Day: Tuesdays (from 3rd April onwards)
Venue: Golden Lane Sport and Fitness, Fann Street, Barbican, EC1Y 0SH
All grades: 7:30 – 8:45pm
Intermediate and above: 7:30 – 9:30pm

This will effectively make Tuesday night training in line with Thursday night training at City YMCA which is as follows:

Day: Thursdays
Venue: City YMCA, 8 Errol Street, Barbican, EC1Y 8SE
All grades: 7:30 – 8:45
Intermediate and above: 7:30 – 9:30pm

Maps for both venues are on our training details page.

THE DAY BEGINS early for the five of us; we feed at regular intervals throughout the morning as we make the journey from home to Leeds, where the One-Day Sparring Course takes place. We maintain our energy levels and Taekwondo spirit, literally from dawn to dusk, as we undertake a gruelling but highly rewarding training session, led by our TTA Grandmaster T. K. Loh (9th Dan).

The session starts with two sparring demonstrations and we observe the importance of technique over power. Focus and self-discipline is the key.

Warm-up is efficient and effective, consisting of plenty of line drills and then with the explosive power which typifies Taekwondo, we move into paired drills, practising our sparring techniques continuously up and down the hall. Time seems temporarily suspended.

Five and a half hours later, we emerge into the sunlight, chocolate protein shakes and fortune cookies in hand. We withdraw to The White Rose – emblem to the northern city itself – before heading for our train back to the south. Sleep calls us and we don’t protest one bit.

The aftermath and reflections

We’ve definitely learned a lot in terms of new sparring techniques, and for some of us, kicks and moves that we haven’t tried before. Overall we return feeling more confident and with the expectation that we can build on what we have learned on the course.

Just watching the Black (Dan) belts do line work was training in its own right; it was inspiring and motivated us to keep improving our own kicks and techniques. Similarly, we were greatly encouraged by watching the juniors (including a Blue belt as young as 6 years old); their determination in persevering (despite feeling hungry and tired) and, like the seniors, their impressive execution of kicks.

And a couple of quotes from members who attended the course…

Seth: For me the course was a step up in the level of training for Taekwondo and reaffirmed how technical it really is.

The highlight for me was just being able to attend and take advantage of what Grandmaster Loh was teaching us. As this was my first course I did find it a bit tricky in terms of the speed and flow but was able to settle down after a few hours.

I was really pleased that I attended and this has given me good encouragement to attend training on a regular basis and seek further improvements in all areas relating to Taekwondo.

Esi: I found that the course gave me an insight into sparring psychology, from distances and appropriate counters to reading body motion and drawing opponents to execute certain kicks. It gave me an awful lot to think about and practice during club training.

To end, we all agreed that this course is highly recommended for everyone who wants to improve their sparring techniques.

Report by S. Shum

With London being the focus of the Taekwondo world in 2012 when the Olympics come to town, there has never been a better time to take up this fantastic Korean Martial Art.

TTA Taekwondo London (WTF/Kukkiwon style) is offering new beginners the chance to experience two taekwondo classes absolutely free! The next beginners intake is on Tuesday 27th March. Please register an interest by emailing jake@taekwondo-london.co.uk.

We look forward to meeting you.

(Please note, though, if you can’t make this date, please still get in touch! Beginners are welcome all through the year. We have found that starting with other beginners is a great way to meet people, learn together, and progress so we try to help group beginners together, wherever possible.)

TTA Taekwondo London (WTF/Kukkiwon style) is offering new beginners the chance to experience two taekwondo classes absolutely free! The next beginners intake is on Thursday February 9th. Please register an interest by emailing jake@taekwondo-london.co.uk.

The class will be held at our regular Thursday venue, the YMCA, between 7.30pm and 8.30pm.

We look forward to meeting you.

(Please note, though, if you can’t make this date, please still get in touch! Beginners are welcome all through the year. We have found that starting with other beginners is a great way to meet people, learn together, and progress so we try to help group beginners together, wherever possible.)

It is with much sadness that we recently learnt of the death of TTA London student Chris Penn. Chris was a very active member of the London club. His commitment to his Taekwondo training, his desire to attend gradings, competitions and the TTA Nottingham summer school, and his friendly positive outlook will be sorely missed. The club will remember him fondly.

Seven members from TTA London met the evening before in Glasgow town centre for a delicious carb-filled Italian dinner in preparation for the next morning. It was also a good opportunity to swap ideas and tips for the morning and prepare the first-timers mentally on what to expect. The next morning we all made our way to the Time Capsule, there were some worried looks at the time of the weigh-in – it all went swimmingly.

There were three competition rings setup (children, gents and ladies), Grand Master Loh supervised the entire event assisted by three Head of Courts (Alan Brown, Dr Yutaro Higashi and James Bertram) and referees of which Sarah Garrett and Jemima Kingsley were representing TTA London – who had both worked very hard with us to prepare us for the competition. Mr. Jake Bender coached the London team.

The event kicked off with the Poomsae competition testing competitors’ technique, control, strength and poise. The senior grades, especially the Black Belt Poomsae (Koreo) was great to watch as the competitor’s demonstrated great technique with very sharp and powerful moves. The sparring competition was where our training was put to test. Most of the opponents were strong and fast and it was overall a good show of technique and strong Taekwondo spirit.

For those of us competing for the first time this was a great learning experience with all of us keen on competing again next time. We had the opportunity to watch (and learn from) over a 100 competitors of different age groups. Having participated in the competition once will definitely help us prepare for April next year; the competition helped us see our weaknesses as well as strengths which we will be working on over the next few weeks.

Yes, we did win medals!

-Syed

Coach
Mr. Jake Bender

Referees
Jemima Kingsley
Sarah Garrett

Poomsae
Sarah Tryfan
Chris Gilmartin – Bronze
Ramesh Satheeswaran
Syed Zahid – Gold
Seth Campbell

Sparring
Chris Gilmartin – Silver
Ramesh Satheeswaran – Bronze
Syed Zahid – Bronze
Seth Campbell – Gold

The Kukkiwon demo team came to London last weekend as part of the Korean area at the Mayor’s Thames Festival. Every member of the team we saw is at least 4th dan and has at least 15 years of taekwondo training – and it shows! The half-hour long demo started with coordinated moves showing a range of blocks and kicks along with moves that many of us recognised from our poomse, and demonstrated incredible focus, relaxation and tension.

Following this, and for the rest of the show, we saw a combination of breaking and choreographed fighting to show a range of techniques. The breaking ranged from very impressive to totally spectacular, including blindfolded backflips breaking apples, 10 consecutive reverse turning kick breaks, breaks two people high after springing off people, and breaking an apple balanced on someone’s head.

After the demo, the team came into the crowd and posed for pictures and then put on a workshop for kids. We went to watch and it was interesting to see how quickly they were able to teach young children some basics, even with quite a language barrier, and how the instruction was so similar to how we are taught. They started by teaching standing to attention and bowing, then progressed to punching and front kicks, with a strong focus on good technique from the start.

The members of TTA London who were able to see the demo all left feeling inspired and ready to train hard!

Jemima