Sam Sankey – our Quiet Achiever

Achieving a promotion within your Taekwon-Do journey is always exciting. Your efforts in class each week are rewarded with your next belt – a symbol of where you are on the path to Black Belt. Each grading gives you the opportunity to show off how hard you are training, how well you have developed your technique, and puts to the test everything that you have learned so far. Every now and then a student will present themselves for grading and show just how much they deserve their new belt by being awarded a double-promotion. This achievement doesn’t happen often, and is an indication of just how proficient your Taekwon-Do skills need to be in order for it to occur.  Very rarely does this occur twice in one’s journey to Black Belt, certainly not in back-to-back gradings. But this is exactly what Samuel Sankey has achieved at the recent Melbourne grading this month. Sam was double promoted to 5th kup, from 7th kup. And this is after having just been double promoted from 9th kup to 7th kup back in April this year. A brilliant achievement, and certainly not one that many Taekwon-Do practitioners can boast of! 

Sam joined Il Shim Melbourne back in September 2010 with his younger brother Daniel. A quiet achiever, Sam’s conduct in class is exemplary, as is Daniel’s. At 17 years of age Sam shows a maturity beyond his years and is a pleasure to teach. Sam’s Taekwon-Do skills are always improving, he is willing to accept feedback, take it on board, and then develop and refine his technique based on that feedback. We are very proud of Sam’s achievments and look forward to seeing him develop through the Colour Belt syllabus on his way through to becoming a black belt in the not too distant future. 

Upon his first double promotion Sam had this to say: 

“I was both nervous and excited at the possibility of ‘Double Grading’. After warming up and completing combinations along with Master Daher, his encouraging words made me feel more at ease and confident. Before too long it was time to perform my new and first pattern Chon Ji.  On completing it successfully I felt very satisfied, all of my training had been made worthwhile. The whole experience of ‘Double Grading’ was thoroughly enjoyable.   

Speaking with Sam after his second double grading he stated that it was an unexpected surprise but that he was very happy with what he had achieved, paying tribute to the skills of his instructor Mr Paul Harper.

We congratulate Sam on an outstanding start to his Taekwon-Do career!

 Taekwon,

Michelle Harper

Assistant Instructor – Il Shim Melbourne