We are very excited to announce the birth of the newest Il Shim Taekwon-Do club in Dandenong, Victoria!

Commencing in March, IL SHIM Dandenong will be lead by Mrs Jessica Bull, 1st Dan Black Belt. We are very pleased to have Mrs Bull on board and look forward to a successful opening night!

When: Thursday 1st March, 2012
Where: Oasis Leisure Centre, cnr Heatherton Rd and Cleeland Rd, Dandenong
Time: 7:30pm

All available are encouraged to come along and help support Mrs Bull and make the night a success.

Any enquiries for IL SHIM DANDENONG: please phone Mrs Bull on 0402 923 858 or email bullspaddock7@yahoo.com

Kick-Off Camp report from Gerard Kelly IV Dan Sunshine Coast

            Chances are if your legs are still hurting you were present for the last two sessions of the kick-off camp 2012. Once again practitioners from all over Australia converged at Tallebudgera to participate in the two day event which is the highlight of the start of the year for me!

            Day one started with a session on pre-arranged free sparring held by yours truly. The rules were covered in its basic format and then the class was divided into pairs so that they could get into choreographing their 10-20 second routine. Everyone did very well and we showed off the routines we thought were looking good. The masters had arrived by this stage and were impressed with the creativity shown by the students. I finished with a challenge for everyone to take this event and practice in class as something different that they could do to vary their training.

            The second session was with Mr Robbie Meddlin and this was a class on focus. Mr Meddlin emphasised the need to set your goals, but to make sure that you write them down so you can keep track of your progress. He also pointed out that there is a fine line between perseverance and stupidity! Also the reasons why you lose focus were covered, which I felt was fantastic as its easy to say what keeps you focused but many people tend to overlook what distracts you from YOUR goals!!

            Mr Van Beelen was next with his power breaking knowledge, and once again he shows exactly why he has dominated in this event for over a decade in both local,state and international competition. All of the 5 techniques were covered and the students all got to practice them under the watchful eye of some of the most experienced competitors and instructors. The importance of using your hips was made very clear in the power of all the techniques and Mr Van Beelen was clear and concise in his teaching!

            A quick break for lunch and we had the pleasure of having Master Daher teach us sooner than expected as on of our guest speakers could not make it that day. We covered self defense from the ground and once again I was to be the test crash dummy. It is actually very enlightening to be on the receiving end of these techniques, as it gives you a very good insight into whether or not these techniques are effective! Believe me they are VERY effective!! One concerned black stripe asked me if I was okay after taking a pummeling from Master Daher, I responded that yes I was indeed okay but it showed that my body conditioning was up to scratch as I walked away unhurt.

            The last session of the day was an enhanced version of netball, with three balls three very unbiased umpires and two goal areas!! Lots of fun was had and the umpires definitely did not break any rules by scoring goals!!!

            Day two started with Mr Steve Weston VI dan from Tasmania emphasising the importance of the 9 training secrets of taekwon-do! Do you remember them all? I do because Mr Weston made the session both fun and practical. All of the secrets were taught with the practical demonstration of what we do when using them. Mr Weston’s scientific background made it entertaining to learn these secrets as we were moving a lot while our brains were being engaged at the same time!

            Mr Harper took the next session and it was devoted to doing wights without any weights to lift!!! We did all of our exercises with a partner providing the resistance needed to complete the sets! I found this session also enlightening as it shows that you definitely don’t need a gym to workout!!!!!

            Master Mcphail was next and we knew that we were in for a treat! His sessions are always well thought out and lots of fun. We covered the changes in how we train our core region using a varied form of sit-up called the McGill sit-up and varied forms of planking as well! We did a race using the planking to push-up and back again and then it was time for our high intensity work-out!!! We did a session using the tomatic scale. (Hope i spelt that right!) Three exercises, 8 sets of each using the lowest amount we did as our score for each exercise! Push-ups, squats and burpees were the 3 exercises given and by the end of the burpees there were a lot of people in pain, myself included. My score was 36 which I am happy to say was one of the highest on the day! Master Mcphail was even impressed!! Once again showing that you don’t need a gym to exercise intensely was the order of the day with this session and my legs are still killing me as I had gym on Monday!!!!

           The last session was with Master Daher on the beach and once again this session was vigorous!! Lots of running in the water, push-ups in the water, sit-ups in the water, sparring in the water!!! The meditating in the water was a real highlight for me and I had to be roused twice as I was really in the moment with the ocean and sea air all around me, it was just sublime!!!

            Any of you that were there at the camp are saying “what about the mystery guest Mr Kelly? You forgot him!!!” No, I have left him till last because he made quite an impression on me. How many times have you had the opportunity to talk to a millionare? In my life I have talked to several and they all share something in common! They are just normal people who have done the simple things really well! Darren Stephens was no different, he had such an easy manner about him and his outlook on life is so similar to mine, I found him very easy to listen to. We did some kinetic exercises to show the power of the mind over the body, which are really interesting to see. We also did some setting of trigger points, which when activated can do some amazing things depending on what they are set up for. We learnt that top athletes and sports people use these techniques to enhance their performance and I could really notice the effects!!! A lot of lessons came out of this session I couldn’t name them all but one of them was that if you want anything in life, you have to get up off your bum to get it!!!!!!

            In closing this was a fantasic event again and I am already planning for the nxt one!!! Thankyou Master Daher and Mr Abdallah for organising this fantastic event and for a great many other things!!!

Taekwon

Gerard Kelly IV Dan Il Shim Sunshine coast

2012 Kick Off Camp Review

 The Kick Off Camp for 2012 was set up for something different this year, as it took into consideration some of the comments that were presented at previous Kick Off camps. The general feeling from most was the degree of muscle soreness that they were experiencing after the first day. So this time the event was structured so that focus was on a low level impact on the body for the first day, leaving no excuse for when they all returned the next day.

We had a line up of spectacular presenters and speakers, all which were TKD focused, enabling us to relate what we had learnt to our own training. It was enjoyable to get such precise training from experienced instructors that have competed at world competition level and pass on their knowledge.

 The event saw Mr Gerard Kelly take us through traditional sparring, which attracted a lot of interest among the lower ranking students, giving us all a hands on practical application of this reasonably new addition to world competitions.

 This was then followed by Mr Robbie Medlin, who spoke about focus, goal setting and finding a way to enjoy your training. His talk made everyone think how they could adopt some of what was said into their own training.

2012 Kick Off Camp – Gold Coast

Click on this photo to see the entire Album

 Mr Van Beelen was very impressive with his positive presentation on power breaking, giving us the tools to achieve great heights.

The all inspiring Mystery Guest Mr Darren Stephens talk was to basically say wake up, whatever you want to achieve is possible, if you want it bad enough and he used some simple techniques to help along the way.

 I (John Abdallah) was in charge of entertainment and seeing that I can’t juggle or swallow swords, although I am very funny, was just not going to be enough. I split the group into two teams and threw in three mini soccer balls. The un-organised chaos was well accepted after a full on day of focus and concentration.

 Day 2, I promised everyone that it was going to be the hardest day of training they have had for a long while. The highest ranking instructors, Mr Steve Weston, Mr Paul Harper and Master Paul McPhail took us to our limits and did not disappoint anyone.

Mrs Lauren Hall, spoke briefly about the new direction that ITF Australia will be taking, going fully automated with a live online system for the whole organisation.

Finally as always Master Daher finished everyone off in the water, as if the previous instructors hadn’t done enough damage, all were exhausted by the end and glad that they had finally made it to the finish.

A big thank you to all that contributed to make this event as enjoyable as it was.

John Abdallah