TKD News:     Oct-Dec 2012

Christmas Competition at Leek High 02-12-2012

New C. Christmas Competition attracted over 100 entries, it was a great success with students having an action packed competition and a visit from Santa.   We also raised £400 for   The Stan Bowley Trust.
A big thankyou to all the officials and helpers for making it all possible.

PUMA British Championships, Swindon, 25-11-2012

Well done to our team at the PUMA British Championships.

•   Jenna Baxter - Junior Girls Blackbelt Gold Medallist Sparring
•   Jacob Bode - Junior Boys Blackbelt Gold Medallist Sparring and Bronze Medallist Patterns
•   Chris Brown- Adult Colourbelt Bronze Medallist Sparring and Patterns
•   Ella Bowley - Junior Girls Colourbelt Gold Medallist Sparring
•   Matthew Bagnall - Junior Boys Colourbelt Silver Medallist Sparring and Bronze Medallist Patterns
•   Zachary Salmon - Competitors Medal
•   Luke Brown - Competitors Medal
•   Patric Brown - Competitors Medal
•   Leah Bailey - Competitors Medal
•   Sean Phillips - Competitors Medal
•   Kyle Speak - Competitors Medal

Charity Moustache Day

Fenton Instructor Mark Chadwick took advantage of Movember and raised £80 for the
Douglas MacMillan Trust.

PUMA Northern Championships 2012

PUMA/New Century Taekwon-Do brought back 14 medals from the PUMA Northern Championships held at Biddulph Leisure Centre.  Although small in comparison to other National PUMA competitions it still attracted competitors from as far afield as Bristol, Swindon, Exeter and Oxford.   The Competition started with the 4-7 year old Little Pumas doing High kick and their Drill, 4 year old Jack Fradley (Leek) won Silver in the Drill.   Next came the musical Patterns and Bo-staff.   This was followed by the Junior Division in High Kick, Patterns and Sparring.   Leek did well with Jacob Bode Gold Sparring/Silver Patterns, Brandon Bradbury Gold High-Kick/Bronze in Sparring, Haydon Stanton Silver Sparring, James Edwards Gold High-Kick/Bronze Sparring, Jordan Barnes Competitors medal and Tilden Goodenough Silver in Patterns.
In the Adult section:   Sam Finch Gold Sparring/Gold Patterns, Gareth Jones Silver Sparring/Bronze Patterns.

Back row L/R:   Brandon Bradbury, James Edwards, Jordan Barnes and Hayden Stanton.
In front is 4 year old Little Puma Jack Fradley.

27^th Bi-annual PUMA Presentation Evening

Four New Century students received their promotions/awards:
Adam Blake (South Normanton) promoted to 3rd Degree, also received 'the best Adult Essay award'.
Tracey Holden (South Normanton) promoted to 2nd Degree.
Jenna Baxter (Fenton) promoted to 2nd Degree passing with Credit, also received 'the best Junior Blackbelt award'.
Joanne Brannan (South Normanton) promoted to 3rd Degree.

(left to right) ADAM BLAKE, TRACEY HOLDEN, JENNA BAXTER and JOANNE BRANNAN.

FGM Rhee Seminar

On 21st October Jonathan Williams, Chris Norman and Haris Mahmood attended a PUMA seminar with First Grandmaster Rhee Ki Ha (FGMR).  The seminar, which was held in Bristol, was attended by over 150 students who were keen to train with the Grandmaster.   FGM Rhee is a Korean master of Taekwon-Do who is widely recognised as the 'Father of British Taekwondo' for introducing the martial art to the United Kingdom since arriving in the 1960s.   FGM Rhee was one of the pioneers of Taekwon-Do and on the 2nd of July, 1997, at the ITF World Congress in St Petersburg Russia, General Choi made TAEKWON-DO history when he announced that Rhee Ki Ha was to be the first ever student promoted to 9th Degree and Grand Master, in recognition of his tireless efforts to promote the art throughout the world, his dedication and unswerving loyalty.   He therefore became known as First Grand Master Rhee (FGMR).   The seminar started with a colour belt seminar and that was then followed by the blackbelt seminar.   The blackbelt seminar started with all grades lining up to welcome FGM Rhee and his guest Senior Master O'Neill.   After the welcome we did a warm up which also included work on balance, core strength and conditioning.   The seminar also looked at the technical side of Taekwon-Do focusing on escaping from grabs from our traditional patterns.   We also looked at blocking with our feet instead of our hands and sine wave.   The seminar then concluded with a question and answer session with FGM Rhee to which he spoke about his time with General Choi and the use of Taekwon-Do movements in self-Defence.   We then had the opportunity to have photo's with FGM Rhee and he also signed some items for other students.   It was a great to have the opportunity to spend some time with one of the first Taekwon-Do pioneers.

Article by Jonathan Williams.

Front row (left to right):
 Master O'Neill 9th Degree, Grandmaster Rhee Ki Ha 9th Degree(FGMR), Master Black 8th Degree.
Back row (left to right):
 Haris Mahmood 1st Degree, Jonathan Williams 3rd Degree, Chris Norman 2nd Degree.