 1 comp still to go and also took our National Tally to 48, 22 people this year became National Champs (or better), that is strength in depth!!

Well done to Sam, Dylan, Kieron, Jayden, Owen, Shaun, Tia, Alastair, Liam, Jess and even myself on great performances.

Thanks to Master Terry Johnston and his wife Lucy and the awesome Mark Rooker and all involved. Thanks also who worked on the Sport Sword mat especially our little computer geeks Jordan and Callum who got the new technology working like a dream with Mr Rooker’s assistance. The computer scoreboard was the next level. Absolutely fantastic.

Big respect to Tia and Jayden who fought on both events and also Aidan amd Shea who competed in Leeds on the Sunday Aidan winning 2 Yorkshire Championships and Shea winning a Silver. Bet you all slept well last night.

Also well done to our brothers (& sisters) in arms Team BSBB on a great performance as always and all our other friends who competed.

Finally thanks to everyone who gave up there valuable weekend time to support us, especially those who made it to both events. Thanks to Lucy for managing to juggle everything and make it both days to support me and the team.

Ive said it a thousand times we have a great team of competitors and supporters.

 

Our final Tournament of the year was Revolution’s first in the North East on Sunday 2^nd December. I partnered up with my good friend Mr Burns and ran the Revolution North East Championships. We had a fantastic turn out of Revolution regulars and new teams local to the event.

 

Myself, Lucy, Ebony & Tiffiny went up the night before and were treat like royalty by Ken Ellington and the staff at the Copthorne Hotel, it’s the best hotel I have ever stayed in.

 

Team ACMAC took a strong team up there a bus load and a few went up in cars. As always we had great results winning 20 Gold, 14 Silver and 9 Bronze Medals, which took our years total to 245! Which is our best yet.

 

GOLD’S & NORTH EAST CHAMPIONS

Lucy Shaw (Points & Continuous)

Tia Rowe (Points & Continuous)

Aidan Hughes (Points & Continuous)

Shea Hughes (Points & Continuous)

Lauran Renwick (Forms & Team Form)

Sophie Hawkins (Sport Sword & Team Form)

Hayden Lindley (Points)

Suneil Singh (Points)

Nat Loy (Continuous)

Owen Taylor (Sport Sword)

Kev Miller (Points)

Jordan Brown (Points)

Dylan Satchwell (Forms)

Craig Oxley (Forms)

 

SILVER’S

Megan Halliday (Points & Continuous)

Lauran Renwick (Musical Forms & Sport Sword)

Sophie Hawkins (Weapon Forms & Points)

Jayden Bogan (Swords & Forms)

Tiffiny Richardson (Points)

Tia Rowe (Swords)

Suneil Singh (Continuous)

Kev Miller (Continuous)

Alastair Bell (Swords)

Kieron Stuart (Swords)

 

BRONZE’S

Tiffiny Richardson (Swords)

Nat Loy (Points)

Sophie Hawkins (Forms)

Owen Taylor (Weapon Forms)

Jayden Bogan (Points)

Brooke Sockett (Points)

Brad Mason (Continuous)

Kelly Ashbridge (Points)

Shaun Bell (Swords)

 

It was a great way to finish our best year yet.

 

We had some guests over in early December training and sparring with our team. First up was Nicole Huntington who is a former ACMAC member from a few years ago, she was one of the early stars of Team ACMAC and since moving to Ipswich has continued her development and gone on to win Multiple WAKO British Titles, multiple ring sport Title Belts, WAKO European Title, WAKO World Bronze Medal and ISKA World Title. I always knew Nicole would do great things, it was so nice to see her and her dad Lee again, hope to see them more in 2013. thanks to Hayden, Suneil, Nat, Brooke & Tia for making up the numbers and making Nicole welcome.

 

Also we had Sheffield Dragons Team Elite members Scott Elliot, Georgia Devaney, Grace Smelt and Adam Daine over for Sparring class, some super talented Martial Artists who we hope to see more of next year.

 

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ANDY CRITTENDEN INDUCTED INTO MARTIAL ARTS HALL OF FAME

It was a great honour to be inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame by Martial Arts Illustrtaed. It is the pinnacle of my career and has capped off a great year

I recieved the award at a grand awards night in Burton on Trent along with some of the UK's finest Martial Artists including Dave Turton, Drew Neal, Lee Matthews, Chris Jones, Neil Hall, Phil Glover, Jon Jepson, Bernard Taylor , Russell Perks, Terry Johnston, MicK Blackwell, Paul Drury, Zara Phythian, Tom Wynne, Chloe Bruce, Alfie Lewis, Marcus Lewis, Andy Norman, Neville Wray, Master Sken, Clifton Findley, Lance Manyer, Kevin O'Hagan, John Kirkwood, Steve Taberner and Bill "Superfoot" Wallace and so many more greats i can not mention everyone.

I was blessed to have so many family, friends, staff and instructors there with me to share the moment, i was very proud to have Lucy sat by my side when i made my way up to collect my award.

It was a huge honour and i am truly humble to have been inducted.

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NEW ACMAC WORLD CHAMPIONS CROWNED AT WTKA WORLDS IN ITALY & ISKA WORLDS IN HOLLAND

 

Huge congratulations to Jess Corisj, Liam Wilkinson, Lauran Renwick, Sophie Hawkins & Stuart Wade for amazing performances at the World Championships in Italy & Holland.

 

WTKA RESULTS

Jess won 2 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (Tae Kwon Do Patterns & Weapon Combat)

Liam won 1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (Weapon Combat)

 

ISKA RESULTS

Lauran won 3 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (Freestyle Forms, Extreme Forms & Team Form)

Sophie won 1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP and 2 Silvers (Gold: Team Form, Silvers: Korean & Freestyle Forms)

Stuart won a Silver Medal on a bad decision that should have been more. (Korean Forms)

 

Thats 7 Golds and 3 Silvers!! We at ACMAC are also proud of them.

 

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ACMAC DUNSCROFT MOVES INTO FULL TIME PREMISES IN 2013

 

I am extremely proud to announce that our Dunscroft Academy headed by Jessica Corish 4^th Dan & Liam Wilkinson 2^nd Dan will be moving into Full Time Premises at 245 Station Road in Dunscroft from January 2013, which coincides with the 10^th Anniversary of the founding of Andy Crittenden’s Martial Arts Centre.

 

Initially classes will run from Monday to Thursday from 5pm till around 8.30pm which will give more classes and scope to grow including tae Kwon Do & Fitness Kick Boxing classes for Adults and specialist classes for Kids such as Sparring, Forms, Weapons & Sport Sword.

 

All classes will stay the same for the rest of 2012 and the move will hopefully take place over the Christmas period as there is a lot of work to be done.

 

Anyone who would like to help up by working on getting the place up and running or by raising funds necessary to open up please see Miss Corish.

 

I would like to wish Jess & Liam all the best and I hope this is the first of many conversions from part time to full time Schools for the ACMAC Group.

 

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REVOLUTION FORMS & SWORDS ENGLISH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2012

 

After not doing Forms & Sport Sword at Fight Night it was decided to have an English Championships for those events separately so on Sunday 14^th October that’s what we did.

 

The standard of the Tournament was absolutely outstanding with all the winners being truly world class. It was a pleasure to watch.

 

Team ACMAC as always did me proud, I may sound like a broken record but its true.

 

We won 5 Championships, 6 runners up and had 5 finalists. Which is an incredible achievement, only 3 years ago we had less than a hand full of forms competitor and hadn’t even started Sport Sword.

 

Here are our results.

 

Coloured Belt Girls Forms

Runner Up: Samantha Orwin (ACMAC)

 

Black Belt Boys Forms

Finalist: Owen Taylor (ACMAC)

 

Black Belt Girls Forms

Runner Up: Lauran Renwick (ACMAC)

Finalist: Sophie Hawkins (ACMAC)

 

Black Belt Men Forms

Winner: Stuart Wade (ACMAC)

 

Black Belt Women Forms

Winner: Jess Corish (ACMAC)

 

Girls Weapon Forms

Runner Up: Lauran Renwick (ACMAC)

Finalist: Sophie Hawkins (ACMAC)

 

Adult Weapon Forms

Winner: Liam Wilkinson (ACMAC)

 

Under 45kgs Girls Sport Sword

Winner: Tia Rowe (ACMAC)

 

Under 45kgs Boys Sport Sword

Winner: Jayden Bogan (ACMAC)

Runner Up: Owen Taylor (ACMAC)

 

Over 45kgs Girls Sport Sword

Runner Up: Sophie Hawkins (ACMAC)

 

Women Sport Sword

Finalist: Jess Corish (ACMAC)

 

Men Sport Sword

Runner Up: Liam Wilkinson (ACMAC)

Finalist: Alastair Bell (ACMAC)

 

After we had done with the Forms & Swords we had the Point Sparring Grand Championships. The only way to qualify for this was by winning a Fight at the Fight Night. It was open weight and only for Adults. So there was only 2 Belts 1 for the Male Grand Champion and 1 for the Female Grand Champion. We had a really strong presence amongst the team.

 

It was a live draw which meant anyone could face anyone, the draw didn’t go our way pitting 6 out of 7 of our fighters together in the first round! Still the fighters took the disappointment of having to face each other so early.

 

There were some fantastic fights highlighted by the amazing final of the Womens Division.

 

Here are the results:

 

Male Grand Champion – Hayden Lindley (ACMAC)

Runner Up: Ian Harrison

Other Competitors: Stuart Wade (ACMAC), Suneil Singh (ACMAC), David Colley (ACMAC), Daniel O’Malley & Paul Forster

 

Female Grand Champion – Nat Loy (ACMAC)

Runner Up: Jess Corish (ACMAC)

Other Competitors: Lucy Shaw (ACMAC) & Karen Grieves

 

Well done to everyone who took part especially team ACMAC members and most of all the first Revolution Grand Champions Hayden & Nat.

 

Every year Revolution does a team award, this is down to the amount of English Champions each club gets, with such great teams it’s a huge honour to win and something we have lost out on narrowly for the last two years but this year Team ACMAC would not be denied winning 17 titles with BSBB in second place with 8.

 

Well done guys and thanks to everyone who contributed.

 

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AIDAN HUGHES WORLD BRONZE MEDALLIST

Massive congratulations to Aidan Hughes for coming back from the WKC World Championships in Montreal, Canada with a Bronze Medal in Point Sparring. We are all so proud of Aidan and also David Colley & Hayden Lindley who not only coached Aidan all the way but also competed at the prestigious event too.

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NEW ESCRIMA INSTRUCTORS

Congratulation to Andy Crittenden & Liam Wilkinson on qualifying as Serrada Escrima Instructors under GM Mark Wiley one of the original Masters under GM Angel Cabales. Also big congrats to Guru Dave Irwin (Mr C's Instructor) on his award of Chief Instructor. Well deserved. Also well done to Joe, Andy, Nigel, Brian & Jay on their Instructorships. Serrada UK is born!!

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12 NEW ENGLISH CHAMPIONS AT REVOLUTION FIGHT NIGHT

The Revolution English Title Fight Night was awesome for Team ACMAC winning a record 12 Fights. Everyone gave 100% and win or lose made us proud.

 

Here are the results for Team ACMAC

 

KIDS

 

Points

 

Kids Under 25kgs

Shea Hughes (ACMAC) beat Cole Rochester (CLBBS)

 

Kids Under 30kgs

Aidan Hughes (ACMAC) beat Akeem Johnson (Spirit)

 

Boys Under 45kgs

Brogan Johnston (EMW) beat Callum Taylor (ACMAC)

 

Girls Under 55kgs

Natalia Farrell (UMA) beat Tia Rowe (ACMAC)

 

Boys Over 55kgs

Joe Thompson (UMA) beat Cieran Ashbridge (ACMAC)

 

Light Continuous

 

Kids Under 25kgs

Shea Hughes (ACMAC) beat Cole Rochester (CLBBS)

 

Kids Under 28kgs

Joel Granger (CLBBS) beat Shea Hughes (ACMAC)

 

Kids Under 30kgs

Spencer Blythe (CLBBS) beat Aidan Hughes (ACMAC)

 

Girls Under 55kgs

Tia Rowe (ACMAC) beat Charlotte Smith (Pheonix)

 

Boys Over 55kgs

Connor Lohan (UMA) beat Bradley Mason (ACMAC)

 

ASMAA-SDF JUNIOR FIGHTER OF THE NIGHT

Shea Hughes

 

ADULTS

 

Points Sparring

 

Boys Under 18’s

Suneil Singh (ACMAC) beat Joe Miller (UMA)

 

Women Beginners

Natalya Laranjeira (BSBB) beat Daniela Parker (ACMAC)

 

Women Advanced Under 65kgs

Nat Loy (ACMAC) beat Kielly Mather (BSBB)

 

Women Advanced Open Weight

Jessica Corish (ACMAC) beat Michelle Turnbull (BSBB)

 

Women Advanced Over 65kgs

Lucy Shaw (ACMAC) beat Helen Fawcett (UMA)

 

Men Black Belts Under 80kgs

Hayden Lindley (ACMAC) beat Lee Wilson (NTSKB)

 

Men Black Belt Over 80kgs

Daniel O’Malley (EMW) beat Liam Wilkinson (ACMAC)

 

Light Continuous

 

Boys Under 18’s

David Colley (ACMAC) beat Joe Miller (UMA)

 

Women Under 65kgs

Nat Loy (ACMAC) beat Rebecca Wilson (DF)

 

Women Over 65kgs

Karen Grieves (EMW) beat Kelly Ashbridge (ACMAC)

 

Men Over 85kgs

Stuart Wade (ACMAC) beat Daniel O’Malley (EMW)

 

ASMAA-SDF SENIOR FIGHTER OF THE NIGHT

David Colley

 

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MR C IS NEW WTKA GB CHIEF REFEREE

 

Andy Crittenden has been appointed Great Britain Chief Referee for one of the Worlds Biggest Tournament Organisations. it will mean refereeing at British, European & World Championships, organising Tournaments and training referees.

 

MARTIAL ARTS HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS

 

I am honoured to amongst the inductees in this years Martial Arts Illustrated Hall of Fame. It came as a complete shock when I was told. I will be at the event on Sunday 18^th November in Staffordshire and will be inducted alongside my mentor Dave Turton and good friend Chris Jones, Points Coach Drew Neal and some of the best Martial Artists in the UK.

 

This is the biggest thing to happen to me so far in my career.

 

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WTKA/WKA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS 2012

 

On Saturday 18^th August Team ACMAC descended upon Ponds Forge International Sport Centre in Sheffield for the WTKA/WKA European Championships.

 

We took a team of 16 to the event and my hopes for the day was to bring back 1 medal of each colour. To say the least we exceeded that.

 

15 students entered 24 divisions and we had a 100% success rate winning 24 medals. Our total for the day was an amazing 7 Golds (European Champions), 8 Silvers & 9 Bronze Medals.

 

It was an amazing day and a great support for our Team having so many people there with us including Lucy, Kev, John Colley, Tia’s mum Tracy, Kenny & Wendy Hughes, Anne-Marie & Amelia Bell, Owen’s dad Phil, Young Dylan Satchwell and his mum and dad and ASMAA Head Dave Turton supporting us too. It was also great to have other friendly teams there such as our brothers and sisters in the North East BSBB, Spirit, Pro MMA & Sheffield Dragons.

 

So now to the competitors most competing on this stage for the first, here is a run down of how everybody did.

 

Jessica Corish

WTKA/WKA European Champion in both Tae Kwon Do Patterns & Sports Sword

 

Jess had an amazing day, she is a World Class Forms Competitor but also showed her all round skills by winning her Sport Sword Division too.

 

In my opinion Jess is the best female in the World at Korean Forms and hopefully that will be confirmed in Italy in October.

 

Liam Wilkinson

WTKA/WKA European Champion & Silver Medallist in Sport Sword

 

Im so happy that Liam got the result he deserved. He has took the Sport Sword Team to the next level. He fought great winning his division then coming 2^nd in the group above losing to Mr Burns.

 

Hopefully after October he will be World Champion too.

 

Tiffiny Richardson

WTKA/WKA European Champion in Sport Sword

 

Tiff over came a high standard of competition to become ACMAC’s first European Champion. It was very close and Tiff had to be very brave to hold on in the final after she had a bad whack on the thumb.

 

Tia Rowe

WTKA/WKA European Champion in Sport Sword & Silver Medal in Continuous

 

Tia has been improving as an all round competitor this year but for this event we decided to focus just on Continuous and Swords.

 

She won her Sword category and became a European Champion and then came very close to winning two losing out in the final to a very tough polish girl.

 

Owen Taylor

WTKA/WKA European Champion in Weapon Forms & Silver Medal in Sport Sword

 

When we started doing forms again Owen began to shine and never as much as on this day when he took his form he shows in class and on smaller events and dominated his category doing the Advanced Kama Form and become European Champion.

 

He also came very close to winning the Sport Sword losing out to team mate Shaun Bell in the final. An amazing day for Owen.

 

Shaun Bell

WTKA/WKA European Champion in Sport Sword

 

Shaun came out of nowhere and performed absolutely fantasticly and won his Sport Sword category beating team mate Owen in the final. Im really proud of how Shaun has progressed over his years at ACMAC

 

Suneil Singh

WTKA/WKA European Silver Medallist in Points & Continuous.

 

Suneil wasn’t sure what sort of year he would have been relatively small and moving out of the under 16’s section but his success has just continued in the adults and under 18’s.

 

He fought with class to reach the final of both his divisions, losing in close fights both times and having a great fight with Oliver Sykes in the continuous where both lads showed how good they are and also buried the hatchet from last time they fought.

 

Audrey Parker

WTKA/WKA European Silver Medallist in Sport Sword

 

Mrs P jumped in last minute to help out Simone & Libby Sansom so they didn’t have fight each other.

 

She did great and won a Silver Medal in the Sport Sword which was nice for her, nobody loves the Martial Arts like she does so its credit where its due.

 

Mrs P was also the head judge for the Tae Kwon Do Patterns.

 

Shea Hughes

WTKA/WKA European Silver Medallist in Continuous and Bronze in Points.

 

Shea has progressed so much since he started at ACMAC, he has competed all over the country at some big comps and became our youngest British Champion earlier in the year and fought great at this event even though he was in a weight category 5kgs over what he normally fights in.

 

Shea is tough as old boots and doesn’t back down even when he is outsized.

 

Andy Crittenden

WTKA/WKA European Silver Medallist in Sport Sword

 

I even had a go, I really enjoyed doing the Sport Sword, I much prefer the joy of coaching but did enoy this. Felt good in my first 2 fights, both and then losing a close final to my good friend Gary Sansom.

 

Aidan Hughes

WTKA/WKA European Bronze Medallist in Points & Continuous.

 

Aidan has had a great year and had a great day on this event. He fought really hard winning bronze medals in two very big categories. This experience will stand him in good stead when he fights at the Worlds in Canada later in the year.

 

Stuart Wade

WTKA/WKA European Bronze Medallist in Patterns & Continuous.

 

Most people would be happy with 2 Bronze Medals but not Stuart. There was a major cock up on the Patterns when the scorekeeper wrote his scores down wrong but couldn’t change the decision. We know he is the best. He fought a tough opponent in the final of the Continuous, losing narrowly after a big punch on the back of the head.

 

Hayden Lindley

WTKA/WKA European Bronze Medallist in Points

 

Hayden was on fire again and won his first two fights with ease then lost out in the Semi Finals to Clifton Findley’s son. If Hayden keeps this form up he will do very well at the World Championships in Canada.

 

David Colley

WTKA/WKA European Bronze Medallist in Points

 

David went in all guns blazing and won a Bronze Medal in the Adults section. When he fights at the Worlds in Canada he will be in the under 18s and has a great chance to a Gold to his previous Silver & Bronze.

 

Natalie Loy

WTKA/WKA European Bronze Medallist in Continuous.

 

Nat fought great and the final 4 girls were all world class, if she continues to train hard she will be amongst the Worlds top female Continuous Fighters.

 

Alastair Bell

WTKA/WKA European Bronze Medallist in Sport Sword

 

Alastair has improved loads with the Sword winning his first medal only last month and then adding a European medal to his tally now. If he continues his improvement he can do very well at the up coming English Forms & Sword Championships in October.

 

What an amazing team, im very proud of you all. Great work by Terry Johnston, Mark Rooker and all involved in such an amazing tournament.

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BILLY ROBINSON & JAKE SHANNON SCIENTIFIC WRESTLING TOUR 2012

This year we kicked off with Europes first ever Certified Catch Wrestler Camp. This was held at ACMAC.

 

Here is the report I wrote for various Martial Arts, Wrestling & MMA Magazines.

 

Andy Crittenden’s Martial Arts Centre played host to Europes first ever Scientific Wrestling Certified Catch Wrestler Camp. The camp ran for 20 hours over 3 days starting on Friday 13^th July to Sunday 15^th July.

 

The Head Trainer for the Camp was the legendary Billy Robinson, not only a 5 time World Champion as a Professional but also a British & European Champion as an Amateur. He ahs also trained some of the best Wrestlers & MMA Fighters of all time including Kazushi Sakuraba & Josh Barnett.

 

Billy was trained by the equally legendary Billy Riley at the famous Snake Pit in Wigan. This gym produced some of the best Wrestlers in the world including Billy Joyce, Joe Robinson, Ernie Riley, George Gregory, Jack Dempsey & John Foley. Billy was also trained by his fighting family, his Father and Uncle Alf.

 

Billy was assisted by Jake Shannon (Head of Scientific Wrestling) and Sam Kressin (Scientific Wrestling Assistant Coach).

 

Over the 3 days the 14 camp members were put through the basics of Catch as Catch Can Wrestling including: The Pivot, Hand Fighting, Arm Drags, Flying Mar, Single Leg Takedowns, Double Leg Takedowns, The Grovit, Crooked Head Scissors, Half Halch, Arm Bar variations, Basic Ground Positions, Double Wrist Lock plus so many more submissions and take downs.

 

Billy, Jake & Sam kept on top of us all and kept us motivated throughout the tough three days. I couldn’t have wished for better people working with us all and their attention to detail and coaching was world class.

 

After the 3 days I was totally exhaustered but at the same time so exstatic that I had completed the course and become a Certified Catch Wrestler under the biggest name in the Sport.

 

Marial Artists, Wrestkers & MMA Fighters from around the UK and Germany took part in the course, so there is a new wave of Catch Wrestlers in Europe. After the camp our goal is to now continue and to qualify further up the program and one day hopefully represent Mr Robinson & Mr Shannon and teach Catch Wrestling.

 

Congratulations to Nathan Leverton, Rob Hannis, Chris Foran, Ivan Rolls, Laura Shipley, Philip O’Connor, Scott Matthews, Jez Richie, Luke Mannion, Michael Keys, Ibrar Khan, Florian Neuber & Timo Seel who qualified along with myself as Level 1 Catch Wrestlers.

 

After the camp. We caught up with some of Billy’s friends including Roy & Andrea Wood and John Cox (who was once the Mayor of York).

 

ACMAC also played host to the first of three seminar. On Tuesday 17^th July we hosted a seminar with Billy purely on the Double Wrist Lock. We had over 30 students on the mat from so many different back grounds I could not mention them all.

 

Billy spent over 3 hours covering 1 MOVE! This is how much knowledge he has, once again ably assisted by Jake & Sam.

 

The next day it was time to once agin take the show on the road as we headed upto Workington, Cumbria hosted by the UK’s only Assistant Coach Alex Cook at Hokushinkai Gym. Alex had his hardcore group of guys training there inclding the gym owner Mark who is also the MMA Promoter up there, I remember taking fighters to his show War in Workington during our MMA era.

 

The next day it was down to Stoke to Dave Carnell & Simon McGoverns Impact Martial Arts Academy. These guys like everyone on the tour really got stuck in and learnt so much.

 

When the guys left the UK they headed over to Italy to teach a seminar for Scientific Wrestler Mike Raho.

 

Everyone was left raving about Billy and Catch as Catch Can. I am truly lucky to be in his company, Billy Robinson is a genius and master professor of his Art. Also I would like to thank Jake Shannon for all the opportunities he has given me to run with the ball of Scientific Wrestling in the UK and across. It was also great to meet Sam Kressin, with guys like him and Alex Cook CACC has a very bright future.

 

Im already planning next years tour and camp.

 

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REVOLUTION YORKSHIRE CHAMPIONSHIPS

On Sunday 8^th July Team ACMAC attended the Revolution Yorkshire Championships at Balby Carr Sports College. As always we had a great turn out for our home town competition.

 

The quality of the team managed to equal the quantity. We had some fantastic performances capped off by Tia Rowe winning 3 categories, something very difficult to do. Tia became only the 4^th person to do following in the foot steps of Beth Jackson, Adam Kyzer & Suneil Singh (3 times).

 

We also had many all ACMAC Finals including Nat vs Megan, Nat vs Jess, Lucy vs Kelly (twice), Joe vs Shea and Hayden vs David.

 

Overall it was a fantastic team performance, its great to see how well everyone works together and supports each other.

 

We took 15 Golds, 12 Silvers and 12 Bronze from about 25 people. Well done everyone on an amazing team performance. Here are the list of results.

 

Gold

Tia Rowe (3), Lucy Shaw, Kelly Ashbridge, Suneil Singh, Cieran Ashbridge, Holly Winder, Joe Sutherland, Hayden Lindley, Jess Corish, Nat Loy, Shea Hughes, Aidan Hughes & Stuart Wade.

 

Silver

Lucy Shaw, Kelly Ashbridge, Nat Loy, Jess Corish, Stuart Wade, Shea Hughes, David Colley, Jarrod Allsopp, Aidan Hughes, Megan Halliday, Owen Taylor & Liam Wilkinson.

 

Bronze

Jordan Brown (2), Joe Sutherland (2), Megan Halliday, Liam Wilkinson, Alastair Bell, Suneil Singh, Bradley Mason, Tiffiny Richardson, Sam Webster & Daniella Parker,

 

Many of our fighters will represent Team ACMAC at this years fight night and we have a few students seeded for the Forms & Swords Championships in October.

 

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BLACK BELT TESTING

Congratulations to our most recent Dan Grades

Hayden Lindley (4th Dan TKD)

Tiffiny Richardson (1st Dan MSMA)

Thomas Andrew (1st Dan MSMA)

Shaun Bell (1st Dan MSMA)

Bradley Mason (1st Dan MSMA)

Harriet Higgin (1st Dan KB)

Also a big well done to everyone who passed their Coloured Belt Gradings this week.

 

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A BUSY WEEKEND

KYOSHI KOVAR VISIT

 

On Friday 15^th July it was an honour to host seminars with one of my Role Models in the Martial Arts Kyoshi Dave Kovar.

 

Kyoshi Kovar taught a Kids seminar and then an Adult seminar. With the Kids he focused on getting their attention and keeping and taught quality Martial Arts with hidden life skill messages mixed in. He really is an awesome teacher.

 

Next up with the Adults he brought his enthusiasm and energy and taught an awesome lesson with an emphasis on Reality Based Self Defence.

Kyoshi Kovar impacted and inspired the students of ACMAC and I hope that we get even more students to attend next year.

 

The following day Kyoshi Kovar delivered an Instructor College at ACMAC to School Owners & Instructor’s from all over the country including myself, Lucy, Hayden, Nat, Kelly & Francis from ACMAC plus Rick Burns and Team BSBB, Paul Lynch and his guys from Leeds Martial Arts, Ary Hauer, Karen Grieves and team representing East Meets West and others. There was 31 Instructors in total.

 

It was a full day ranging from tips on recruiting and keeping new students, how to consistently teach great classes, ways to deal with young and challenging children and so much more.

 

Plus we also had about an hours training session plus teaching practice. It was agreat day and we all learnt a lot.

 

Kyoshi Kovar is head and shoulders above all other school owners in my opinion and is a great teacher at all levels, I look forward to keeping in touch with him for many years to come and hosting him again. I think its important to bring the best in the world to influence my Staff and Students and Master Dave Kovar is certainly in that category. When it comes to running a Marial Arts School and delivering high quality classes he is number 1.

 

WKC BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2012

 

The next day I travelled to Manchester with Team ACMAC for the WKC British Championships. Some of the very best in the UK and some international Teams were present but Team ACMAC showed its classes winning a medal in every category that we entered.

 

First up was Aidan Hughes who has improved a lot this year and is off to Canada later in the year for the World Championships. Aidan fought better than I have ever seen him winning Silvers in both Points & Continuous.

 

His brother Shea won a bronze in the Points against a much bigger opponent and then won Gold and his first British Title in Continuous, making him ACMAC’s youngest ever British Champion.

 

Jess Corish & Stuart Wade absolutely dominated the Adult Korean Forms and won their divisions with ease, showing grace, style, technical excellence and power. Also Joe Sutherland won a Gold in his Forms category, Joe trains with us for Sparring not forms so I never like to take credit for his success as we have not taught him that aspect of his training. Jess is now a 7 time British Champion and Stuart has 18 to his name.

 

The usual suspects dominated their sparring categories. Suneil Singh won 2 Golds in both Points and Continuous beating foreign opponents in both finals, Suneil is now a 14 time British Champion.

 

Holly Winder won her 2^nd WKC National of the Year and once again beat a World Champion in the final, this made Holly a 10 time National Champion and all in the space of 3 1/2 years of competing.

 

David Colley also joined the double figure National Champion club winning his 10^th in an impressive performance in the Points, even with the worst referee in the world on the mat.

 

Last up was Hayden Lindley who fought out of his skin beating the guy who beat him at the last 2 WKC English Opens in the semi’s. Hayden won gold and his 11^th British Title with an amazing performance, it would have been very hard for anyone to beat Hayden in that form.

 

So all in all, 8 competitors in 11 categories won 8 British Titles, 2 Silvers and 1 Bronze. What an amazing team we have. Well done everyone.

 

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DONCASTER SPORTS AWARDS 2012

On Friday 11^th May Team ACMAC attended the Doncaster Free Press & Keepmoat Stadium Doncaster Sports Awards 2012. John Colley nominated us through the Free Press and we were in the final 4 nominees for the Team of the Year Award.

 

There was a Awards Night held at the Keepmoat that included a 2 Course Meal. I opened the invite to all ACMAC members to attend and we ended up filling a table of 11. there was myself, Lucy, Kev Miller, Craig Oxley, Hayden Lindley, Natalie Loy, Kelly, Martin & Cieran Ashbridge, David Colley and his Girlfriend Hayley around the table.

 

Also nominated were Joe Sutherland who was up for Junior Personality of the Year. Unfortunately Joe didn’t win and the winner wasn’t a World Champion so it’s a shame that Suneil wasn’t nominated as I sure he would have walked the Junior award with 2 World Titles. We will know more about it next year, it was a very last minute thing when John said he had nominated us.

 

Well we had a nice meal followed by probably the worst awards host in history. We sat through all the awards and watched some fantastic people and teams win awards including Sarah Stevenson (Tae Kwon Do Olympic Medallist) & Mickey Walker (Doncaster Rovers Legend).

 

Anyway onto our Award. We was nominated along with Armthorpe Rovers, Doncaster Belles & Doncaster Athletics Club. When we heard the accolades of the other teams including Doncaster Belles who hadnt lost in 2 years we were so proud just to be in the category especially with such mainstream sports.

 

The host read through a description of each team and then the award was announced. And the winner of the Doncaster Amateur Sports Team of the Year 2012 is…………………….. TEAM ACMAC!!!

 

What an amazing feeling it was when it was announced ALL the table stormed the stage and we posed with the beautiful Glass Trophy. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our success and I promise it is only the beginning for Team ACMAC as we continue to improve and build the team by bringing in top coaches to work with the guys across all Disciplines that we compete in.

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ANDY CRITTENDEN 6TH DAN

On Saturday 5^th May it was one of the biggest days of my life. It was the 25^th Anniversary of me starting training in the Martial Arts. Who knew that a Tae Kwon Do lesson in 1987 at Town Fields First School would change my life completely.

 

As it was a special day, I decided to make it even more special by attempting my 6^th Dan! Now for those of you that don’t know 5^th Dan is your final physical grading and 6^th Dan onwards is considered Honourary for Time served. Now I decided to do something for my award so I planned a 3 hour performance of the Multi Skilled Martial Arts system in front of my Students, Black Belts & Instructors.

 

I invited all my Black Belts to take part and all my Students to spectate. I was overwhelmed that ¾ of my Dan Grades took time out to take part in the special day. I was also honoured as Instructors from all over the Country came to support me.

 

There was over 40 Black Belts present including Dave Turton 9^th Dan (who was the official examiner), Kim Stones 7^th Dan (who I started with 25 years ago), Terry Johnston 7^th Dan (WTKA GB Director), my old friend Scott Hinds (who made the trip from London), plus Rick Burns (Newcastle), Colin Beddow (Northumberland) & Chris Jones (Knaresborough) all of whom I have graded to their 4^th Dans and are great friends. Also present were Stuart Wade & Andy Taylor who are nationally respected Black Belt Martial Artists. There was also a very important person there at the front: My Dad who has supported me since day 1 and continues to do so now.

 

As for the ACMAC Dan Grades who took part I was proud to have the following students on the mat with me:

5^th Degree Black Belt: Audrey Parker

4^th Degree Black Belts: Kev Miller & Jessica Corish

3^rd Degree Black Belts: Hayden Lindley, David Colley & Craig Ford

2^nd Degree Black Belts: Lucy Shaw, Jordan Rowe, Victoria Rowe, Liam Wilkinson, Terry Fox, Natalie Loy, Keith Whitton & Suneil Singh

1^st Degree Black Belts: Ebony Richardson, Luke Cullen, Beckie Shaw, Bryn Simpson, Jon Glarvey, Kelly Ashbridge, Cieran Ashbridge, David Kiggin, Tia Rowe, Jack Malone, Owen Taylor & Callum Taylor.

 

All of these plus Tiffiny Richardson who had a special invite to Demo with me all got on the mats at somepoint.

My Grading lasted 3 hours, here are some of the things I did:

• I performed aspects of 20 Different Styles, some more indepth than others dependant of skill level for that style.
• I Sparred in 6 different Disciplnes ( 1 for each stripe on my belt, against the best at that particular discipline, including World Champions, World Medallists & Brtish Champions)
• I perfomed Tae Kwon Do, Kick Boxing, SDF Modern Street Combat, Eskrima, Catch Wrestling, Ju-Jitsu, Serrada, and so much more
• I used Kamas, Sticks, Nunchaku, Sport Sword and other Weapons
• I performed the Kids Advanced Forms with my Step Daughters Ebony & Tiffiny
• I had 7 members of my Family on the Mats with me and my Dad watching (and im sure my Mum was watching over me too)
• I performed a multiple Wood Breaking demonstration with 4 techniques in succession

 

As I was wanting to perform my different styles in the correct kit I had to keep getting changed so Mr Burns & Mr Jones both did awesome demos to keep the crowd going.

 

At half time we were treated to a Demo by Kady & Grace from Sheffield Dragons Team Elite Demo Team and ACMAC Demo Team which included Tiffiny Richardson, Shaun Bell, Tia Rowe & Owen Taylor.

 

After the Half Time Demos I took the opportunity to present my two Main Instructors & Mentors Dave Turton & Kim Stones with a Glass Award as I would not be where I am with out them.

 

The entire day will live on through video and photographs as Chris Jones, Alastair Bell & Andy Taylor where on hand throughout the day, which I really appreciate.

 

After the final section I went to get changed into my presentation suit and came back to a round applause that brought a tear to my eye which was then followed by my Certificate being presented by Master Dave Turton and me being officlally upgraded to 6^th Dan. Then followed some speaches and more presentations then I was able to put my Belt on with the 6^th Stripe on it for photos.

 

I had photos with all Black Belts, with my Family, with Master Stones & Master Turton with their awards and more,

 

I was overwhelmed with the support I got. Mr Beddow gave me a Hand Crafted Tanto Knife, Mr & Mrs Burns gave me a huge card signed by BSBB students, a Samurai Sword letter opener, bottle of champagne & beer money, Lucy & the Girls gave me an engraved Tankard which I will tresure for ever, Jess baked me a Cake and all ACMAC Students signed a Card for me it meant so much.

 

Also I had so much support on facebook. Before the event I had 137 Good luck messages (Statuses, Wall Posts, Comments & Likes) and after wards I had 180 Congratulations at the time of writing.

 

Afterwards we went to the Maple Tree for food and drinks, thanks to Kelly all the effort she put into that side of things and then we went into town a celebrated (and numbed my pain)

 

Special thanks go to: Dave Turton for grading me, Kim Stones for coming and sitting at the front. Scott, Rick & Carolyn, Colin & Chris for making the journey, All the Black Belts for taking part and making it the success it was. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you guys, you’re the best Black Belts I could have ever wished for. Special thanks to everyone for who had an individual part especially Liam who was my main training partner for the day. Thanks to all the Students and Parents who came and watched, the Girls from Team Elite and of course Terry Johnston, Alastair, Chris & Andy for the Photos & Filming, and my family who were there on the mat with me, I really appreciate Vic, Beckie & Ebony getting on the Mat after not training for a while (Vic hasn’t trained for around 5 years). Special thanks to my Dad for being there he has supported me all the way and most of all Lucy for putting up with me and always being there for me in every aspect of my life im a very lucky man.

 

I would also like to thank everyone who has trained me over the years and given me the knowledge to be able to put on the performance I did especially Dave Irwin & Neil Wain who I train with every week and all the students over the years at ACMAC and KSTA. The last 25 years have been amazing and im looking forward to another 25 years at least in this wonderful Industry.

 

I now look forward to new challenges towards my 7^th Dan, I already have some plans in the pipeline including certifying under Billy Robinson (Catch as Catch Can) & Terry Brown (English Martial Arts) this year and going back to my Sparring routes by training with Point Fighting master Drew Neal as well as bringing Danny J Hoskins to the UK later in the year to learn Native American Warrior Arts & Glima Viking Arts.

 

Finally I am so humbled by the overwhelming support and can not thank everyone enough who made my 6^th Degree Black Belt & 25^th Anniversary one of the best days of my life.

Read Master Turtons report here http://www.asmaa.org.uk/news.php

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2 top ACMAC members achieved accolades at the end of April/beginning of May.

 

On Monday 30^th April David Colley finally became an Official ACMAC Black Belt through the ASMAA Freestyle System. David came to us a few years ago and has become such a big part of ACMAC. We can now offically recognise him as a 3^rd Dan.

 

On Wednesday 2^nd May Terry Fox became an Official ACMAC Instructor. Terry has been teaching for a long time but finally I convinced him to make it offical and he did both a Teaching test & Theoretical Diploma. Im very proud to have Terry as an Offical Instructor.

 

Both Awards were well over due. Well done guys, im proud to have Students like you and glad you are role models for the rest of the students.

 

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2 NEW ACMAC ACADEMIES OPENING IN MAY

I am really excited to announce the opening of 2 new ACMAC Academies in Carcroft & Mexborough. We have found 2 fantastic venues and will be starting next month. These Schools will be run by Mr Lindley (Carcroft) & Miss Loy (Mexborough).

Classes and Grad Opening Details

CARCROFT

WEDNESDAY 16^TH MAY AT 5PM

(THEN CLASS EVERY WEEK)

BULLCROFT MEMORIAL HALL, CHESTNUT AVENUE

 

MEXBOROUGH

THURSDAY 17^TH MAY AT 5PM

(THEN CLASS EVERY WEEK)

MEXBOROUGH COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP, DOLCLIFFE ROAD

Good luck and i hope these schools become great successes

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HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Senior Instructor Instructor Mrs Audrey Parker on being appointed England Team Manager for Tae Kwon Do for WTKA England. Credit where credit is due for Mrs P. We are all very pleased for her, its a great opportunity for her and opens doors for all our members.

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ACMAC Chief Instructor Craig Oxley raised over £500 for Help for Heroes by Climbing Mount Kilamanjaro, what an amazing achievement.

 

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Team ACMAC had an amazing day at North of England Championships bringing back an amazing 40 medals (18 Golds, 11 Silvers & 11 Bronze)

Well done to everyone, here are the medals list

Gold

Owen Taylor (Forms & Swords)

Natalie Loy (Points & Continuous)

Tia Rowe (Continuous & Swords)

Hayden Lindley (Points)

Lucy Shaw (Points)

Holly Winder (Continuous)

Aidan Hughes (Points)

Shea Hughes (Continuous)

David Colley (Continuous)

Suneil Singh (Points)

Jess Corish (Forms)

Jarrod Allsopp (Points)

Liam Wilkinson (Points)

Bradley Mason (Continuous)

Cieran Ashbridge (Points)

 

Silver

Tia Rowe (Forms & Points)

Lucy Shaw (Continuous)

Jess Corish (Points)

Suneil Singh (Continuous)

Kelly Ashbridge (Points)

Aidan Hughes (Continuous)

Shaun Bell (Swords)

Callum Taylor (Points)

Luke Cullen (Points)

Holly Winder (Points)

 

Bronze

Tiffiny Richardson (Forms & Swords)

Joe Sutherland (Points & Forms)

Jayden Bogan (Points)

Kelly Ashbridge (Continuous)

Shea Hughes (Points)

David Colley (Points)

Beth Levick (Weapons)

Bradley Mason (Points)

Jordan Brown (Points)

 

Also great performances by:

 

Jordan Rowe

Alastair Bell

Russ Colley

Kieron Stuart

Sam Webster

Dylan Satchwell

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In February our members attended both the WKC & WAKO British Championships. These are the top two Tournaments in the country and act as qualifiers for their World Championships.

 

The WAKO’s was held in Birmingham and WKC in Manchester.

 

Our elite members who went to the World Championships showed their class at the highest level and we also had 3 youngsters Aidan & Shea Hughes and Joe Sutherland take part too. All 3 grew as Competitors over the month, Joe came away with a Gold at WKC Forms and Aidan a Bronze at the WKC Continuous.

 

Out of the 7 that went to Spain 5 went to these events. Hayden entered both Points Tournaments and was unlucky at the WKC’s not to get a Medal and at WAKO fought one of the best pound for pound Points Fighters in the World Jacey “2fast4u” Cashman. Fighting Jacey was great experience for Mr Lindley.

 

Nat Loy fought at WKC Continuous and won a Bronze Medal, Holly Winder also went to the WKC Continuous and came away with a Gold against last years World Champion which is a great achievement after moving up an age category.

 

Jess Corish added another Gold to the teams list with a dominating performance in the Korean Patterns and David Colley made it a 3^rd Gold with an awesome display of speed and power on route to winning the WKC British Title in the Heavyweight Division. He also added a Bronze at the WAKO’s to cap off a great month, I predict a World Title for David in Canada this year for David.

 

Well done everyone.

 

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The first newsworthy event of 2012 was January’s Super Saturday. 1 Saturday a month we run various events throughout the day. Starting with Kids and Adult Seminars then Instructor Boot Camps finished with either a Kids Sparring Seminar or an In House Competition. This time it was an In House Competition which we called Spar Wars. It was a Point Sparring event split into 5 categories: 7-9’s, 10-12’s, 13-15’s, Women & Men.

 

We had 32 students take part and loads more spectator. It was a great atmosphere at ACMAC HQ and we not only had Balby students but students from Conisbrough, Bentley & Dunscroft too.

 

There was some really good fights and showed the future of the competition team is looking very bright. The England Team members were helping me run the event as they were “banned” from taking part to give others chance to shine.

 

Every body fought at least twice and everyone gave 100%. The finals were particularly entertaining. I was a really nice day to kick off 2012.

 

The winners were:

7-9 year olds – Russ Colley

10-12 year olds – Tia Rowe

13-15 year olds – Bradley Mason

Women – Jess Corish

Men – Liam Wilkinson

 

Well done to all competitors: Tiffiny Richardson, Shea Hughes, Joe Sutherland, Jayden Bogan, Kieron Stuart, Taylor Scholey, Aidan Poppy, Kaitlin Dale, Tegan Doran, Dylan Satchwell, Owen Miller, Kyle McDonald, Gabriel Chadwick, Thomas Gale, Callum Taylor, Thomas Andrew, Owen Taylor, Shaun Bell, Aidan Hughes, Jarrod Allsopp, Mitchell Whitfield, Kyle Reed, Ellie Saxton, Mick Woodhall, Paul Doran, Sam Webster, Stefan Johnson, Jon Glarvey & Jordan Brown.

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ACMAC Bawtry opened in January, initilly with Stuart Wade at the helm before Jordan Rowe & David Colley took over. Its our 7th School and our return to Bawtry, i wish David and Jordan all the success that they deserve.

 

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A MASSIVE WELL DONE TO OUR NEW BLACK BELTS!!

4th Degree's

Kev Miller, Jess Corish & Stuart Wade

2nd Degree's

Lucy Shaw, Jordan Rowe, Liam Wilkinson & Sebastian Walker

1st Degree's

Ebony Richardson, Tia Rowe, Callum Taylor, Kalvin Alcock, Owen Taylor, Kelly Ashbridge, Jane Johnson & David Kiggin

A BLACK BELT IS A WHITE BELT THAT NEVER GAVE UP!!

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ACMAC is opening up our 7th School in Bawtry in January 2012 as we welcome World Champion Stuart Wade 4th Danto our Instructor Team

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Congratulations to Team ACMAC’s England Squad on a fantastic week at the WKC World Championships in Spain

 

WORLD CHAMPION

Suneil Singh (Points & Continuous)

 

WORLD TEAM CHAMPION

Holly Winder

 

SILVER MEDALS

Jess Corish

Kev Miller

David Colley

 

BRONZE MEDALS

Nat Loy

Holly Winder

 

ALSO BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO

Hayden Lindley

 

This in an amazing achievement and only the beginning for Competitions at this level

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I would like to wish the 7 Team ACMAC members who will be representing their Country at this years WKC World Championships in Cadiz (Spain) the best of luck everyone at our Schools are behind you 100%.

CONTINUOUS

Kev Miller

Natalie Loy

Holly Winder

Suneil Singh

POINTS

Suneil Singh

David Colley

Hayden Lindley

PATTERNS

Jessica Corish

BRING BACK THE GOLD!!!

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NEW DAN GRADES

Well done to Dan Grades

2nd Dan

Hayden Lindley (Kick Boxing)

Darrell Frizzell (Tae Kwon Do)

1st Dan

Jack Malone (MSMA)

Beth Levick (MSMA)

You guys did fantastic especially with the heat, i am so proud of you all

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BILLY ROBINSON COMES TO THE UK

I am proud to announce that I am organising a UK/European seminar tour with the legendary Billy Robinson. This is a dream come true for me and I need all the support I can get to get Billy around the UK and Europe on seminars. This is a one off visit so don’t miss out. Please use google, wikipedia and youtube to find out about this great man. Anyone interested in Grappling, Wrestling or MMA if your gonna do 1 seminar this year make sure it is with Billy.

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On Thursday 16^th June I tested for my Red Shirt in Dave Irwin’s Blend of Eskrima along with Joe Leaper. I train privately with Dave at his home in Heminbrough near Selby and me and Joe are Dave’s last 2 students in his “Blend” before focusing solely on Balintawak. Red is 2 grades from Black. It was a hard grading, Dave’s blend consist of Cabales Serrada, Doce Pares, Warrior System, Inosanto/LaCoste system and original Eskrima he learnt from Paul Deans over 30 years ago.

 

Myself and Joe passed the 3 hour grading which consisted of Punio Sumbrada with all 14 variables, Amaras 1-10 right hand, left hand and double stick,  Pick up the Punch (7 variations), Hubud Stick and Empty Hand, Lock Flows then on the Serrada section numbering system,  3 defences against 12 strikes, Lock & Block and Flow Spar.

 

I thoroughly enjoy training with Dave and will continue to dedicate myself towards achieving my Black.

 

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On Sunday 5^th June Team ACMAC went to York for the first ever Multi Style Championships hosted by my good friend Craig Long. It was a charity tournament to raise money for The William Rhodes Appeal.

 

It was a great day for Team ACMAC winning 11 Golds, 14 Silvers & 3 Bronze Medals. Here are our results.

 

Gold

Ebony Richardson (Swords), Suneil Singh (Points), Kev Miller (Continuous), Nat Loy (Continuous), Hayden Lindley (Points), Sonia Smith (Continuous), Mel Doran (Points), Jarrod Allsopp (Swords), Jess Corish (Patterns) & Stuart Wade (Patterns & Continuous)

 

Silver

Lucy Shaw (Continuous), Paul Doran (Points), David Colley (Points), Stefan Johnson (Continuous), Holly Winder (Continuous), Owen Taylor (Swords & Forms), Andy Crittenden (Self Defence), Audrey Parker (Patterns), Shaun Bell (Swords), Kelly Ashbridge (Points), Jess Corish (Points), Liam Wilkinson (Points) & Cieran Ashbridge (Points)

 

Bronze

Shaun Bell (Points), Thomas Lee (Points) & Kelly Ashbridge (Continuous)

 

Well done to Tiffiny Richardson who was unlucky in the Points & Alastair Bell who fought great in the Sport Sword but didn’t get a medal.

 

It was one of the best team performances and some amazing individual performances by the usual subjects and by some of the less experienced competitors. Also was great to have Stuart Wade with us and always nice to see BSBB, East Meets West and York Martial Arts Students who are like extended members of the team and great friends even when we compete against each other. It was an amazing medal haul and 5 of our silver medallists were beaten by fellow Team ACMAC members in the final. Our team goes from strength to strength.

 

The following week 6 of the Team ACMAC Members who have qualified for the world championships went to the WKC British Championships in Manchester. It was the first British Championships the WKC had put on and many international fighters travelled to the George Carnell Centre.

 

The amazing results continued with all 6 competitors bringing home a Gold or Silver Medal.

 

British Championships went to:

Suneil Singh (Points & Continuous)

Kev Miller (Continuous)

Hayden Lindley (Points)

Jess Corish (Patterns)

 

Silver Medals went to:

Nat Loy (Continuous)

Holly Winder (Continuous)

 

It really is a fantastic team at all levels and the top guys are really on form, they make me so proud on every competition and just get better and better.

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ACMAC Performance Night was an amazing event in May, please check out the highlight video from the event. The DVD is available from recpetion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZpZnn4mHfY

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On Monday 2^nd May ACMAC was honoured to host an absolute legend of the Martial Arts world on seminar at ACMAC. Bill “Superfoot” Wallace was not only one of the greatest Kick Boxers that ever lived but also a pioneer of the Sport in the 1970’s. He is also a 10^th Dan Black Belt in Karate and taught Elvis Presley. Wallace was undefeated in Kick Boxing defending his World Middleweight Title 23 times and was also undefeated in Professional Boxing.

 

Bill does seminars all over the world and came to the UK for a full tour which included London, Kent, Plymouth, Swansea, Coventry, Barnsley, Huddersfield and of course ACMAC. Out of all his seminars on the tour Bill said our’s had a great atmosphere and it was also the busiest.

 

The seminar showed the strength of the Revolution Network as I didn’t have to advertise the seminar at all and we sold 55 places on the seminar even though it was a Bank Holiday. We had students from The Burns School of Black Belts, East Meets West, Warrior Martial Arts, White Tiger Kick Boxing & Dragon Freestyle plus Paul Oxtoby who was like a kid in a sweet shop getting kicked about by his hero and 19 students from ACMAC including most of the Instructor Team.

 

Bill was on form with his techniques and with his humour he is a very funny guy and made the time fly by. He then had time for everyone and had photo’s and signed autographs. He is a treasure to the Martial Arts industry and it was one of the best seminars we have ever hosted, I hope to have Superfoot back in October. Afterwards I took him to Frankie & Bennys and spoke at length with him about his career and really got to see what a great guy he is.

 

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Sunday 17^th April was the date for the first ever All Styles Martial Arts Association National Seminar which I was honoured to teach on with Karl Blackwell, Paul Oxtoby & ASMAA Head Dave Turton.

 

Paul taught first and his topic was street kicking, next up was Karl who did his superb form of SDF followed by me, I taught a mix of Street & Sport Grappling and finally was the Master himself Dave Turton teaching Stick & Yawara.

 

It was a a great day and people travelled from all over England: Newcastle, Liverpool, Hastings,  Sunderland, Bradford, Ipswich and more as well as Wales and Scotland too, as well as ACMAC/Doncaster SDF Guys Stefan Johnson, Bryn Simpson, Steve Lawley, Russ Yellott, Thomas Lee, Carl Spilman & Dave Wortley. It was an honour to teach on the seminar. I would like to thank Dave for the opportunity.

Have a look at the highlight video from the event

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voNlwSnbZoI&feature=share

 

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On Sunday 10^th April Balby Carr Sports College in Doncaster played host to the Revolution Martial Arts Network North of England Championships 2011. It was the Tournaments 6^th year and it has seen a steady growth leading towards the Network’s biggest event to date.

 

Balby Carr was packed out with Competitors and Spectators from 26 clubs all around the North of England and the Midlands.

 

The event featured Point Sparring, Light Continuous, Traditional, Freestyle and Weapons Forms as well as the new and exciting “Sport Sword”

 

The event had 3 areas running constantly thanks to the great Officials & Referee’s that we are lucky enough to have. There was some great performances including York’s Jay Spain who came away with 3 Gold Medals and NEST TKD’s Nathan Wild who won both Points & Continuous Golds having to win a total of 10 fights at the young age of. There was lots of great team performances with the Burns School of Black Belts winning the most Gold Medals with a total of 10 and Andy Crittenden’s Martial Arts Centre winning the most medals in total with 25 including 9 Gold’s.

 

The event was a great success with a very high standard throughout, I would like to thank everyone who supported the day and made it a success. Here are Team ACMAC’s impressive medal tally:

 

1^st Place

Holly Winder – Points & Continuous

Natalie Loy – Continuous

Hayden Lindley – Points

Kev Miller – Continuous

David Colley - Points

Tiffiny Richardson – Points

Tia Rowe - Continuous

Melanie Doran – Points

 

2^nd Place

Suneil Singh – Points & Swords

Owen Taylor – Forms & Swords

David Colley – Points

Sam Burton – Points

Lucy Shaw – Continuous

Paul Doran – Points

Callum Taylor – Points

Tia Rowe - Swords

 

3^rd Place

Hayden Lindley – Continuous

Tegan Doran – Swords

Audrey Parker – Patterns

Sonia Smith – Continuous

Shaun Bell – Swords

Bradley Mason – Points

 

This was by far the Tournaments biggest ever event and Team ACMAC showed its strength in depth by coming away with so many medals against such a high calibre of opposition.

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We had a great tournament day again, 11 trophies from 11 people, the team is getting better and better, here's our results

IAKSA ENGLISH OPEN 2011
NOTTINGHAM
SUNDAY 20TH MARCH

1st Place
Holly Winder – Points & Continuous
Suneil Singh – Points & Continuous
Natalie Loy – Continuous
Hayden Lindley – Points
Jarrod Allsopp – Points
Melanie Doran – Points

2nd Place
Shaun Bell – Points

3rd Place
Paul Doran – Points

Ellie Saxton - Continuous

Well done to Lucy Shaw and Tia Rowe who did amazing and were very unlucky not to have come home with any silverware

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I am extremely proud of our Elite Team ACMAC Members who have qualified for 13 divisions in the WTKA & WKC World Championships. This is the highest rate of tournament success i have ever had in all the years i have been teaching, i wish all the students good luck at the respective World Championships.

Here are the results:

WTKA ENGLISH OPEN 2011

COALVILLE, LEICESTERSHIRE

SUNDAY 23^RD JANUARY

1^st Place & English Champion

Holly Winder – Continuous

2^nd Place

Kev Miller – Continuous

Natalie Loy – Continuous

Jessica Corish – Patterns

3^rd Place

Holly Winder – Points

Hayden Lindley – Points

 

WKC ENGLISH OPEN 2011

URMSTON, MANCHESTER

SUNDAY 13^TH FEBRUARY

1^st Place & English Champion

Holly Winder – Continuous

Kev Miller – Continuous

Suneil Singh – Continuous

2^nd Place

Natalie Loy – Continuous

Holly Winder – Points

David Colley - Points

3^rd Place

Suneil Singh – Points

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ACMAC Dunscroft & Rossington are expanding our classes!

After the success of these 2 schools we will be adding an extra night in each area.

Rossington will be running a Kids class at 5pm on a Friday starting next Friday 4th February, additional adult classes are in the pipeline. Same venue as Monday Nights (Memorial Hall)

Dunscroft will now become Dunscroft/Dunsville as we will be running a Thursday evening class at Dunsville Primary School, 5.30pm Kids MSMA, 6.30pm Adults Kick Boxing. This class will start Thursday 3rd March.

Thank you to everyone for supporting these schools especially the fantastic Instructor's Lucy Shaw and Jessica Corish

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I am proud to announce the opening of our 5^th Martial Arts School in Doncaster: ACMAC Rossington Academy to be headed by ACMAC General Manager and Instructor Lucy Shaw.

Classes start Monday 24^th January. Contact 01302 858335 for a free trial or come along to the Open Day at Rossington Memorial Hall 6pm (Kids) or 7pm (Adults)

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Congratulations to all that tested for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Dan Black Belts in December.

Here are the full results:

Kev Miller - 3rd Dan Black Belt in Kick Boxing

Natalie Loy - 2nd Dan Black Belt in Kick Boxing

Sarah Melvin - 2nd Dan Black Belt in Kick Boxing

Suneil Singh - 2nd Dan Black Belt in Multi Skilled Martial Arts

Charlotte Walker - 2nd Dan Black Belt in Multi Skilled Martial Arts

Terry Fox - 1st Dan Black Belt in Multi Skilled Martial Arts

Cieran Ashbridge - 1st Dan Black Belt in Multi Skilled Martial Arts

Jessica Corish - 1st Dan Black Belt in Kick Boxing

Bryn Simpson - 1st Dan Black Belt in Kick Boxing

John Batey - 1st Dan Black Belt in Kick Boxing

Beth Jackson - 1st Dan Black Belt in Kick Boxing

Paul Holmes - 1st Dan Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do

Also congratulations to all those who graded for coloured belts on the Wednesday and Thursday and taking the next step on the ladder to Black Belt.

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During our Graduation we presented our Yearly Awards. We have had a fantastic year and the people who won the awards truly earned them. All awards apart from 2 were chosen by the Instructor's, each instrucor naominated then Mr C and Mrs P looked through and picked the winner. The awards were quite clean cut and decisions were based on the most nominations.

The 2010 Awards went:

Dave & Marion Crittenden - The Andy Crittenden Award

Audrey Parker - Instructor of the Year

Darrell Frizzell - Black Belt of the Year

David Colley - Competitor of the Year

Terry Fox - Senior Male Student of the Year

Lucy Shaw - Senior Female Student of the Year

Bradley Mason - Junior Male Student of the Year

Olivia Powell - Junior Female Student of the Year

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Black Belt Pre-Test is always a fun day, well for me anyway especially when you have 12 candidates. It’s a very important test as it gives me opportunity to see if the students are ready for their Black Belt Grading by pushing them to the limits.

We went through lots of Fitness, Sparring and Syllabus in order to see how far the students had progressed on their Cycle. After Pre-Test is when the training gets even harder and more intense. I really hope to graduate 12 successful candidates in December.

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On Sunday 21^st November we ran our first ever Annual Photo Shoot with Alastair Bell. Alastair took group photo’s and the Students had the opportunity to have their own personal mini photo shoot.

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On Tuesday 23^rd November I had the privilege of teaching a Sport Sword Seminar at Neil Hall’s Allegiance Martial Arts in Dewsbury. I have known Neil along time and is a 5^th Dan under Dave Turton also he is one of the UK’s most respected MMA Coaches and Referee’s. His gym is split in half, 1 for MMA and the other for general Martial Arts classes. He has a great set up. I taught Sport Sword as it is something they are looking to add to their Junior Classes. I took Terry, Suneil & Tiffiny with me to help out and although their wasn’t many children present the ones that were there did great and put a lot of effort in and really seemed to enjoy themselves.

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On Thursday 25^th November Lucy Shaw and Josh Rollinson completed their SDF Diploma’s in Ladies Self Defence. It was a pleasure to work with these 2.

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We have been very lucky to hold some fantastic seminars in 2010 with the likes of Royce Gracie, Dave Turton, Johnny Huskey, Kim Stones, Dave Irwin, Phil Glover, Marcelo Brigadeiro, Pat O’Malley and more. We finished off with two world class seminars in 1 weekend.

First up was former World Professional Boxing Champion Stevie Smith who had returned for his second seminar at ACMAC.

Stevie brought along his top fighter Tommy Coyle who is 6-0 as a Professional and they took us through a Master class of Boxing. We worked a lot of defence work, foot work, combinations, counters and Stevie showed us how to generate maximum power from our punches.

Stevie is a great Instructor and a nice guy, he is well worth training and is absolute value for money. We will be having him on seminar again next year, make sure you don’t miss out on such high level tuition.

Thank you to all ACMAC Students who took part as well as Chris & Amy Clarke from Spirit and Greg Raper and Crazy Dave from Doncaster Fight Club and thanks to Stevie and Tommy for a great seminar.

The following day we had International Balintawak Arnis Instructor Richard Cotterill teach, this was through my Eskrima Instructor Dave Irwin. People traveled from far and wide to train with one of the UK’s most respected Filipino Martial Arts Instructor’s.

Richard and his assistants delivered a fantastic seminar and everyone went away happy and overwhelmed with knowledge. We look forward to hosting Richard again in the future.

The seminars I have hosted this year has been world class and diverse covering 3 styles of Eskrima (Balintawak, Rapid Arnis & Serrada), 3 styles of Submission Grappling (Catch, BJJ & Luta Livre), 4 Stand Up World or European Champions (Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, Boxing & Lau Gar) plus the SDF Super Seminar and Revolution Sparring & Multi Style Seminars.

I am looking for feedback on what people have attended and enjoyed and if anyone has any requests for 2011.

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Congratulations to David Colley on winning a Bronze Medal at the WKC World Championships in Portugal

This is the first medal any ACMAC member has won at a World Championships

We are all really proud of David and hope next year to have a full ACMAC Team represented at the World Championships

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We were proud to host a seminar in Luta Livre with Marcelo Brigadeiro, this was a fantastic opportunity to train with such a high level Grappler.

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ACMAC Dunscroft opens in November under the instruction of Jessica Corish 3rd Dan, this is our 4th School and we hope it becomes a great success.

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Andy Crittenden’s Martial Arts Centre is proud to announce the opening of 2 brand new ACMAC School’s in the Doncaster Area.

We are expanding from our fantastic Full Time Centre Headquarters on Sandford Road in Balby to Conisbrough and Bentley/Scawthorpe.

With this expansion we will be taking on 2 Full Time Professional Instructor’s, 1 to run classes in each area. The classes in Conisbrough will be taught by Natalie Loy and in Bentley/Scawthorpe the classes will be taught by Hayden Lindley.

I have taught these two since they were children and I am extremely proud to employ them as professional Instructor’s, I know they will do their best to promote ACMAC in their area and we look forward to building the schools up in their area to one day being able to open a Full Time ACMAC in that area with themselves as the Chief Instructor.

As well as duties in their own area they will also work 3 days and 2 evenings at ACMAC HQ in Balby and will continue their development as a Martial Arts Instructors. Students and Competitors.

This is only the start of our expansion and we are looking to train Professional’s to teach ACMAC classes throughout Doncaster in the next few years.

Any ACMAC members who are over the age of 13 years old and Blue Belt and above that wish to join our new Instructor Training Program please see me. The course will start in 2011 and will run for 3-5 years dependant on the individual.

Nothing will change as regards to our HQ in Balby and all students will solely train there, 1 thing you wont be able to do is train in all different venues, our students in Conisbrough and Bentley/Scawthorpe will have opportunity to train at our Balby HQ as well as attending Boot Camps, Seminars and Gradings here.

I would like to thank all ACMAC Students and Staff especially General Manager Lucy Shaw, Senior Instructor Audrey Parker, Head Instructor Kev Miller and Chief Instructor Craig Oxley as well as the head of ASMAA/SDF Dave Turton for their support over the last 8 years. Also my Dad for always supporting me through the good times and bad.

It certainly has been a great time and I look forward to a new chapter in our School’s history starting next month when these schools open.

Yours in Martial Arts

Andy Crittenden

Owner & Master Instructor