Welcome to Sangrok’s final newsletter of 2020. What a year 2020 has been for the club. While 2020 has had a lot of challenges for us, we also have a lot to celebrate!
The shutdown earlier in the year was certainly tough and it was a steep learning curve to get our online classes up and running so quickly. Pravin Sir held virtual classes each week, while Tripharn uploaded a number of training and instructional videos. Your support over this time was invaluable. Sangrok is not run to make a profit; Our Sangrok team are all volunteers and any profits go back into the club. Without your support, we couldn’t have continued to offer training in 2020.
We have held a number of workshops this year, including senior belt and self-defence workshops, and we plan to offer even more in 2021.
In May we had our first (and hopefully last) online grading with a number of students submitting grading videos. Since then we have held 2 more club gradings with another to come in December. In July a number of students were promoted to cho dan bo black belt and 6 students received their 1st dan black belt in October.
Despite the challenges of 2020, Sangrok has continued to be a community-focused club, supporting the Pink Belt Project and other community initiatives.
We have welcomed new students throughout the year and even started a new class on Thursday evenings.
We hope all our students and their families have a happy and safe summer break! We look forward to training with you again in 2021 and hope that it’s a whole lot more boring than 2020!
Summer grading
Sangrok will be holding our last grading for the year on 12 December. Invitations for grading were sent out in late November. If you were expecting an invitation and didn’t receive one, please chat to your instructor or email info@sangrok.net.au. Good luck to all those who are grading!
If you are grading, make sure you register for grading prior to 6 December!
Summer shutdown and training dates
Each year Sangrok takes a 2-week break over the Christmas and New Year period. Our last training sessions for 2020 will be on Saturday 19 December. Classes will start back as usual from Monday 4 January.
Please note, as per our membership policy, fees are calculated based on yearly training costs, then divided over 26 fortnightly payments. This means that student fees are still payable over the 2-week shutdown period in December/January.
T-shirt weather
You know what they say… Sun’s out, guns out! After a slow start to summer, it has finally started to warm up! During the Summer months (December, January, February) students are permitted to wear t-shirts to training.
Students should wear a Sangrok tshirt, available from our online store*, or a plain navy or white tshirt. Please no singlets.
Please note that full dobok must be worn for gradings and other formal events.
* Online store coming soon!
Insurance fees
Our yearly insurance and Australian Taekwondo membership payments are due. To reduce the financial impact on our students we have capped the cost at $30 per student with the remainder of the fee being covered by Sangrok. Insurance and AT membership will be charged to accounts in late January or early February, depending on when your membership payment is due. Please speak to your instructor if you have any concerns or would like to split your insurance fees up over a number of payments.
Training in hot weather
As we come into summer, please remember to bring a drink bottle to each class and make sure you have had enough to drink during the day!
Thursday class
Our new Thursday class has been a success! You can book this class via the Clubworx portal.
Reminder to cancel classes if you can’t attend
This is a gentle reminder to cancel classes via the Clubworx portal if you can’t attend them. Recently we have had a number of classes that are fully booked with students on the waiting list, and yet only 5-8 students have shown up for the class. We are sending emails the day before classes to remind people to confirm or cancel their booking so please try to cancel in advance if you can’t make it. We realise that it can be frustrating having to log in to cancel your booking, however, it means that other people may be able to train in your place. If you need help cancelling, please email info@sangrok.net.au.
Stocktake
If you have borrowed equipment from Sangrok this year (mats, kicking paddles or pads, step/bench, foam roller, boards etc), please return it prior to 19 December so that we can conduct our yearly stocktake.
If you would like equipment to train at home please have a look at the SMAI website. We can order on your behalf and pass our substantial club discount on to you.
From 2021 we will be making changes to the way we lend equipment to ensure that we have enough equipment for our classes and so that we can keep track of equipment location.
Social media
Please follow us on social media and share our pages with your friends and family!
Facebook
Instagram
We also have a private Sangrok Students Facebook group so you can keep up with all the latest news, share photos and chat with other members.