- The start of Summer Course
- Everyone at the start of the course, with our decorated minibus
- Daily running warm up - we ran in formation
- Stretching warm up
- Stretching warm up
- All the Summer Course participants
- TTA London Summer Course participants with Grandmaster Loh and Master Moon
- At the end of the course
Ten TTA London students and our instructor attended the TTA Nottingham Summer School this summer. For 6 days, 5 hours a day, we trained with 30 or so TTA students and instructors from other clubs around the UK.
The course is usually taught by Grandmaster Loh, but this year was taught by a young guest instructor from Korea, Master Moon. Master Moon is a recent Korean sparring champion, and the week naturally focussed exclusively on sparring techniques. From summoning up the stamina for hundreds of knee raises each morning to finding the concentration to repeat combinations of 6 or 7 different kicks in drills, we were given a good taste of the level of training in Korea, and why they win so many international medals!
The London club stayed together in an apartment block in central Nottingham (the broken lift became less and less amusing as the week went on). We ate together, watched DVDs of Rocky and Top Gun together in the evenings and shared around the ice packs and tiger balm.
Summer School was certainly a tremendous challenge, both physically and mentally. Here’s to next year!
By Sarah Garrett