Blake Esplin

I graded for my Black Belt, First Dan on the 20/09/2008. I was 13 years old on the day of my grading.

Since achieving my Black Belt I have been assisting Ms Jacobsen in the role of Senior Assistant Instructor at our club.

Some of the experiences that I have been involved with leading up to my Black Belt Grading were;

¨      Three Masters Downunder Seminar held on the Sushine Coast, Queensland. Master Daher was joined by Master McPhail and Master Davidson from New Zealand. This seminar went for three days.

¨      Attended the General Choi Cup in Sydney in 2004.

¨      Attended a tournament held by the Bai Rui Club in Brisbane.

¨      Attended an International Instructors Course at Nambour, Queensland.Supportting Master Daher were Master McPhail from New Zealand, Master Hector Marano, Master Pablo Trajtenberg both from Argentina and members of  ITF Technical Committee.

¨      A number of seminars conducted by Master Daher for the clubs in our region.

¨      Our instructor has also conducted various workshops and beach training.

Our week days are very long days particularly on our training days as it takes an hour and a half to get to school and hour and a half to get home by bus. The distance we travel to training from home after school is a 95km round trip. The traveling only, on training days is 4 hours.

Saturday training is good as we don’t have to get up so early or go to school.

I started Taekwon-Do in 2004 and have been training regularly and attending seminars since.

I get a lot of enjoyment when I pass my examinations with all the hard work I’ve done with training and preparations.

I also enjoy the technical seminars and workshops, particularly with all the new people I meet and the new training methods that I learn. Everyone at the seminars is very helpful and offers a lot of assistance.

Outside of Taekwon do, I play U14 rugby union for St Luke’s every Friday night, which I was just selected to represent Bundaberg in the lighthouse cup.

I have also completed a 2 Day course in May this year for my Senior First Aid Certificate.

Brooke Esplin

I graded for my Black Belt, First Dan on19/09/2009. I was aged 12 years old on the day of my grading.

Some of the experiences that I have been involved with leading up to my Black Belt Grading were;

¨      Three Masters Downunder Seminar held on the Sushine Coast, Queensland. Master Daher was joined by Master McPhail and Master Davidsoin form New Zealand. This seminar went for three days.

¨      Attended a tournament held by the Bai Rui Club in Brisbane.

¨      Attended an International Instructors Course at Nambour, Queensland.Supportting Master Daher were Master McPhail from New Zealand, Master Hector Marano, Master Pablo Tranjitenberg both from Argentina and members of  ITF Technical Committee.

¨      A number of seminars conducted by Master Daher for the clubs in our region.

¨      Our instructor has also conducted various workshops and beach training

I also go to the same school and travel the same time and distance as my brother Blake. We do training at home in the morning before we catch the bus to go to school.

I started Taekwon-Do in 2004 and have been training regularly and attending seminars since.

We have also attended the 1770 Festival and Bororen Fair to give demonstrations of Taekwon-Do, which was exciting.

At school I am quite busy participating in the St Lukes Dance club. We recently competed in a competition with the other schools in our area were we all had to go up on stage and perform. Over all our group came 2^nd and I really enjoyed it.

We are now learning another dance for the St Lukes Multi Cultural Evening.   

Shania Esplin

I graded for my Black Belt, First Dan on 10/09/2009. I was aged 10 years on the day of my Grading.

 Some of the experiences that I have been involved with leading up to my Black Belt Grading were;

¨      Three Masters Downunder Seminar held on the Sushine Coast, Queensland. Master Daher was joined by Master McPhail and Master Davidson form New Zealand. This seminar went for three days.

¨      Attended a tournament held by the Bai Rui Club in Brisbane.

¨      Attended an International Instructors Course at Nambour, Queensland. Supporting Master Daher was Master McPhail from New Zealand, Master Hector Marano, Master Pablo Tranjitenberg both from Argentina and members of ITF Technical Committee.

¨      A number of seminars conducted by Master Daher for the clubs in our region.

¨      Our instructor has also conducted various workshops and beach training

 I started Taekwon-Do in 2005, aged six years and have been training regularly and attending seminars since.

 Sometimes when I was training and grading it would become very tricky for me. But what helped a lot was having my older brother, Blake and older sister, Brooke help me. Watching them achieve their gradings made me want to do better and achieve my Black Belt.

At school I was voted to represent Junior School as their School Leader at Rosedale State School in 2008.

In the last three years running I was awarded the Class Distinction award at the end of the year for highest achiever in the class.

I have volunteered to be an M&M (Mentor and Mediator). Every lunch time I help the children from the lower grades than me to learn and play games. We give out awards and stickers. This helps the younger children at school learn to play together and mix with different children rather than playing with the same group all the time.

I also play sport at school and the past two years I was selected for the Bundaberg Regional Zone Athletic Competition to compete in high jump and 800 hundred meters. I have also been the Cross Country Champion and age champion at the Rosedale School sports carnival over the past two years.  

Written by Blake

Another exciting time for all of us this year in September (2009) straight after Brooke and Shania graded for their Black Belt was when we went to Christchurch to visit our Grandparents and attended the Riccarton club of ITFNZ where we trained for 2 weeks during the New Zealand Nationals.

We also went down to the QE2 Stadium to watch the ITFNZ Nationals and support the members of the Riccarton club.

We would like to thank the club instructor, Mr David Oliver and all the members of the club particularly senior members Mr Kris Herbison and Ms Helen Caley for welcoming us to the club and sharing their training time.

The three of us are helping our youngest brother, Quinn to pass his examinations to help him get to Black Belt. Quinn is 9 years old and holds the rank of Red Tip, 3^rd Kup.

Quinn was always going to take up Taekwon-Do. When he was 5 years old he fell out of the van and broke his arm. He had his arm in a cast for six weeks. One Saturday when Mum and Dad took us to training they were looking for Quinn and could not find him until they looked at the back our Taekwon-Do class. He joined in with his arm in a cast and has been doing Taekwon-Do since. This was his first lesson.

Although we have personally made the achievements in Taekwon-Do mentioned above, it was only made possible with the direction and strong support of our instructor, Ms Gail Jacobsen and Master Michael Bou Daher. We also have very good support from our Mother and Father.