Charity Events

The grand total raised at this event was

and with the following gift aid added

The grand total raised for these events were

£800 

Money has been raised at this years Boot camp for the National Deaf Children's Society (Hull and District) www.ndcs.org.uk.

The above amount was kindly raised by club members at the Lord Mayor's Parade

2007

The grand total raised for these events were

£1,816 

Hull Kung Fu held a boot camp (see the boot camp section of the website for more details) in Filey that involved extreme fitness, assault courses, running etc in order to raise as much money as possible for the charity KIDS (http://www.kids-online.org.uk/)

Ricky Robson and Chris Purcell jumped out of a plane to raise money for the Hull and East Riding Blind Institute.

2006

The Hull Kung Fu Club held a charity event on the 22^nd March 2006 to raise money for the Children’s Ward in Hull Royal Infirmary.

The grand total raised for the event was

£1,054

Money was raised by running a fitness, punching, kicking and chi sao event to raise money through sponsorship. Well done to all those that helped out.

Thanks to all that entered in raising money for the local charities

Latest News

Shaolin Warriors Hull City Hall

The internationally acclaimed production The Shaolin Warriors visited Hull as part of their UK tour. This breathtaking theatrical Kung Fu Show vividly depicts the rarely-seen Kung Fu masters feats of agility strength and skill, using Buddhist Meditation and their rigorous martial arts training. The show is an extravaganza, with gorgeous scenery, atmospheric music, beautiful lights, and hundreds of costumes

This is a fully choreographed spectacular that features 22 professionally trained Kung Fu Masters; audiences were amazed and thrilled by their death defying Kung Fu disciplines such as qigong, animal imitation boxing, drunken boxing, and fighting with 18 kinds of dangerous traditional weapons.

Hull Kung Fu members attended the show,

The focus is on building young people’s self-esteem; as Chief Instructor Mike Mitchell explained: “We help them with their confidence, getting rid of social exclusion. We also give them careers in different things like Chinese massage, personal fitness training; careers for life.”

The social exclusion side is an important element. Some of the children have had problems dealing with anger. For many people teaching young people with anger issues a martial art seems to be a strange idea. Mike Mitchell said that Kung Fu is just part of the approach: “Martial Arts is not just about the fighting side. We also do something called Neuro-linguistic programming, which is stress relief and anger management training.  We even get called into schools to teach anger management.”

The awards were held at the KC Stadium and recognised outstanding achievements among the young people of Hull and their carers.

The ceremony was hosted by former Blue Peter and Dancing On Ice star Tim Vincent.

Famous faces in attendance included Hull City heroes Phil Brown and Nick Barmby, musician Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals, celebrity hairdresser Mark Hill, and actresses Debra Stephenson and Eleanor Tomlinson.

The evening started with guests walking down a red carpet before sitting down to dinner. The 12 award winners were then announced by Mr Vincent.

Amanda Hartley 19, won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Amanda is a former pupil at Sydney Smith in First Lane, Anlaby, and spent years working in various shops as a Saturday girl. She always dreamed of opening a florist and thanks to a grant from Youth Enterprise she has had her own shop - Amanda's Blue Orchid Florist in Hessle Road, west Hull - for a year.

She said, "I was over the moon to be nominated. It was absolutely nerve-racking on the night. When they read out my name, it was amazing. I was presented with the award by Michelle Dewberry, who has always been an inspiration to me. The shop is hard work and I have not yet drawn a wage, but it is great. I have put the trophy in the shop window".

Amanda said she hoped her award would help inspire others to achieve. She said: "Hopefully, there might be other people who have thought about doing whist I have done, but not got around to doing it. I'm just a normal Hull lass who used to deliver the Mail, worked as a Saturday girl and went to Sydney Smith. I was helped enormously by Youth Enterprise and would like to thank them for their support and advice".

Hull College student Chris Wilson, 17, won Sports Person of the Year award.

Chris suffers from cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. He has represented Yorkshire in wheelchair basketball and also turned his hand to sports such as sledge hockey and wheelchair tennis.

Chris, who wants to go into sports coaching and development, already has his level one coaching badge. He said: "It was a shock to win - I didn't expect it. I didn't even expect to be nominated. I was given the award by Nick Barmby and I saw Phil Brown, too".

Hull Kung Fu club won the Healthy Lifestyle Award.

It was nominated for working to engage with young people and inspire them to change their lives to become healthier, giving them more confidence and making them feel safe. The coaches who dedicate their time to the project tackle a range of health and lifestyle topics and aim to give young people focus and ambition.

Instructor Martin Robson said: "It was fantastic. All credit should go to my instructors - they are the driving force behind the movement and credit should go to all the hard work they put in".

The awards on Friday were organised by Hull City Council in conjunction with Viking FM and were sponsored by various businesses and clubs around the city.

Instructor Sam Busby and assistant instructors Georgina Busby and Chris Edson have completed a 12-week level one British Sign Language course at Hull College.

Sam 18, said: "The course was the first step to learning sign language. Now we can explain moves and hold a conversation with deaf people. We have also received permission from the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) to make up our own signs for Kung Fu words, which as yet do not have signs".

The Hull Kung Fu club was set up more than five years ago at an old school hall in the city with the aim of creating a voluntary club to help people in the area. The club is recognised by the NDCS as a deaf-friendly club and is also registered as a fully inclusive club with Mencap.

Mike Mitchell, 36, who started the club with his wife Odette said: "Although the club is accessible for the disabled and wheelchair users, we wanted to make it even more inclusive by offering the service to deaf people in the area. We have produced instructional videos and some of the moves have been written down. The rest will be taught through sign language. We also hope to teach them some of the Chinese language".

A NDCS spokeswomen said: "We like to recognise good practice and the Hull Kung Fu group seems to make itself accessible to all members of the community".

Leaders og the Hull Kung Fu  and Hull Tai Chi Club are offering the two-year diploma to perform massage, ear candling and hot stone therapy, thanks to funding from the Youth Opportunities Fund. Mike Mitchell, who runs the club with his wife Odette and four volunteers, said: "It's a bad time for young people to get a career, so we wanted to be able to offer this to give them a chance to get a job. We've been running the Chinese medicine training for a while now but, thanks to the funding, we can now offer members a diploma".

Members have also raised more than £3,000 for local charities.

Mike Gooch is 29 years old, he suffers from a rare disorder called Anderson ’s syndrome. Anderson ’s syndrome is a muscle degenerative disorder which has led mike to spend most of his adult life in a wheel chair. He is not able to do things that you and I take for granted and his everyday is a struggle, but mike does not let his condition get in the way of his love of martial arts, particularly kung fu.

DO YOU THIN K THERE IS IGNORANCE AND PREJUDICE TOWARDS PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN THE MARTIAL ARTS?

“I was a bit worried at first when I started, was I going to be able to learn all of this, but once I began to learn the basics I found I could practice at home doing the basic self defence techniques, hull kung fu has helped by creating a specific syllabus for people in wheelchairs where they can defend themselves against attackers. It’s been a great help it now means that people of all abilities can learn together kung fu.”

www.hullkungfu.co.uk or www.hulltaichi.co.uk

“It has given me my confidence back and made me believe in myself again. I now feel anything is possible if only I try, I now feel stronger and I want to push myself physically further, even though I am unable to do all the physical

Aspects I can become mentally stronger in my life because of kung fu. I now have a self assurance that I can defend myself from people who may wish to take advantage of my position.”

East Riding Advertiser

February 23^rd 2006

We’re fighting fit and that’s official

A MARTIAL arts club has become the first in the city to earn official accreditation.

The Hull Shaolin Chuan Fa Kung Fu club, which runs classes at Hull Collegiate School , Anlaby, and Beverley High School , is a member of the East Riding Voluntary Youth Organisation, which helps youngsters use a sport to benefit their future.

The club is also a member of the East Riding Sports Coaching Association and has just achieved Level Three of the East riding Coaches Accreditation Scheme, which ensures that the welfare and safety of young people at the club is a high priority.

Instructor Mike Mitchell said: “We owe a lot of thanks to Sarah Johnson who works for the scheme within the council for helping us out with this”.

“We teach the art to all age groups, which includes fitness, self-defence, confidence building and general toning and flexibility of the body”.

“We have seen some amazing improvements in children that we teach, including dealing with bullying and increases in confidence when dealing with tricky situations”.

The club also runs sister clubs Hull T’ai Chi and Hull Women’s Defence.

All senior instructors in the club are CRB checked and trained in child protection, working with disabled performers, equity and first aid.

Mike added: “As a non-profit  club we aim to build the membership within the club to encourage people with all abilities to join us and achieve their personal goals in life”.

Hull Kung Fu and Hull Women’s Defence club runs at Hull Collegiate School Wednesdays, 7pm to 9:30pm, and Hull T’ai Chi club runs at Beverley High School, Mondays, 7pm to 8pm.

Call 0781 6458977, email info@hullkungfu.co.uk or visit www.hullkungfu.co.uk