Black Dragon School of Martial Arts

Merry Christmas 🎅to everyone

Big well done to two of my little dragons who won gold and silver at the London tai chi competition early this year full details to follow soon in the meantime here is some photos

From all of us at Black Dragon, we hope you all had a wonderful holiday season (and that this week back to normality hasn't been too hard).
We would also like wish all our kung fu brothers and sisters a happy, healthy and prosperous Western New Year!
Armitofu

Team Shaolin Championships 2015

The official video from the Team Shaolin Championships 2015, featuring students from the Black Dragon SOMA, at the Tang Long Chinese Cultural Centre in London organized by the 35th generation Shaolin Master, Shifu Master Heng Wei.

Team Shaolin Championships 2015 5th edition of the Team Shaolin Championships in London, UK. An event organised by 35th generation Shaolin Master Shifu Heng Wei. Videography by: Gennaro Amb...

A few pictures of some of our black belt members

On Saturday 26th September members of the Black Dragon Family were lucky enough to be invited to compete in the Team Shaolin Championships 2015, at the Tang Long Chinese Cultural Centre in London.

On arrival at Tang Long we immediately felt at home and welcomed, the cultural centre had the same feeling as our very own school. Being a Shaolin competition, it was very well organised and with only one arena, competitors who were in multiple categories did not have the stress found in other competitions of being in different places at the same time: for spectators this meant that they could watch everybody.

The team included Ruby, Katie, Ashleigh, Harry, Liam and Lewis. The day began with impressive forms both weapons and hand by junior competitors, some of these stood out with their speed, agility and skill. It also gave some of the junior competitors a chance to display their true potential and they will be ones to watch in the future. It was obvious from the onset of the day that being a Shaolin competition the bars would be set high and performances would be to a very high standard due to the training and knowledge that everyone involved had access to. We were also very impressed at the standard of judging when compared to that of previous competitions.

Ruby started the day by showing the Eagle form with her usual grace and elegance which she then followed up with a strong spear performance, narrowly missing out on medals for these two. However, her demonstration of her Fan and Tai Chi hand form earned her gold and bronze medals, in that order.

Katie, who was taking part in her second competition, showed her grace by performing a Fan form and Tong Bei, unfortunately Katie did not receive a medal.

Ashleigh showed her skills throughout the competition by taking part in four categories: her first category to compete in was the Tai Chi hand form which she took bronze medal in, then took the stage with her Tai Chi Straight sword walking away with a silver medal, meaning Ruby and Ashleigh placed first and second for that category. Ashleigh continued to work hard through the kung fu categories showing the Black Dragon hand form and a Shaolin Broad Sword and narrowly missed out on medal positions.

Harry’s first form of the day was the Black Dragon Tai Chi form of which he missed out on a medal position; he managed to redeem himself with a silver medal in the Spear form shortly after. He was then up in the kung fu hand form category, in which he displayed one of our Black Dragon Hand Forms earning him a well-deserved bronze Finally he earned another bronze medal showing the Black Dragon Straight Sword Form.

Liam performed a solid Hong Quan and a similarly strong Broad Sword display, however because of the competition quality he wasn’t lucky enough at this competition to walk away with a medal.

This competition saw Lewis competing again after an extended break from competing, he competed in the Baji Quan, Broad Sword and Tai Chi hand form categories but wasn’t fortunate enough to overcome the strong opposition.

The day finished with full contact San da fighting from the other school which was very entertaining to watch and become immersed in after a stressful day.

All that is left to say is a big thank you to everyone who came and supported us especially our Shifu - without whom we would not have been in this successful position. A huge thank you to all at Tang Long including Shifu Shi Heng Wei and Shifu Heng Xuan for putting on a great day for all. We hope to be able to compete there in the future.

The weekend of the 11th - 12th April saw the long awaited 1st competition of 2015 for the Black Dragon S.O.M.A and for added pressure it was the 7th Tai Chi Federation of Europe - European Championship of Chinese internal Martial Arts; a competition which isn't annually held in the UK but throughout Europe, so quite a prestigious competition for the Black Dragon team to enter as it would bring together the best from all over Europe.

Our team of hopefuls this time included: Ruby, Ashleigh, Danyelle, David and Ned.
The competition took place in Oxford with the events stretched over two days, which meant that our team had to remain focused for the whole weekend. Though we knew this would never be a problem for our guys, with a good turnout of supporters from the Black Dragon family on both days to cheer them on, success was, as always, looking good.
The competition was strong; with many recognisable faces from previous years the team knew it wasn't going to be a walk in the park.
~David being the 1st competitor of the 1st event, set the bar high with a Bronze Medal in the Chen Beginners Hand Form - A big achievement with it also being David's first ever competition.
~Danyelle was up next in the same category as David, narrowly missing out on a medal coming 4th.
~Ashley was up next in the Chen intermediate Hand Form - with a solid performance landing her a silver medal.
~Ruby then smashed it in the Chen Open Hand form (of which she was the only Junior), competing against the likes of seasoned winners from around Europe such as Geraldine Fitzmaurice -Landing a well-deserved Gold medal for a superb form.
~Aside from those hand forms, Ned was also taking part in the Push hands categories, which he received a hard earned bronze - ending it with an astonishing throw across the whole mat.
~Ashley then finished the day's proceedings with a 4th in the Sabre category and a resounding performance of Black Dragon Shifu’s very own Black Dragon Fan Form - achieving a well-deserved Gold for a faultless performance and the sheer delight and pride was apparent in Shifu's face.

Day two saw events with Danyelle, David and Ruby:
~David and Danyelle again competing in the same category - other internal beginner weapons - bringing another bronze for David and a superb Gold for Danyelle.
~Ruby - Gold in the junior weapons with the fan form and a bronze medal in the women's open straight sword category.

Once again every competitor from Black Dragon S.O.M.A came away with at least one medal.

So the start of another strong competition year for the Black Dragon Family showing that with Shifu's nurturing, plus dedication and hard work, success can and will be achieved.
Black Dragon S.O.M.A have sent out a message that we are a strong force to be reckoned with and one of the most dominant schools in Europe.

From all of the black dragon family we would like wish all our kung fu brothers and sisters a happy. healthy and prosperous new year armitofu

Little dragons training doing well