November 2011 - IL SHIM

Joe Shaw Double Grading

At ITF Australia/ IL Shim International Taekwon-Do, we believe it is important to recognise those students that put the extra effort in each day to improve their techniques, skills, and understanding of the Art. Here are some comments from Joe Shaw, age 16 from Coomera on the Gold Coast, who doubled graded from Yellow Tip to Green Tip last weekend. As an instructor it is fantastic to have a student like Joe in the club and it is satisfying to see him rewarded for his effort

“Hi, I’m Joe Shaw, I’m a member of the Gold Coast clubs

“I am happy and excited that I double graded and hope my skills keep progressing with the help of my Instructors Mr Shawn Sutton and Mr John Abdallah. I know that just turning up for 2 classes a week will not be enough to achieve my goals. On average I attend 4 training sessions a week . I like to think I am dedicated and take training seriously so I can make progress quickly. When not training at the Do Jang I try to condition myself, most nights I stretch for 20 minutes and do a 10 minute AB workout, I also practise my patterns. I attend the gym and try to keep myself fit and intend to continue to work hard.”

“I am really enjoying Taekwon-Do and have met lots of great people. Although I have only been training for 5 months, I have already attended 2 tournaments, The Hunter Valley and Bundaberg Cups and would highly recommend all students go out of their way to attend as many tournaments as possible as they are a great experience and lots of fun.”

28 November, 2011/0 Comments/by Shawn Sutton

Power Breaking – Side Kick

Power Breaking

POWER BREAKING

So you want to do some power breaking but you don’t think you are strong enough?

Well, guess what, you don’t have to be THAT strong. Seriously, it is not all about strength; it’s about technique, confidence and most importantly, SPEED.

If you are serious about getting into power breaking and I am talking about girls as well as boys, the first thing you need to do is talk to your instructor, get advise as to where you can train and who can assist you with your training. For beginners never train on your own and everyone should always wear shoes for your kicks and some sort of gloves for your hand techniques.

As I mentioned earlier, breaking can be for everyone, boys as well as the girls (take a look at Australia’s own currant “Senior Woman’s World Champion” and woman’s power breaking gold medallist, Carlie Dann), she can break 5 white boards with her side kick, more than most men at World champs, and that’s not because she is built like a tank, if fact , there is nothing of her, but she has the ability to create SPEED, and that gives her the power. Most importantly, you need to be aware of ages, young kids bones are still soft and can be damaged if they are not careful, that’s why supervision is a must. CVB01

For the men and boys breaking, you need to be proficient in the for-fist punch (Ap-joomuk Jirugi), knife hand strike (.Sonkal Taerigi), side kick (Yopcha Jirugi), turning kick (Dollyo Chagi) and reverse turning kick (Bandae Dollyo Chagi), For the girls, knife hand strike (Sonkal Taerigi), side kick (Yopcha Jirugi) and turning kick (Dollyo Chagi).

The first and most important lesion in power breaking that I can give you is that when you take off your gloves and shoes, it WILL hurt and at some time during your breaking training, you will probably injure yourself; if you are not prepared to go through that, don’t break.

OK, so you are all pumped up and ready to break, you have your safety gear on, you have an instructor with you, let’s do some breaking. We’ll start with the side kick…. remember we use the foot sword, not the heel when executing the side kick. When you start your attempts, you should have a set routine that is the same every time you break.

SIDE KICK……

Measure.

Start with the height of the boards, should be about your hip height to the middle of the boards, any higher and you may lose power the higher you go. Don’t touch the boards. (Practise that now, ready for when you go to world champs).

Focus:-

With the side kick, you are allowed to take one step, so take advantage of that. When we focus we start at the finish, so (assuming you have a good side kick), bring your foot up to the boards in the side kick position, (you may touch the boards once now), then retract your kicking leg, turning away from the boards, go to a sitting stance, take another step to an L-stance so as to face the boards ready to attempt your break.( what you are really doing is, doing your side kick in reverse, starting at the finish and going back to the start). When you first step up to the board holder, you have 90 seconds for each break, that is a long time, use it.

Guarding block:-

Before and after every attempt, you MUST do your L-stance guarding block. (Ki-up if you want to), you are ready to break.

Breaking attempt:-

Starting with one board, you need to keep breaking one board till your technique is correct. Even if it takes 1000 kicks. Starting your attempt from your L-stance guarding block, step to a sitting stance, LIFT your KICKING KNEE so that your leg is chambered, ready to strike, while your body weight is falling into the boards and you are still relaxed, release the kick and kick through the boards, when you strike the boards, keep pushing through them using your hip rotation and whether you are successful or not with your break, always finish UP with a guarding block.

Things to remember:-

1. RELAX.

Relax through the WHOLE technique, you should not tense the body till moment of impact, this will allow you to create speed.

2. CONFIDENCE.

If you don’t think you can break the boards in front of you, guess what, THEY WON’T BREAK. Be confident, they WILL break, (the mind is a powerful tool, use your mind power), I will be doing a segment on mind power soon.

3. LOOK at the target.

Never take your eyes off the target through the whole attempt; never close your eyes when you strike the target.

4. LIFT your knee.

Start your approach, step to your sitting stance and LIFT your KICKING KNEE so that your leg is chambered, ready to strike, this is one of the most important things to remember, lift your knee BEFORE you release your kick.

5. FOCUS THROUGH THE BOARDS.

Your target is the boards, but you are thinking THROUGH the boards, the boards are in your way to reach your ultimate target, the back of the board holder, when you strike the boards, keep pushing through them using your hip rotation.

6. GUARDING BLOCK.

With every attempt, either during practise or competition, whether you are successful with your break or not, you should start and finish with a guarding block, one, you may have broken the back boards, and that’s more points… two, it makes you feel good… and it looks cool.

There is so much more in power breaking that can’t be said on paper, but I hope this is a big help for you, as I said earlier, talk to your instructor first, they know you better than anyone about your ability, and they will help you. A great tool to help you break is a video camera on a tripod; you can see where you are going wrong.

Take care of your body, if you start to feel too much pain when breaking, you need to stop, or you will damage the body and not be able to break at all.

If there is ONE thing I hope you have learnt from reading this, is that you don’t have to be big and strong to break boards, remember, SPEED in the secret to creating power, and to RELEX is the secret to creating SPEED.

Good luck…and good breaking.

Charlie Van Beelen

IV Dan

POWER BREAKING DIRECTOR

IL SHIM TAEKWON-DO

SUNSHINE COAST

27 November, 2011/0 Comments/by Shawn Sutton

Bundaberg Cup Review

Past Events

CUP HIGHLY CONTESTED

Taekwon-Do: Il Shim International Taekwon-do’s Bundaberg Club again played host to the Haden 2011 Bundaberg Cup over the weekend. The “cup” again proved to be a highly sought after piece of silverware with the Gold Coast taking a firm grip to emerge victors with an outstanding 78 points over last years cup winners Agnes Water on 42 points.

This year saw competitors via for positions over 17 divisions from patterns to sparing to power breaking. This years Haden Bundaberg Cup saw a return to the Bundaberg Basketball stadium after 10 years. “it was good to see the stadium filled with a sea of white uniforms” commented Bundaberg’s Senior Instructor Mr Michael McGaw. “it’s been a goal of mine to return to the stadium. Its got every thing we need”

Competitors converged on Bundaberg from as far as the Gold Coast and Rockhampton. “Some of these students have done a day trip just to compete. It just shows the commitment that they have for the art” McGaw Said. “Even more exciting was to have Mr Christensen travel from the Hunter Valley”

Frans Christensen, who is the Head Coach for ITF in Australia, made the trip to the Rum City to oversee proceeding and assess new talent emerging from regional centres. “It gives me a chance to see the standard we have through out the region, some of these students don’t get a chance to travel to some of the bigger events and unfortunately get over looked” Mr Christensen said. “I have identified a few competitors who I will be looking to invite into the Squad for the 2013 World Championships in Spain.”

As well as identifying possible new talent, Mr Christensen conducted Australian Squad training for current members, which saw 30 students, 10 of which were from the local region, put through some training strategies and techniques.

Local competitors flew the Bundaberg Flag high and strong in their respective divisions, which was very pleasing for the local club. “ our students done well today” McGaw said, “all of our squad members took out medals, John Lane took out back to back Male Black Belt Senior Heavy Weight Sparring Titles winning gold, youngsters Stefani Orreal and Alexandria Barbera took 2^nd and 3^rd in Female Middle weight 10^th – 1^st Gup Sparring and 1^st and 3^rd respectively in the Colour Junior 10^th – 6^th Gup Patterns while Renee Williams place 3^rd in the Female Junior Heavy weight 10^th – 1^st Gup sparring with New coming topping of his first year of competition with a 1^st place in Male Senior Middle weight 10^th – 1^st Gup Sparring.

The Male and Female competitor of the tournament was also hot contested with 2 and 3 way ties for 2^nd place with Marica Carr from the Sunshine Coast and Jesse Lusmden from the Gold Coast taking out the Female and Male medals.

Director of Il Shim International Taekwon-do, President of the Oceanic Taekwon-do and board Member of ITF, Master Michael Bou Daher, was very happy with the turn out of events. “Mr McGaw has done a very good job” he said “there were some IT issues at the start but we managed to get over it. The Bundaberg Club has a great future and they will have my full support in what they do. I have always enjoyed coming to Bundaberg. Now with the support of local Business HADEN I think the Bundaberg cup will grow to be very successful. We were still receiving phone calls Friday morning for registrations but unfortunately the draw was done and we couldn’t fit them in. Next year we will have over one hundred competitors” Master Daher commented.

Next years HADEN Bundaberg cup has been pencilled in for Saturday the 10^th November and will be open to everyone and will be run under the ITF rules and Regulations.

17 November, 2011/0 Comments/by Shawn Sutton

WHAT ARE WE TEACHNG?

Henry's Corner

Henry’s Corner November 2011 (1)

WHAT ARE WE TEACHNG?

Dear Friends

I recently encountered three people who were interested in the martial arts and wished to either commence or resume training. Naturally, I encouraged them to have a look at our web site and consider the merits of Il Shim Taekwon-Do.

The comments made by two of these people served to me as both a stark reminder of the woeful state of affairs in the martial arts world and the difficulties facing those who are searching for a suitable school.

One young lady commented that “It would be difficult to find an instructor who would teach the higher noble values of martial arts because these days they just seem to focus on the physical aspects.”

Another young lady I spoke to had, in fact, trained in Taekwon-Do for eight years in another school, the name of which I will not mention here for the sake of integrity. I have witnessed demonstrations by this school on a couple of occasions and walked away less than impressed. She said she regularly attended classes twice a week and attained her black belt but quit because she felt that it is meant to be an art but the classes didn’t satisfy this need.

Both ladies are making the same point. Their desire is to participate in a martial art not only for the physical benefit but ultimately to enrich the spiritual dimension of their lives but the schools that they have come into contact with did not fulfil this need.

Why does this not surprise us? It is because in martial arts we are in a field right now where mediocrity is spawning more mediocrity. How sad is this!

I have absolutely no qualms about engaging in general criticisms about the state of our field. One of the main impediments to the development of any organization, industry or discipline is the lack of introspection and the ability to engage in honest self-examination. The most tragic part of this is that there are instructors out there who are not even aware of the delusion in which they are participating in. Hence they do not know what their potential students want and how to deliver what they need.

The moral enrichment of students is an area which too many instructors treat in a cursory or perfunctory manner. The physical training becomes routine, students are never truly introduced to the substance behind the facade and their training either lacks purpose or they are training for the wrong purpose. Students can be impressed by the power, agility and acrobatics they witness in a dojang but it is meant to be a way of life and, in order to ensure that the students adopt the art as a lifelong pursuit, the art behind the mechanics have to be inculcated.

I was told that somebody once reacted to my advocacy of properly synthesizing the moral and physical sides of Taekwon-Do by saying, “But we are not a religion.” Excuse me!?!?!? Where did that come from? I have absolutely never thought of Taekwon-Do or for that matter any martial art as a religion. This person’s reaction clearly demonstrates that there are many people engaged in martial arts who believe that the talk of tenets, principles and higher values is just a bit of mumbo jumbo which we use as window dressing. No wonder the world of martial arts is in the state that it is in at the moment; disorganized and unable to attract proper interest from the public.

True instructors of Taekwon-Do are not simply teaching an effective form of self defence but they are leading people to experience and live a more meaningful life by instilling the higher values we abide by in our discipline. It is too easy to be so caught up in the logistics of running a school that we forget the soul of the art.

How many schools are there which induct their new students with a structured program that lays the foundation for their progress? Are the students made aware of the spirit of the art? Instructors will make sure that new students learn all their basic physical movements and positions correctly because this provides the foundation to build upon more sophisticated and complex techniques but what about laying the proper moral foundation? What about ensuring that students are fully aware and appreciate the values that underpin the art?

The identity of a martial arts organization is two dimensional. It is both a school which teaches its students and a commercial entity that serves its clients. So imagine how multi-skilled an instructor has to be to become successful!

No one ever said it is easy but there is a multitude of eager students out there. We just need to provide the correct moral and physical armour that they are looking for to deal with this chaotic world.

Let’s go get them!

9 November, 2011/0 Comments/by Shawn Sutton

Instructors Course message from Emily

Aberdeen

Hey,

I’m Emily Tisdell and I’m a black-tip from Aberdeen Tae kwon Do. Last weekend I went to an instructing course in Sydney run by Master Daher and I must say, “I loved it”! On the way to Sydney, I was nervous because I had never been to one of these before but I soon realised that there was nothing to worry about and going there was a terrific learning opportunity. I now understand allot more about the theory and practical sides of Taekwondo, including some terminology when refereeing. I feel I learnt not only about taekwondo, but also myself and gained confidence to strive for bigger and better things in life. I recommended that everyone who can attend an Instructing course to make sure they do.

Tae Kwon

Emily Tisdell

P.S Thanks for the B.B.Q Master Daher. I love your dog “Sampson”

8 November, 2011/0 Comments/by Shawn Sutton

HADEN 2011 Bundaberg Cup

Bundaberg

HADEN 2011 Bundaberg Cup

CUP SET TO BE A BIG HIT

Local support in growing for the resurrected Bundaberg Cup, with HADEN Air conditioning and Mechanical Engineering announcing their support for the tournament with their sponsorship.

Local branch manager and former Black Belt with the organisation, Mr Craig Warner, confirmed their support this week. “It’s good to be able to support the local community through an event that used to be a prominent part of the Taekwon do calendar.” Mr Warner said. “I remember when the Bundy cup was held at the Bundaberg Basketball Stadium back in 2001 where it was combined with the Queensland Championships and the local organisation filled the stadium with competitors and spectators.”

The Cup made its return in November 2010 with a small contingent nominating for its return after a 9 year absence. This year nominations had nearly doubled on last year and we also welcome a club travelling from Rockhampton for the event. “We have received nominations from the Gold Coast right through to Rockhampton and includes other ITF clubs outside of our organisation such as Millennium in Rocky and Dynamic on the Sunshine Coast” commented Bundaberg’s Senior Instructor Mr Michael McGaw. “We even received email enquiries from Pakistan, but unfortunately they are not able to attend this year.

McGaw who heads a smaller club here in Bundaberg with an average of 15 training on a regular basis, has managed to have 5 students, along with another 5 students from the Miriam Vale / Agnes Water Club, gain selection into the Australian Squad for the 2013 World Championships in Spain. The HADEN 2011 Bundaberg Cup this year also has attracted the attention Mr Frans Christensen, Head Coach for the Australian ITF team. “It is exciting to hear that Mr Christensen will be making the trip to Bundaberg this year. He has spent a lot of time travelling to different countries studying their training regimes’ and developing these to ensure our standards are of equal or better standard at World Championships.” McGaw said.

Action for the HADEN 2011 Bundaberg Cup will kick off at the Bundaberg Basketball stadium in Flint Street, with Competitor Weigh in at 9am, and the tournament commencing at 9.30am with the Patterns Division followed by Sparring and the day finishing with the Men’s and Women’s Power Breaking

6 November, 2011/0 Comments/by Shawn Sutton

My Story so far by Léonie Therrien Tremblay

Parramatta

My story with IL Shim starts in August 2010. I had been in Australia for 4 or 5 weeks and I was looking for an ITF club where I could train. At that time, I had one thing in mind: being part of my country team, and hopefully, represent Canada in the individual sparring event at the next World Championship. I left Canada with a heartbreak, just had my first concussion from a sparring match on a day I should not have been on the floor, still, I kept riding my bicycle full on to go to work and had an accident and broke my teeth just before my flight for Sydney… Ouch. As my aunt says: « I was not aligned».

My Taekwon do journey so far has had ups and downs and it is normal. The head of the painting department in my home University who is in a wheelchair and makes pretty damn good art said one day: Living is going up, keeping the balance and suddenly we are being slapped in the face and we fall. And then we stand up on our feet again, get stronger, and then, again, we take another hit, fall, then stand up, and so on. Let’s say at that moment, I felt I’ve been slapped and was trying to go back on my feet. The only way I knew would work is by escaping my homeland in order to shake myself, to break patterns and start from scratch.

And you know, whoever you are and read my story, I don’t intend here to talk about moves and medals and sparring matches and being champion and that sort of stuff… One thing I learned at IL Shim, is that your martial art, is not really the kicks, the belt color and the performances. It is much more what you do the rest of the time in your life that will crystallize while you train, while you interact with your training partners, while you talk to your teacher. Of course learning the technique and challenging yourself are noble and beautiful things. Wearing your Dobok, washing it, looking in the eyes of someone when you bow, paying your fees on time, be there when you say you will, etc, my point is that ALL these things are important and not only the power of your kick and the speed of your punches.

When I went to my first class in Parramatta, it is this philosophy that I recognized in the teaching of Master Daher. I did not really know what it was but it had something I was looking for since I left my first Taekwon-Do school. He had the people to sit and he started talking about the Do, or «the Way» if you prefer. While most of the time in clubs you hear about Tae Kwon, «jump, kick and punch» but the Do, or all that is spiritual, the wisdom through discipline, is missing.

Today, more than a year has passed since I started my training with IL Shim. During this year and a half, I have the feeling that everything has changed in my Taekwon-Do practice and my attitude toward it. Before, the only thing I wanted was to win. Doing a lot of competitions has a weird way of making you strong and weak at the same time. But that is another topic. The idea here is the impact that joining IL Shim had on me. Let’s say being trained by a Master for 4 months before going to the nationals in Canada last year helped me big time. A lot of people came up to me afterwards and told me how surprised they were at my quick evolution. I will not tell you if I won or not, because this is not important. Nevertheless, what is very important is that I sparred at the height of my capacity, to my full potential at that moment, in full awareness and I was feeling just right.

To continue my story, following some sort of a timeline, I spent a winter 2010-11 in Canada preparing myself for the World Championship in New Zealand. Let me tell you one thing: that was not the same. Of course the team training was great, but I was travelling 3 hours every week to the next city to train with my former teacher when I was not in Montreal, (600 km from where I lived), at Eclipse Taekwon-Do. The rest of the time I was training by myself at the Gym. When I came back in Australia after New Zealand, I understood that I could never forget about IL Shim and that it would be hard to train somewhere else. I’m not saying that IL Shim is the only and the best. Perhaps IL Shim is not suitable for everybody, but it is sure the right place for someone who’s looking for some kind of spiritual development through the body and a martial art system. To me, it is obvious that when one is at the right place, doing the right thing, with the right people, it is the optimal experience.

There’s some inner voice that tells you when you are into a state of optimal experience. You don’t need to research from noon to 2pm, it is the voice of wisdom that speaks and we all have it. So once I realized that I found a good environment to practice, training partners and a teacher with whom I could learn more about Taekwon-Do and myself, I just had to make sure I stick around and stay in Australia as long as possible.

Of course life brought me some other experiences, acquaintances, challenges here in Australia, but the grounding of my life in this country, what I am now, every good thing that happened to me, are due to the strength and confidence I gained at IL Shim. Without Master Daher’s help and patience, and the support from Mr Tyson, Mr Ken Harris, Michael Jasser, all the other members of the club, and the joy from kid’s classes, nothing that I have had accomplished in Taekwon-Do, academically, socially and professionally, would have been possible.

When we had instructor courses in Canada, we used to make fun of how dear and missing Master Tran was saying: «Taekwon-Do, is a tool, for social development!» He was so right. I’m saying this because to develop socially, you must know yourself. It is a very basic rule, taught within Buddhism, Yoga, and many other philosophies and religions. And with IL Shim, it’s like speeding up the process by going to the source to get knowledge.

1 November, 2011/0 Comments/by Shawn Sutton