During Wednesday night’s class Lorraine announced that she was going to retire from her role at Kenshin Shotokan Karate Club as she felt for personal reasons it was now the right time with the clubs ongoing future assured. I must admit this caught us by surprise but over the last 36 years of training one thing I have had to get used to is change be it people stopping training, moving away, retiring or instructors and fellow students who unfortunately have passed away like Shihan Cummins, Sensei Franklyn Doras and more recently David Moxam. The one constant that remains is your training and I’m sure it has been a pleasure for Lorraine to watch you all progress until this point as it has been for myself and Sensei Mike each session since we joined Kenshin. I believe there are plans to setup a WhatsApp group so you can all keep in touch with Lorraine in the future.

Lorraine was part of Kenshin SKC since the foundation of the club along with her late husband Franklyn Doras and has been an integral part of this club ever since. She along with Sensei Peter Shuter kept the club going after Sensei Franklyn’s passing. When Sensei Pete eventually chose to pursue other avenues for his training she sought out another club to keep Kenshin open. As was evidenced by the emotions on display by her announcement she will be missed but she of course has a standing invitation to drop in to say hello and will be invited to the black belt gradings of those of you who have trained with her all these years now that a few of you are getting closer to that day. I’m sure we all want to wish her the best of luck for a relaxing retirement and for whatever she decides to do in the future.

As with any change there will be some questions so feel free to ask me (Richard) or Mike when you see us. To answer a couple we were asked on Wednesday. Kenshin SKC will continue and we are not planning to change the name of the club or the badge at present. There may be some administrative changes in the background to do with club registration which may appear on your licence slip when you renew your annual NAKMAS license. When we took over the club we did so because we all knew Sensei Franklyn and had trained alongside him under Shihan Cummins and didn’t want his club and its legacy to disappear so rest assured you are in good hands.