Red Tiger Karate - A message for students from classes Bramhall, Wythenshawe, Dukinfield, Wilmslow, Altrincham, Timperley and Denton

Dear Parent/Student

After over 3 years of volunteer instructing, marketing, website maintaining and tournament refereeing for Red Tiger Karate, I have taken the difficult decision to part company with the club due to breakdown in relations with the club management.

The direction in which the club is going in terms of ethics, conduct and size does not reflect my own views on karate and student development.

After careful consideration and many conversations with parents and students I have decided to continue teaching under the national supporting body Cobra Martial Arts Association. Red Tiger Karate are former members of this association. Myself and a few other former Red Tiger Karate instructors will now operate under the new name of Cobra Karate

Cobra Martial Arts Association has several thousand members and affiliates throughout the UK. Their aim is to bring Martial Arts together in a fair and open manner. Clubs are invited to join to offer students reassurance of standards and quality instruction.

Cobra Martial Arts are affiliated to the Martial Arts Standards Agency – a non-profit making organisation whose objective is to encourage nationally recognised standards in all martial arts clubs and associations to help facility providers, insurers, prospective students and parents find a professional, well administered, safe and caring environment in which people of varying needs can train.

Despite what you may have been informed by Red Tiger Karate, the classes I conducted are running as normal and it is my intention to continue to run karate classes at my usual venues where I have hire agreements. Any student who wishes to continue to train under my instruction is more than welcome to do so. This does mean that your Red Tiger Karate insurance automatically expires however I have re-insured with Cobra Martial Arts and arranged individual member insurance for all my existing students. If you wish to continue training I would kindly ask that you complete a Cobra Martial Arts license application form and return it to me with your existing Red Tiger Karate licence book and you will be issued with a new Cobra Martial Arts license book and badge.

The badge is not compulsory – you can choose to wear this in place of your Red Tiger Karate badge or on the left sleeve of your Gi, or not at all.

Should you wish to continue training with Red Tiger Karate, I respect your choice and you can contact the telephone number on the back of your licence book to locate your nearest alternative class.

If you have any queries about anything at all, please either give me a call on 0845 634 5023 or drop me an email tracey@cobrakaratemanchester.co.uk To locate the classes that I am now teaching at, click here

Kind Regards

Tracey

Updated 11 June 2010: Red Tiger Karate's "Chief Instructor" has requested a Nominet domain expert to decide who should be the owner of the domain name redtigerkarate.co.uk. Red Tiger Karate was given the option to purchase this from me at a significantly cheaper cost than it has paid for the expert and unecessary legal fees....and significantly cheaper than what I should have been paid for the previous websites and ecommerce store. I think that is maybe why training fees have increased at Red Tiger Karate Club's classes!

For those of you wondering what happened to Sensei Tony Concannon who ran the Red Tiger Karate class in Denton - we are teaching together again at Ravensfield Primary School in Dukinfield on Tuesday evenings from 7pm till 8pm.

Both myself, Tony and others are continuing to learn karate with Sensei Alan Woods.....who has continuously trained in karate for over 43 years....40 years longer than Red Tiger Karate Club has been operating. He is an outstanding martial artist, teacher and person - with not an ounce of ego or self-obsessed arrogance! He has opened my eyes to karate and I've discovered so much more. I guess it's easy to become blinkered when you don't know any different and follow the masses.

CMAA have been excellent in supporting all the instructors and students that have left Red Tiger Karate Club. I have discovered that I am not alone - there are other instructors in other martial arts styles who experience similar issues to myself. I relate to many of their stories (click for example) and it's helpful to have a thousand strong martial arts advice team!

IMPORTANT NOTE: The message detailed above is an expression of the opinions of Tracey Drain, former instructor of Red Tiger Karate - this statement is in no way a representation of the management of Red Tiger Karate Club