News
ProKick Teens journey to the land of the rising sun
A once in a lifetime experience awaits three of ProKick’s talented teenagers, Grace Goody, James Braniff and Jay Snoddon, as they prepare for an epic trip to Japan next month, in December.
ProKick’s talented teenagers, Grace Goody, James Braniff and Jay Snoddon, as they prepare for an epic trip to Japan next month in December.
The ProKick teenagers will have the chance to immerse themselves fully in the Japanese culture; exploring the iconic sights and sounds of Tokyo, learning about their healthy and fulfilling way of life, to discovering the history of a beautiful and diverse nation. For Grace, Jay and James, this will be an experience that will develop them not only as competitors but as people.
Head Coach, Billy Murray will travel with the teenage team, and having been to Japan a number of times, has his own personal experiences of how impacting spending time there can be. “At ProKick we are committed to developing our young people in many different ways. This was an opportunity was too good to miss. I want to help them, I want them to achieve excellence in the sport and in life and that is why I proposed the trip to them. I’m excited about their development, not only as competitors but as people.”
Johnny 'Swift' Smith will travel with the team, he will meet two promoters who are interested in him fighting in Japan after his win over Japanese fighter, Shuhei Sone.
Here's a little of what we have planned, we will be doing live video and daily up-dates on the teams progress:
The team will re-visit a top fight gym in Tokyo for training.
Visit & train at Ernesto Hoost Gym in Nagoya.
Train @ ProKick Gym Kumamoto, run by Hiro Mochizuki, a 17year member at ProKick.
Train & compete at the official K1 event in Osaka.
As you can appreciate there are considerable costs associated with a trip like this, therefore look out for fundraising that will be taking place in order to help these guys make their way to Japan. If anyone has any fundraising ideas, no matter how big or small, speak to Mr. Murray or any Senior ProKick member.
A big thank you to Mark Bird who lives and is fighting out of Tokyo, also Mr. Hiro Mochizuki for all his help and work in Japan to make this trip happen. The ProKick team, is worldwide!
Words by: Kathryn Warren
The Gym fundraising is going real well so far:
The first event - sponsored Fun walk/Run raised £860
The second event - A Kids event at the gym raised £290 + a donation of £100 from Mr Darren Dougan (Golden Dragon Club)
An anonymous donation from a gym member of £1000
A ballot on the show 'Lord of the Ring' 26th Oct at the Stormont Hotel. £830
A donation from Mr Albert Ross £300
A donation from Mr Mickey Shields £500
Margaret Baird & members of the CFC Church £1000
Our last fundraising event was a social night which took place on Saturday the 30th November, at Stormont hotel - where we wished the team good luck & farewell. Thank you if you joined us. We raised a total of £579. Thank you all very very much for all your kind donations.
A massive thanks to all who have made donations, help with ballots or who have given or arranged prizes for the ballot or any other fundraising.
We will let you know how the team are getting on individual with their Fundraising
Here are the teams individual Fund raising Pages, please help if possible:
