Melbourne Black belt grading & seminar

IL Shim TaeKwon-Do Melbourne

Black belt grading & seminar                                                                       5^TH October 2013

Leading up to this event was an intensive 2-3 months of hard work and training, in an endeavour to succeed in the objective at hand, which was to improve our patterns and techniques. But for 7 individuals it was also to pass their respective black belt gradings, there were participants from Melbourne, Latrobe Valley, Stawell and New Zealand.

With the guidance of Master Daher and Mr Harper the day commenced around 8.00am for an 8.30am start.

First item on the agenda was a warm up session, which definitely did warm you up, a fast and testing pace was set to test your stamina and endurance, then moving onto the application of individual strikes, blocks and kicks. Such as what part of the forearm is used for an “outer forearm block” and what type of attack would this block be used against.

From there taking what we have learnt and practiced, the understanding and the applications of this into patterns, starting with Chon-Ji we commenced pattern work whilst looking at the finer points of each pattern and the  movements including the purpose of. Some finer points such as “fast motion”, “continuous motion” and “connecting motion” as in Do-San movement 15 (middle punch) & 16 (middle punch) are “fast motion”, in Dan-Gun movement 13 (low outer forearm block) & 14 (rising outer forearm block) are “continuous motion” and in Yul-Gok movement 16 (middle palm hooking block) & 17 (middle punch) are “connecting motion”, the seminar part of the day took us right through to mid-afternoon.

With a short break the black belting grading commenced around 2.30pm for the 7 individuals that were hoping for promotion to the next level, 4 persons for 1^st Dan, 1 person for 2^nd Dan, 1 person for  3^rd Dan and 1 person for 4^th Dan. All seven TaeKwon-Do practitioners assembled to commence their grading. One could imagine the trepidation that they would be feeling at this point.

The grading undertook patterns, kicking, fitness, verbal questions on TaeKwon-Do and board breaking for the adults.

As the grading came to an end you could see the blood sweat and tears (as they say), that these seven TaeKwon-Do practitioners had put into their grading. A good effort and a due result had come their way, all seven TaeKwon-Do practitioners had succeeded in passing their grading.

Congratulations to Devon Pittman 4^th Dan, Michelle Harper 3^rd Dan, Caroline Agerup 2^nd Dan, Corinne Leahy 1^st Dan, Brandon Harper 1^st Dan, Ben McEvoy 1^st Dan and Shane McEvoy 1^st Dan.

The day’s proceedings finished with a dinner at a local restaurant that evening where light hearted conversation was the go, with lots of effort fighting back the exhaustion and the aches and pain the body had endured.

In conclusion I believe that a good day was partaken by all, with an improved knowledge of TaeKwon-Do under the tuition of Master Daher and Mr Harper.

Special thanks of course to Mrs Harper whose endless efforts make all these events possible.

Yours in TaeKwon-Do

John Dwight

3^rd Dan, Il Shim Melbourne

Be the best version of you, do the best you can