Hello and welcome to everyone, to our newest

members reading this newsletter for the first

time and to all the long existing members read-ing yet another fantastically written newsletter

made possible because (we have an amazing group) of our instructors all contributing to give

you the best in Tae Kwon Do training. So far,

since the last issue, we have had our first tour-nament of the year which was an outstanding

day all round. We have also had a small group

from our fold represent Australia in Japan at an international level and all come away with a

placing including one first place (see the article inside). Midway through the year and we have

done and achieved so much so far, and the

second half of the year is just about to get busy. Back to our Tournament Round 1 first and I

would like to congratulate every single person

involved not only in the running of it, but also the competitors for an outstanding display of

not just Tae Kwon Do but off sportsmanship and camaraderie. The support and encourage-

ment that was offered by all was something

special to be a part of. You, the students, made the day the success it was. Also the family

members that were watching and also offering their encouragement as well, you add so much

to the atmosphere in the hall. Shouts of support

and groans of anguish all making the day that extra special. Even my parents who came along

(yes the Chief Instructor still has his mum and

dad come watch him too) made comment on the incredible energy in the room. I had a very

close, personal friend (who use to train many years ago) watching our club for the first time

and made many positive comments on the

standard and quality of our people. It certainly makes me proud when I hear such kind words

from people I love and respect, as they see what we are achieving and give us all high praise.

Speaking of love and respect, Welcome back

Lee. Our club mother has returned from over-seas to be with her family through sickness

(and you thought you would not be back hey

girl). Once Tae Kwon Do (particularly IMTKD) is in your blood, it’s there for good.

Seeing you taking the white belts at the all rank training session bought back so many memo-

ries. I think the white belts really enjoyed your

nurturing type of lesson too. The ease of com-munication and passion for what you love

teaching and sharing is something we can all

learn from. Even a seasoned instructor in Jo-seph Sandona made comment on your teaching

skill; we are not talking training, just pure enjoyment of teaching. It’s a very hard skill to

learn and develop, as all black belts know. The

way you just flowed back into it as if your last class was only the previous day was wonderful

to see. It made me very happy to see you en-joying yourself too. Welcome back from all us

at the club, we missed you more than you will

ever know. On a personal note, my broken foot has re-

covered and have started back into some light

training; I even managed to help out at a Demo just recently. Was great to be able to spar,

having a light one with Jason Parker (if any spar with Jason is light) and even managing to

get myself all the way back down to a side split

position. Up until I strained a muscle in my leg

trying to do a 520 jumping reverse crescent kick that was just a bit more of a stretch that

this body can do these days ( but still remem-bers how to do, good old age). But it felt good

to be back on the floor, however brief. My leg

is recovering well now and I look forward to being a bit more regular to some classes soon.

Unfortunately I will not be at this coming

grading as I will be on holidays in Melbourne. It will be the first time since I established the

club that I will not be there for a grading, but I have great faith in Jason, Brett, Joseph and

Robert whom have now been helping on the

table at grading times for a number of years. I have total confidence in their abilities and as

we have a 4th Dan and three 3rd Dan black belts

very experienced in the running of a grading I can relax just that little bit more while I am

away. Thanks guys for covering this one for me. So good luck to everyone, I know it will

not be made any easier for those two students

going for their black belts. Good luck boys, you have done the work leading up to this day, now

show the club that you are ready to wear that converted belt.

We still have a lot more planned for the year

yet, Rounds 2 and 3 of our tournament series to determine the Grand Champions for the year.

We have a black belt camp coming up and of

course our monthly all rank training sessions and black belt nights. We are also looking to

hold and extra special seminar with Mr Ian Fauth who visited our last camp and showed us

the Superfoot system of kicking and stretching.

We are looking to get numbers and expressions of interest from you all about this session so

please fill out the form and get it back to your instructor ASAP. We are also asking if you are

interested in ordering both a T-shirt (new de-

sign) and hat with logo on it, if you are inter-ested in purchasing also fill out the form and

get it back to your instructor. So there are a few

things we are wanting from you, so if you are interested don’t wait till we have ordered the

hats and shirts as without an indication from you, we will only order the numbers required.

So you have one chance only to get these lim-

ited edition items.

Well that about it from me, but I want all

student to remember that to improve in any-

thing (not just TKD) requires focus and com-

mitment. It’s up to you to do the work, to put

the extra time aside to really achieve what you

set your sights on doing. Be that in school,

work or in your personal relationships. Respect

others, even outside of the club and show the

honour that a martial artist possesses. Remem-

ber to train hard, kick high and keep striving for

perfection.

Peter Cameron

Chief Instructor

5th Degree Black Belt

Breaking Ground JUNE 2013 VOLUME 7, ISSUE 2

Striving for

Perfection

moderntkd.com

A Word From the

Chief Instructor

Upcoming Events

13th July

Tournament Round 1

@ Bald Hills

27th July

All Rank Training

@ Bald Hills

24th August

All Rank Training

@ Kallangur

7th September

Grading

@ Kallangur

Quote of the Month

Inside this issue:

Banyo Breakers 2

Mastering the Art 2

IMT in Tokyo 3-4

A Taekwondo Family 4

Tournament Wrap Up 5

Kallangur News 6

Redcliffe Review 6

She’s Back! 7

Narangba to Murrumba 8

Tournament Results 9

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes

from an indomitable will.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Our JMAC International Team

Page 2 BREAKING GROUND

retract our leg and leave the knee in position for another kick rather than letting it drop to the floor and having to raise it up again for the next kick.

Remember our legs are approx 1/3 of our total body weight. So if we weigh 60kgs then each time

we have to lift our legs to kick, we have to lift 10kgs. Multiply that by the number of kicks dur-ing the grading.

With tired legs, we don’t move. We don’t move we get hit. We get hit, we get even more tired.

If we drop our hands down, by the time we get them back up our partner has bopped us on the nose.

Bit of a nasty circle isn’t it.

Maybe our instructors are onto something.

So by keeping our hands up, good knee position-ing and remembering not to drop our legs after we kick, we can make the whole experience a much less tiring affair and maybe not get hit as often.

The side light to this is that it doesn’t just apply to classes and gradings. The less tired you are in a self defence situation, the better chance you have of coming away from the conflict better off than your attacker.

Tony Robinson

2nd Degree Black Belt

Gradings can be very physically tiring, Yes?

Well there are ways of minimizing the toll on our bodies. We are out on the floor giving it our all and trying to show our best technique but our arms and legs are just getting heavier. So we just forget the advice our instructors have been drumming into us.

“Keep your hands up. Keep your knee up. Don’t drop your leg. Keep your hands up.”

I mean really, it’s not them trying to lift our legs up for another kick as we are doing basics up and down the hall or sparring. They don’t have any idea what we are going through. It’s so hot. How do they know what it’s like?

Sound familiar?

Well guess what. By ignoring their advice we have actually made things so much harder for ourselves.

Yes our arms and legs are really heavy. So why on earth would we want to be lifting them up and dropping them down constantly. It’s like do-ing a weights session in the gym by the time the grading or training session is over.

Wouldn’t it just be much easier to just leave our hands up where they belong ( protecting our head and ready to punch ) than to put them up, drop them down and then back up again over

and over. Think about the number of punches we will throw during the grading and how much effort this takes.

When we kick, wouldn’t it be much easier to just

dents. A very big thankyou to students and parents who gave up part of their Saturday's to help us with these fetes. On a sadder note, my trip to Ja-pan was not all good news. Dur-ing the tournament I twisted my knee and in doing so ruptured my ACL. I have recently under-gone knee reconstruction sur-gery and as such I will be out of action for quite some time. In

the mean time Jaz and Ryan from Banyo will be instructing my class. A very big thank you to them for giving up their time to ensure the Bald Hills class can continue without interruption.

Joseph Sandona 3rd Degree Black Belt

Another exciting year is almost half way through. Bald Hills has the pleasure of welcoming an-other new student to our class. Ella is only 5 years old, and has moved from another Tae kwon Do group to join IMT's family. She is enjoying her self a lot and making great progress. The re-cent school fetes has given us a great opportunity to promote the club and have attracted the interest of a couple of new stu-

MASTERING THE ART

It was a land of contradictions, a high-tech world with almost no eftpos and with electronics stores mystified by sim cards. Easy-going permissiveness went hand-in hand with strict codes of respectability and the hustle and bustle of a major inter-national city was tempered with several businesses closing on Sunday. In this strange world where almost no one spoke English, Joe, Jacinta, Brandon, Eliot and Zac (accompanied by Darren, Desley and Pat) arrived at the Hotel Metropolitan in Ikebukuro as representatives of IMT. They were also the advance party for the Australian WMAC team, which was a fitting turn of events because this group really understood what it meant to be a team. Looking back, the first few days now seem a blur, with the sleep-deprived group becoming masters of the metro, exploring Tokyo in every direction, in search of big buildings, lots of lights and a samu-rai sword. Throughout the week, the buildings and lights were no problem but the sword proved to be a failed quest, along with Eliot’s efforts to buy a Pikachu from a pet store and Darren’s attempt to have Bran-don arrested by the local police without having done anything illegal first. Every-one tried the local cuisine, although some were actually surprised to find so many places selling Japanese food. Brandon showed an uncanny ability to sleep any-where and Eliot’s T-shirt, advertising in Japanese for a Japanese girlfriend, ensured that there were lots of photos taken with the locals. Special mention also needs to go to Darren, who took most of the group’s snapshots and uploaded them daily for the IMT faithful. From Ikebukuro to Yoyogi, Shinjuku, Ueno, Marunouchi, Namboku and a host of other strange names, “Tokyo Joe” San-dona and his crew immersed themselves in their new environment, exploring parks and temples and the amazing Tokyo Zoo,

where a cast of pandas, giraffes and ele-phants etc. were supported by the exotic ibis. Then it was on to Disneyland, where the team really left their mark. Their en-thusiasm on rides, characterised by a de-termination to act as frightened as possible and to cry out “Godzilla” at every avail-able opportunity, led to requests from the locals to accompany them on more attrac-tions. But in a hectic place like Tokyo, it’s im-portant to take the time to stop and smell the fish. So with that in mind, most of the

gang set out on Friday morning for the Tokyo fish markets to be greeted by the distinctive odour all the way from the sub-way station. They took in the sights of giant pieces of octopus and other sea-food and sampled shav-ings from a block of wood that apparently used to be a fish. It was certainly an unusual experience, which Jacinta later described as “really gross”. Then it was back to won-

derful Ikebukuro, where Zac and Eliot had meanwhile discovered the seven-storey “crazy penguin” store, a bizarre establish-ment that seemed to sell everything from holy water to spaceships. The whole team descended upon penguin central to em-bark on a onesie frenzy, so they could be suitably attired for their Friday night Skype hook-up with black belt training at Kallangur. Combining their Disneyland and crazy penguin purchases, they were able to present themselves online as Eey-ore, Stitch, two incarnations of Donald

Duck and a Power Ranger, all of which made sure they were mentally prepared for the follow-ing day’s competition.

The team awoke early on Saturday morn-ing to embark upon a quest for breakfast before having to assemble with the rest of the Australian team at 6:30 am. Thank heavens for the ubiquitous McDonald’s. Then, following a typically stirring WMAC speech, a scenic coach ride got everyone to the “Thunderbird” venue nice and early before they had to compete against the Japanese team who displayed a wholehearted combative spirit. Joe got things off to a nice start, taking third place in kata with a highly articulate pattern. Unfortunately, this was to consti-tute almost all of his competition. An awkward landing on some slippery mat-ting led to a knee injury that caused him not only to forfeit a bout in which he was leading but also to withdraw from the rest of the day’s sparring. Eliot also slipped over a couple of times on the precarious surface without being touched but, when he found his balance, it was certainly memorable. Trailing 5-1 against a leading Japanese competitor in contact points with only twenty seconds to go, Eliot unleashed two consecutive IMT specials, with his right foot then the left, to register a quick six points to take a 7-5 lead with five sec-onds remaining. From there on, he kept his distance to ensure a passage into the final. Following Eliot’s lead, Bran-don took less than half a min-ute to repeat the dose of headshots in the play-off for third place, show-ing the Tokyo boys how they do things down Kal-langur way.

...continued next page.

Page 3 VOLUME 7, ISSUE 2

Page 4 BREAKING GROUND

As a parent/guardian, we always want to be able to protect our children, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who would love to be able to spend more time with them and have a common interest with them (which in this day & age, if you’re not techno-logically inclined, can be difficult). So, how can we make this happen? We can’t sign up for their foot-ball or hockey team……we can’t take them to work with us……and are they really going to want us sit-ting over their shoulder while they’re texting their friends or playing their ipods?…….I think not! So, what is it that your children do, that is possible for you to join and share their learning experience, help them at home and know that in the long run you’ll feel more confident within yourself & the prospect of protecting them? Why not join Tae Kwon Do with them!

Think of all the benefits you’d gain by joining. Apart from all the points mentioned above, you’d be increasing your own fitness, self confidence, and knowledge of how to look after yourself and your family, and all while you’re having fun! Imagine how excited your children would be to be able to

learn new things with you, and have a training buddy at home. Tae Kwon Do also changes your whole outlook on life. Now, whether I’m alone, or with the children…..I’m constantly aware of my surroundings, and anything/anyone that gives the impression of a possible threat. All you have to do is read the news these days, with all the random at-tacks etc, and you realise how important this is. I also enjoy 2 nights a week, where my family & I train together, therefore spending more quality time together.

So, why not come along to a class and give it a go (chances are you’re already there as their “taxi driver” anyway)? If not to a class, perhaps con-sider our upcoming “Basic Self Defence” day as a taste tester, and then try and stop yourself from wanting to join. We’d really love to see some of the parents/guardians getting the same enjoyment & life skills from Tae Kwon Do as your children do. Age is no limit…….trust me, I know!

Kathy Pascoe

1st Degree Black Belt

...continued from previous page. No amount of accolades are sufficient for Jacinta Manley, who was inspirational in a mixed field for continuous sparring, taking the attack to high-class male competitors and almost beating the eventual winner, who was clearly unsettled by her technique and fierce determination. Her effort thor-oughly warranted the instant high praise she received from her team mates and her perceptive and dedicated coach (Joe San-dona). Later in the day, Jacinta took out third place in continuous sparring for fe-males only while competing above her age group. But the day mostly belonged to the Kahl brothers. Not only was Brandon on fire, taking out third place in contact points and second in continuous sparring, but Zac supplied what was probably the story of the tournament. Following the disap-pointment of being mysteriously disquali-

fied from a non-contact points event in which he was clearly outclassing the field, Zac was eliminated from contact points with a broken toe. He was clearly in distress for the rest of the day as his painful toe turned black and swelled up horribly. He still chose not to withdraw from continuous sparring, even though every bout required a ton of encouragement from his IMT team mates and incredible will power on his own part. At the end of each match-up, he returned to the seats in tears but he kept fighting and winning until he was eventually de-clared All-Japan Champion. It was an ef-

fort for which he deservedly received en-thusiastic praise from Coach Sandona.

The final haul was a first place (Zac), two seconds (Eliot and Brandon) and three thirds (Joe, Brandon and Jacinta). All in all, the delegates from IMT were a credit to their associa-tion, displaying sportsmanship and team spirit that was matched by few and surpassed by no one. It certainly seems to be an IMT quality, given the

instant outpouring of congratulatory Face-book messages from supporters back home. A sleepy team arrived back at Bris-bane airport on Monday night, justifiably proud of their achievements and genuinely grateful for the all the amazing support they’ve been given throughout their entire adventure.

By Pat Wilson

Page 5 BREAKING GROUND

The 2013 tournament series kicked off in emphatic

fashion at Undurba State School on the 4th of May.

The first divisions for the day were patterns. For the

newest members who were about to compete in

their first tournament, all of their club mates were

there to give them words of encouragement and

support. While nerves get to the best of us, our new

competitors did very well, and soon had the confi-

dence of seasoned professionals.

In the Junior division Taylah from Murrumba Downs

took first place with Marco from Bald Hills and Jack

from Redcliffe taking 2nd and 3rd respectively. It

was all Redcliffe in the Senior division. It was a

very close division, but it was eventually won by

Michael Lorcan, with Tim and his brother Tom Lor-

can taking the other two positions.

The next division was won

by Daniel Garland from

Kallangur, who was up

against some high quality

opposition in the 6-5 Juniors.

Amy and Hoang placed 2nd

and 3rd in a very close com-

petition. However, the 4-2

Juniors were even harder to

split. These are seasoned

and experienced competitors

who always make it very difficult for the judges to

score. It was extremely close for the top 3, but it

was Sam Mowatt from Redcliffe keeping his good

form from last year going to take 1st place. He was

closely followed by Daishana and Zak, who were

themselves, closely followed by another 8 amazing

performances in what surely is a standard setting

division.

The Seniors division was won by Cameron Hall

from Redcliffe, with Banyo’s Zhane and Murrumba’s

Craig taking 2nd and 3rd.

For the first time, the 1st grade juniors were put in

with the Black Belts. For most of them, they are

looking to become Black Belts themselves by the

end of the year, so the increased competitions will

be something they will be experiencing soon. There

were 2 black tips in the top 3, with Zac Kahl and

Calum Trent from Kal-

langur taking 1st and

3rd respectively, with

Gordon Edmonds from

Bald Hills splitting them

with his 2nd placing.

The Senior Black Belt

division was won by

Jacinta Manley, with

Peter Voermanek and

Conner Bell taking the

other 2 places.

There was creativity and excitement galore as the

Teams Demonstrations started. 6 teams were

involved, and each gave it their all to

entertain us with their sublime Mar-

tial Arts skills. The teams were so

hard to split for the judges, as each

demonstration offered something

special. But a high tempo demo

from Daniel, Zak and Matthew from

Kallangur was enough to closely

beat the other teams to top spot.

Well done boys!

After a delicious lunch from the Kallangur clubs

awesome support crew, the sparring kicked off with

a bang. The Black Belts took centre stage to set

the tone for what would be an afternoon of fantastic

sparring. Max and Gordon were battling it out be-

tween each other, with Max being the eventual

winner.

The Senior Black

Belts were at full

flight entertaining all

spectators and com-

petitors alike with

their strong and

exciting sparring. It

was an impressive

performance from

Jacinta Manly

against her adult

male opponents taking out 3rd place. But the day

belonged to Conner from Bribie who was pushed to

the limit by Ryan from Banyo to take out 1st place.

Pee Wee sparring was next up. Always a crowd

favourite, these tiny warriors were all smiles and

action, giving it their all. With the majority of this

division being first time competitors, they wasted no

time getting into the swing of competition. All were

impressive, but the extra experience of Coban

Parker was enough to take 1st place, with Kyle and

William taking the other 2 places. Diep, Bree and

Marco all fought well, and have all

the hallmarks of future champions!

Over in the Junior and Intermediate

divisions, there were again new

fighters looking to make their tour-

nament debuts. Pierre, Taylah and

Jack showed experience beyond

their rank to take out 1st, 2nd and 3rd, leaving the

higher grades on red alert for these new up-and-

comers. In the Intermediate division, Kallangur

students Daniel and Amy took 1st and 2nd, with

10th grade Renata showing good spirit and determi-

nation against his much higher ranked opponents to

take 3rd place.

The green belt juniors took to the ring next, and they

were all fighting very strongly. After many close

fights, and many draws, eventually the placing were

decided and it was Mitchell

Bradford from Bribie who

took first place. Ethan from

Redcliffe and Duncan from

Bribie claimed the other two

places.

In the Senior Division, Mi-

chael Lorcan backed up his

first place in patterns to take

1st in sparring against Owen from Banyo. The final

was very well fought from both men and the tough-

ness of the final was indicative of the whole division

with many awesome and memorable bouts.

The 4-3 Junior Division was definitely on of the

highlight divisions of the day. The standard set in

this division was very high and everyone was very

evenly matched. There were countless draws, extra

times and referee’s decisions. A true testament to

the quality of the competitors. It was Oliver Paese

from Murrumba Downs who eventually triumphed.

But it’s divisions like this that makes us wish every-

one could get first place!

There was only 2 competitors in the Senior Division,

but it was anything but easy for Robert from Bribie

and Craig from Murrumba Downs. This division

was so close that there were more extra times than

there was actual fights! Every spar these two had

went into extra time, again showing the standard for

everyone to aspire to. After what seemed like an

eternity of sparring for these two, it was Craig who

eventually claimed first place.

The final division for the day was the 2-1 Juniors.

These young fighters really showed their stuff with

strong, intelligent sparring. Fresh off an inspiring

result in Japan, Zac Kahl fought with a still injured

toe to take out 1st place over Nicolas from Redcliffe.

Calum Trent from Kallangur took 3rd place, but it

really was another fantastically close division.

The atmosphere all day was amazing, so a very big

thankyou to all of the athletes,

families and instructors for

making the day such a success

and so enjoyable for everyone.

See you at Round 2!

makes all of the instructors ex-

tremely proud of all of our students

and we love seeing you all doing so

well.

I would like to make a quick men-

tion to all of our students and in-

structors who are competing in the

AMAC tournaments this year. We

have all had great success, especially

our international competitors who

travelled to Japan. It demonstrated

how your hard work is rewarded

with fantastic results.

There a lot of other big events

coming up soon as well. Some of

you may or may not know that my

brother Brett Parker has been train-

ing hard for his 4th Degree Black

Belt grading later this year. I know

how difficult it is to teach a class

and fit in your own training to get

ready for a huge grading like this. I

have trained and assisted at Kallan-

gur for many, many years, (actually

it’s more like many, many, many,

many years) and I will be helping

him prepare as much as I can. To

Half way through the year already

and it seems to be flying by. Look-

ing back to all of the great events

we’ve already experienced this year

it’s hard to believe that there is still

so much more to come.

For the Redcliffe club, this coming

grading will be a big one. We have

a lot of students looking to get their

new belt. 2 of our students will be

looking forward to getting the most

important belt of all. Anthony and

Nicholas will be attempting their

Black Belt grading this weekend.

The boys have been working extra

hard in class, putting in extra train-

ing with the seniors and attending

as many additional training sessions

as they can. Everyone will be wish-

ing them the best of luck, I’m sure

they will do us all proud.

There are still 2 more rounds of our

yearly tournament series coming up

and after the great turnout at round

1, they will only get bigger and bet-

ter. The standard of competition at

the tournaments is so great, it

all of the students at Kallangur, I

urge you to help him out as much

as you can as well. From sparring

him hard, holding pads or boards,

and understanding that he will have

to focus on his own training every

now and then. Luckily there are

several other Black Belts and In-

structors at Kallangur ready to help

out and support where they can.

Everyone should be aware now that

we will be holding some special self

defence sessions for family mem-

bers of students (and students as

well). We have had a lot of interest

already, and I cant wait for these to

kick off. Trust me, you will be in-

spired by our passion for martial

arts and you will gain many valu-

able skills. Hope to see everyone

on the floor.

Jason Parker

Master Instructor

4th Degree Black Belt

have now purchased 4 new strike shields as well as a new set of focus

mitts as a result. Thanks again to all

the parents who helped out on the day, whether it be with tasty donations

to sell or help in the kitchen on the day, the success is due in part to you

support, for that I can't thank you all enough.

I shouldn't be surprised (but I am) that

the year is passing by so quickly, the Kallangur club has a lot of higher

grades at the moment pushing for pro-motions, it's great to see the effort

being applied in class, in particular

some of the younger students who are rising to the challenge - keep up the

Firstly I would like to thank all the stu-dents from Kallangur in their participa-

tion in the First Round Tournament

held at Undurba State School on the 4th of May. Your participation has

helped the Kallangur Club to a narrow but important points lead in the overall

club points tally. I'm expecting a big challenge from the other clubs this

year (as always) so it was important to

get off to a good start. As most of you would know the Kallan-

gur Club ran the Canteen on the day with proceeds raised from this and the

Mother's Day raffle going towards the

purchase of new equipment for the club. I'm pleased to announce that we

good work everyone. The end of the year will be here before you know it

and Calum, Brandon and Zac are all

looking for Black Belt promotion in the December grading, it's always good to

see students focused and training hard for such a grading, it provides motiva-

tion and inspiration for everyone.

Train Hard

Brett Parker

3rd Degree Black Belt

Page 6 BREAKING GROUND

Page 7 BREAKING GROUND

Hello from Max. As a challenge and

as part of my training, my Dad has asked me to write this month’s arti-cle. This is practice for me in the

future to become an instructor. So here goes nothing. First off, I would like to introduce our newest members to Narangba club:

Ava, Charlotte and Riley. Murrumba welcomes Diep, Taylah, Kyle, Millie and Alfie. Also welcome back to a not so new student - Alex Barnes. Alex received his black belt almost 5 years ago and had taken a break for a few years.

Good luck to all of those going for promotions. From experience I have

found it is a good idea to stay behind and watch the next grading. This way you can see what you have to do for your next grading. As there

are two people going for their black belt it will be very suppor-tive for them if you stay and cheer them on.

Any black belt grading is a

very special event. Sadly I cannot make

the grading due

to a school camp I have to attend – so good luck to

all students. After a great tournament and a first one for

many of our stu-dents, we now see Murrumba coming 3rd place

on 17 points receiving 3 gold medals 3 silver medals and 2 bronze medals. This was a fantastic achievement for

Murrumba and also a confidence builder for our new white belts. See-

ing many of our white belts placing at the tournament is a sure sign of future greatness. Sadly no students from Narangba attended – hopefully

we can change that! We would like to see more competitors from Narangba and get us on the ladder. In class leading up to the grading we have been focusing on all areas of the grading. For our white belts it is going through their entire grading

the week before the real thing. Al-ways remember it is okay to be nerv-

ous, I remember being nervous be-fore all of my gradings, and I am sure that everybody on the day will

also be nervous, even your instruc-tors are nervous. For our higher grades we have been focusing on

fitness such as pad work, push-ups and sit-ups. We have also been prac-

ticing on our board breaking tech-niques. Be sure to practice push-ups and sit-ups in groups, don’t just do 3 and stop try to get to 10 in a group.

Training tip: Many times when spar-ring there will be a height difference. For the smaller ones, get into your kicking range and not your oppo-nents range. Use your angles to open up targets and opportunities. By getting in close, you limit the use of

your opponent’s legs. n

Max Barron

1st Degree Black Belt

Page 8 BREAKING GROUND

Page 9 BREAKING GROUND

SPARRING

PATTERNS

TEAM DEMONSTRATIONS