Shawn Sutton

April 2012 Grading and Master Class Gold Coast

As usual, tension was high amongst the students grading, with 3 students sitting their assessment as a lead up to the black belt grading in August. At the start Master Daher always likes to set the students at ease when it comes to a grading, as he believes it brings out the best in them.

This time around the Master Class focused on tournament sparring, with the increased number of tournaments available, it was obvious it was needed. All the students responded well and were very pleased with what they were able to get out of it. The class was high energy and required a great deal of focus to stay up with the technique being taught. This set the pace for the grading that was to follow. The students did an outstanding job to prove their place in the belt ranking system and also showed off their instructors knowledge with the technique they have been taught.

I believe that each time we have a grading the standard increases and the ability is becoming more obvious that soon we will have some very good students up for selection for the world championship teams.

I would like to thank the efforts from Master Daher, the parents for their encouragement and support and also the students for giving their very best.

 

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Shawn Sutton

RICK SCHOLES and TRENT HAYDEN represent ILSHIM in Sweden.

Every year around the end of march, the town of Skovde in Sweden plays host to one of the most popular and important ITF Taekwon-Do tournaments in Europe. The Viking Cup International attracts many of the biggest stars from around the world, and they use this tournament as a warm up for the European Championships in the following month. One of the most attractive aspects of the Viking Cup is the use of a “pool system” for the sparring draw, rather than the more conventional “pyramid” knockout draw. The pool system means that each division of competitors are divided into “pools” of up to five people who fight all of the other individuals in their pool, with the highest two point scoring competitors progressing into the next round. This unique system means that everyone is guaranteed to get multiple fights regardless of the results. Of course this is a huge attraction for everyone, particularly if contemplating a significant outlay in both cost and time to travel to an event for potentially only one match. As a result this tournament is supported by countries, teams, and individuals from all over the world.

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This year, Rick Scholes and Trent Hayden from ILSHIM Australia, made the long journey to Sweden to test their skills. They planned on arriving the week before the competition to get over the inevitable jetlag and do a little site-seeing. Our Swedish hosts did an exceptional job of making Rick and Trent feel welcome and they enjoyed the trip very much. They made many new friends along the way, and hope to return to Sweden in the future. As far as results went, both of the boys went to Sweden to gain valuable experience in multiple fights against international opponents and to that end both of them applied their knowledge as best they could and came home with a far greater depth of knowledge than they could have hoped for. Along the way Rick was eliminated in the pool stages after a number of very close matches, and Trent was fortunate enough to progress all the way through to the medal rounds and achieved a Bronze Medal (Senior Male Sparring TOP LEVEL -80kg). Both Rick and Trent are very excited about everything that they have learned and are looking forward to sharing this knowledge with other Taekwon-Do enthusiasts in Australia.

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Shawn Sutton

Stawell Grading April 2012

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On Saturday the 31st of March, Master Daher travelled to Stawell to conduct our first grading of 2012. As we had a smaller number of participants than usual, Master Daher decided to conduct the grading similar to a seminar format.
The focus for the day was fundamental movements. Three students of similar belt levels were asked to perform movements while the rest of the class was asked to assess the movement and comment on areas of improvement. To begin with Master Daher would prompt the students to turn their attention to the stance, the hand position etc. By the end of the session the students needed no assistance and were becoming their own grading assessors. Master Daher’s philosophy was that if the class could correct others they could then assess and fix their own technique.
As the grading progressed individual technique progressed to patterns. The students felt empowered as their own assessors and the pressure cooker of the formal grading was lessened considerably.
Thank you, Master Daher, for allowing us to be the first club to experience your new style of grading. It was a most positive experience for all of us and we look forward to your next visit to Stawell.

Taekwon
Mr Steve Harper

102 5823Demonstrating the basics

Explanation of what to look forGreen belts turn

 

 

 

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Shawn Sutton

Masterclass and Grading – Victoria, April 2012

Master Daher's flexibility is second to none!

On Sunday the 1st of April we had the pleasure of having Master Daher at Il Shim Melbourne to run our first Masterclass and Grading for 2012. Students from Il Shim Melbourne, Latrobe Valley and Dandenong turned out in force to appreciate the prodigious talents of our Master.

We started off the day learning how to examine students. Yes it was April Fools Day, but no this was not a joke. Each student, whether black belt or white belt, had the opportunity to step into the shoes of the examiner. By teaching our students to look for what Master Daher looks for means that the new examiner and student both understand what is required. Instead of having one pair of eyes looking at 45 students we now had 45 pairs of eyes looking at our students. Everyone was learning which is what a Masterclass is all about.

Towards the end of the morning all of the students had the opportunity to show their newly found knowledge in front of Master Daher and all performed more than well enough to pass their grading. We thank Master Daher for coming down to Melbourne and giving us anther fantastic grading and Masterclass. Thanks also to Mrs Harper for her tireless work arranging the grading, these events wouldn’t be the success they are without her. Thank you to the senior belts who assisted on the day, to Mr Steven Harper for coming down from Stawell, and to Mr and Mrs Proctor and all of the team from Latrobe Valley who also travelled a fair distance to be in attendance. 

Mr Paul Harper
V Dan, Melbourne

Master Daher's flexibility is second to none!

Students watch intently as Master Daher demonstrates hand position for fundamental movements

Fundamental movements

White belts lined up with Black belts as examiners became the examinees.

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