New Site for CARISMA

CARISMA is launching today its new site/blog, based on WordPress. The new site replaces its predecessor that holds over nine years of news, events and pictures from various events that the club has organized.

The new technology used allows members of the public to browse information in a variety of ways and to leave comments to any of the posts: “the main point” – explains Massimo Gaetani, president of CARISMA and project manager of the development – “is to establish conversations with our audience, in line with Web 2.0”. He also added: “the club committee liked the new design since the first draft and the various tools available under WordPress allow us to keep the site up to date and in continuous evolution”.

The new site is organized by keeping the essential number of static pages for non changing content and streaming all news, events and other articles by grouping them in categories and tagging them: this way any user can seach information by date, category or tag.

Many thanks to Andrea Cristofaro for the graphic design and Luca Leonardi for technical assistance with WordPress, php and CSS.

Please leave your comments!!!

Competition in Thurston Oct 2008

11 fighters, between CARISMA and CUKBS, participated in a Light Contact Competition organized by Pete Dunnet and the Combat Academy Kickboxing in Thurston (near Bury St. Edmund, Suffolk).

The overall results are extremely encouraging:

Chris Webb: winner
Luca Senatore: second (due to a penalty, excess contact)
Robin Turner: second
Aaron Lewis: second
Ollie Osunkunle (*): winner (opponent had to stop)
Rupert Goodway: second
Andrew Gillham: winner
Richard Kirkland (*): draw (one penalty)
Rosie Snajdr (*): draw
Josh Genkins (*): second
Chris Wilson (*): second

(*) indicates first time at a competition

CARISMA as usual displayed good technique, respect for the rules and professionalism. A number of coaches and masters from various clubs complimented Massimo Gaetani, head coach for CARISMA, about these qualities.

CARISMA fighters showed to have a distinct style, good technique and all those qualities that a martial artist should have by definition: even those at their first experience entered competently the tournament and stood their ground with good performance.

Follow the available videos of the fights:

Chris Webb, grey head guard and white footpads

Luca Senatore, black outfit

Robin Turner, red gloves

Ollie Olaskunle, red head guard, black gloves

Josh Jenkins, black head guard, red gloves

Rupert Goodway, black head guard

Richard Kirkland, red head guard

A Great Start for CUKBS

On Wed, 15 October 2008 The Cambridge University Kickboxing Society (CUKBS) held a very successful first session for all of its members. Following great interest during the Fresher’s fair the previous week, this first session registered an amazing turnout of over 70 participants that included over 40 new students.

Starting its second year under the guidance of CARISMA and its instructors, CUKBS is aiming at improving the average proficiency of all of its members, ranging from novices all the way to experienced black belts. All classes include a collective warm up of about 30 minutes that helps all participants to improve their flexibility, power and speed. The class then splits into smaller groups with different level of proficiency: each group, under the guidance of a different instructor, works on a specific syllabus that includes solo training, pair training, pad work, combinations, drills, sparring and occasionally street fighting and self-defense techniques.

Leo Schwartz, the new president of CUKBS, commented on the success of the first class: “we had a great start and we are planning to build on it further by keeping up the momentum. We are offering first class martial arts tuition which is fundamental for competitions but also to build confidence, relief stress and, in unfortunate situations, to defend one self”.

Massimo Gaetani, head coach for CARISMA, commented: “it’s a great pleasure to see so many new students joining us and willing to learn our way of training” and he added “building on last year’s success I am confident we have laid the foundations for a great 2008/’09 both in terms of University tournaments and Varsity”.

Chris Webb, Varsity Coach, concluded by declaring: “the continuous input from CARISMA and its instructors is always refreshing and inspiring: it helps us to be totally focused on the training and continuously improve ourselves”.

New Children Course from CARISMA

CARISMA, the Cambridge Riverside Martial Arts, is launching a new children course in addition to its existing adult ones, following the success of its over 9 years of activities with adults and teenagers. A pilot course will start on Tuesday 6th November, immediately after half term, to last for 7 weeks and it will be open to children, male and female, aged between 8 and 12.

The curriculum of the course will be very similar to the one used for the adults courses although having a reduced and more controlled level of contact to ensure maximum safety during practice.

Massimo Gaetani, president and head coach of CARISMA, announced this decision by stating: “we have been receiving many enquiries about children course over the years and for a number of reasons we were not in the position of offering them. The time is now right to train children too…”

The course will initially run once per week, on Tuesdays between 5 and 6PM. For more information please contact us via Email or Phone.