Once again the sunshine coast hosted Master Michael Daher 8th dan, for a master class and grading. Once again the students and myself were treated to an exceptional seminar on sparring drills that flowed so seamlessly from one technique to the next.

The importance of practicing these drills was emphasised as there would be no progress without effort! The drills really do work and i proved this in hobart in sparring where every point that I scored came from drills Master Daher had showed me.

The grading that followed, although smaller tha i would have liked, was, i think, one of the best we have had for a while. Master Daher would have liked to have failed my students on stances, but could not as they were perfect!!! We have really been focusing on this lately and it showed! next thing is foot shape though!!

 All in all it was a great day and thanks must go again to Master Daher for his tireless efforts in travelling to all of our clubs!

Taekwon

Gerard Kelly IV dan

Il Shim Umpiring Director

Head Instructor Il Shim Sunshine Coast

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.

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