My Time at Portchester Karate Club

Achieving my Shodan (1st Dan) Black belt - Callum Wright.

Callum (on right) sparring with Jack (Nederland - Groene Hart)

My name is Callum Wright, I am currently 16 years of age and I attend Portchester Karate Club on a regular weekly basis.
When I first started Karate, when I was 12 years of age, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what the people were going to be like who were training around me, what the atmosphere was going to be like and also how I would find my place in the club. However, the people who attend the Portchester Karate Club are very welcoming and friendly; this made it easier for me to settle into the club as soon as I joined. I have now made fantastic friendships by joining the club and have met many people willing to help you along the way through the journey from White Belt to Black Belt.
I started off in the junior session rather than going straight into the adult session, I kept this up until I was 14 years of age and I had reached the milestone of becoming a Purple belt in two years.
Now I am a fully committed member of the club and attend the training sessions on a weekly basis on a Wednesday night and a Friday night. I help out at the junior session as a senpei. It makes me feel good when I know that I am helping the younger children out when they need it and that I can spread the knowledge that I have on karate to other people through teaching them. I have to thank Sensei Merv for letting me attend the junior sessions and helping the younger attendees out.
I am now a 1st Dan Black Belt in karate and I am absolutely honoured and thrilled to have achieved this massive goal and I have exceeded all expectations that I had of myself. I firstly went for my Black belt grading back in June of 2009 for the first time, I was very nervous and made several mistakes in the grading, this unfortunately led to me failing my Dan grade at the time. However in October of 2009 for the second attempt at my Dan grading, I passed and all the nerves, hard work and determination that I had before the grading were turned into delight and thoughts of the next steps in my karate journey.
Karate is not just a place for me to learn about self defence and how to keep fit and healthy in my day-to-day life, but also about getting my emotions out of my system, it is also about releasing all the tension I may have from my body. Karate is a place for me to relax and get away from the stresses of school life and forever thinking about Coursework, Homework or examinations that are coming up.
Portchester Karate Club is not just a club full of members, it is a family unit which works together to make for a friendly but hard working and caring environment. It has giving me an opportunity not just to get away from working and other things such as thinking about exams, but to socialise with others and make great friendships which will last a lifetime.