Latest UPDATE: 

Given the Governor’s extension of the stay at home order and the presumption that
we will be in Phase II of the restart, it appears we won’t be able to reopen in Mid-May,
perhaps some time in June.  So, it is now critical that all students do at home karate
trainings according to JKA teachings. 

To that end we are establishing Zoom at home trainings for Tuesdays and Thursdays
at 5:30 p.m.  They are going to be on the calendar, along with all relevant information
for attending.  There are also LKA (Louisiana Karate Association) Friday zoom evening
trainings that are now on the calendar.  The calendar can be found at the bottom of our
web page / blog at www.newiberiakarate.com. 

There are a couple of rules, first you need to wear your Gi and you have to put the video and
audio on so that you can be seen by the moderator and other students.  There is also a
Louisiana Karate Association (LKA) Zoom Training every Friday at 5:30 that is now also
on the calendar from Metairie Louisiana.

For those who haven’t used Zoom before it is really easy and if you are using a mobile
device it’s better to install the app.  Before you sign on make sure the camera can see
you by putting the camera on and watching yourself in the image so that you can see
the entire body.

The classes will be as follows:  5:30 - 6:10 (all ranks) 5 minute break advanced belts will
come back to the meeting room for an additional 30 minutes of training.  You won’t need
a lot of room to train in as we will be working on close fighting techniques and footwork. 
I am going to email you the zoom instructions (if I have your email).  Please send me your
emails if I don’t or if you don’t receive it.  The first class will be on Thursday April 30, 2020
at 5:30 pm, so please make sure you have the registration information.

Secondly, please subscribe to the Youtube channel at Karate at Home.  You can even do
it on an apple tv, roku or firestick.  There are many excellent JKA teachers from all over
the world who have contributed classes there, including Sensei Ohta of England and
Dimitri from New Orleans.  

After watching the students train the black belts will be able, hopefully, to evaluate
where the students are and how to progress from there both in virtual trainings, and
perhaps virtual testing.  So with the addition of the zoom and youtube classes, hopefully
we can get back to some kind of a routine soon.  Because I don’t have wifi at the dojo,
I am not sure that I am going to be able to do the meetings from the karate school.  I
will have to experiment a little and I am sure it will NOT go smoothly at first and I may
end up having to do them eventually from home.  

I canceled the dues for May Monday.  I have to cancel each transaction individually,
so if your account accidentally gets debited, please let me know.  This week was
supposed to be our test and I greatly regret that you won’t be able to test at this time. 
I am hopeful that perhaps some students can participate in a virtual test or pretest if
they have kept up their karate.  I am hopeful that the Zoom trainings will expose this
and perhaps get us all back on track.

 OSU,

 Sensei Scott