We commemorate the memory of the late Bill Edwards each year with a special award for outstanding achievement of an under 16 year old, within the whole Federation.

Bill was a wonderful personality within the club and adored by adults and children alike. He had a lovely fatherly way with the young ones, and for those of us who remember him we regard this award with great importance. It is not to do with how well the recipient performed at the championships, or how hard they have trained this year; it is what they have achieved, how they have improved, since they began Tang Sou Dao.

The winner of this year's Bill Edwards award is Danny Green who trains with his father, Simon at Tunbridge Wells.

Grandmaster Loke with Danny Green
winner of the Bill Edwards Award for the
most Outstanding Student under 16 years

No doubt you are interested to know what is so special about this lad for the federation to award this special trophy. I have got to be honest with you and admit that there is nothing special about Danny! He was like many youngsters, he wouldn't listen to me, he would often be lazy, he would forget what I taught him. As an instructor it feels like trying to get blood out of a stone some days, so frustrating because we can see the potential within the person, but they are unaware of this. I was deliberately hard on Danny when he was younger because I could see this potential, to the point that Mum, Paula would politely ask me to back off from him, fearing he may quit I suppose! But with the support of his family he has struggled on and made tremendous progress, not just technically, sometimes he listens and remembers things now.

The aspect of Danny's development I am most pleased with is his maturity and empathy with fellow members. He shows patience and tolerance with youngsters and junior belts, fights hard with the adults and holds no grudges if he gets the odd accidental whack. There are many young ones out there like Danny, I am sure all the instructors reading this know what I am getting at. To use a football analogy, it is like a manager saying, 'He kept his head down, worked hard in training, and now it's paid off'. Today, we still have concentration problems, I often have to repeat myself for Danny's sake, or he sometimes guesses what I said, gets it wrong, Dad smiles, and we all carry on.

Well Done Danny!

Master Adam Goward
Regional Instructor (Surrey, Sussex and Kent)

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