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

Two members of the club were recently lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to Melaka to train with the TTSC – the TTA’s sister organisation headed by Master TL Loh (7th Dan), the brother of Grandmaster TK Loh. At the end of their stay, they were also lucky enough to compete in Sparring, Patterns and Breaking in the 8th International Invitational Taekwondo Championship, which proved to be a test of both taekwondo technique and taekwondo spirit!

Following an emotional 3am reunion and a sleep in Kuala Lumpur, Chris and Dayo set off for Melaka to be picked up by Master Loh at Melaka bus station. After a brief stop at the hotel to change, pick up two fellow TTA members from Scotland and grab a tasty noodle lunch, it was straight to training with Master Loh with particular focus on patterns and breaking.

The breaking competition required the following techniques: a punch, a turning kick, a side kick, an axe kick, a back kick, a reverse turning kick, and finally a jumping 360, with the clock running from start to finish, and rules to follow (first four kicks, two with each leg, player’s choice). The additional twist to the breaking competition was that it involved wooden boards suspended by string only! After more time getting used to the breaking sequence and practising poomsae, a seafood dinner with Master Loh rounded off a brilliant first day.

The following day saw Chris and Dayo enjoy a couple of hours of light training, before they had the official weigh in and helped with the preparations for the competition, moving mats and so forth. Evening came and morning came, competition day…

The patterns competition got started quickly and despite fine efforts at Koryo neither Chris nor Dayo made it through to the next round – the TTSC crew are pretty sharp! Then it was straight into the sparring. Chris was up first, against a 2nd Dan member of the TTSC demonstration team. Chris’ opponent proved to have a very effective jump reverse turning kick, which, despite Chris’ best efforts, was to be Chris’ undoing.

Next up was Dayo. It transpired that Dayo’s opponent is a former national champion, with a lethal axe kick. Like Chris before him, Dayo did his best to get stuck in, but was also unable to clinch the victory. It was nevertheless a good showing and the crowd, which must have been over a hundred, showed their appreciation at the end.

After the sparring finished up, there was a demonstration by the TTSC demo team – one of the high points of which involved some surprisingly small kids achieving some surprisingly high altitudes. Many boards were broken! And then it was time for the breaking competition. One at a time, each competitor had to go and choose a pile of boards, and then hand them to Master Loh who arranged the holders appropriately. Following some judicious bowing, it was time to get ready…

Due to the added difficulty of the boards being suspended by string, rather than being held directly, no competitor got through all the breaks first time, with the biggest issues being the axe kick, and the back kick that followed it. Every time someone failed to break however, the crowd got louder in their encouragement, and sure enough, determination got everybody through, some quicker than others but all with a resounding round of applause at the end. Master Loh described it as a true test of martial arts skill, and Grandmaster Loh explained to the assembled crowd that in essence breaking is all about spirit. Having demonstrated this in spades, everyone involved in the breaking got given a bronze medal!

Which led finally to medal time. All TTA players picked up at least one (even if only for taking part) and then it was photo time! Chris and Dayo had photos with literally every team present, with almost every person present. It took a while, but was great fun to be treated like celebrities!

There was a final dinner that evening for coaches and team managers, to which the TTA players were invited as special guests. Chris and Dayo had been made massively welcome for the whole weekend, and it was with some sadness that they departed the following morning.

They say if you’ve seen Melaka, you’ve seen Malaysia… Well, Chris and Dayo didn’t get to see Melaka at all really but they did get to spend hours training with Master Loh, once again demonstrated the TTA London spirit for Grandmaster Loh and found a whole new family in the form of the TTSC!

Dayo Ajibade and Chris Gilmartin

The much anticipated 2011 April Championships in Glasgow saw the London TTA club send up a delegation of 11 participants including a variety of grades to compete in both the individual and team competitions. Having made our way up to Glasgow the night before, using a variety of transport mediums, we gathered together in our hostel and went to prepare for the next day with generously sized pizzas at the local pub. The next morning we arrived ready to spar at the Time Capsule sports venue. Three rings were set up (children, men, ladies) with Grandmaster Loh seated at a table overlooking the 3 rings. After a quick team warm up the announcement for the first round of fights was heard and our first competitor was up right at the start on Ring 3.

This set the scene for a highly enjoyable and exciting day. The individual fights saw plenty of opportunity for us to examine our own and others techniques, whilst admiring some of the more senior grades perform complex kicks and combinations. There was a highly tense match between two of our London female black belts, Jemima and Hannah, which saw them at an even draw of 9-9 after 2 rounds of intense fighting. The match went on for a ‘sudden death’ round, allowing Hannah to win with a quick turning kick.

After lunch, involving Rockies bars, Penguins and lots of Lucozade, the day moved on to the team fights. This was a real test of stamina, having already sparred in the individuals, and the matches being in quick succession, meant that if you won your match you were up fighting again before you knew it! Nevertheless the London players put in a tremendous effort right until the end, which paid off when the medal winners were announced!!

Once the matches were all over, there was an impressive demonstration display from the Nottingham squad, which involved board breaking, patterns, and a stylised taekwondo dance routine to end on a lighter note and prepare us for the medal announcements. The London players proudly managed to take away one silver (Hannah), and 3 bronze medals (Sarah, Jo and Esi) in the individual contests, as well as the ladies team silver medal and mens green belt team member bronze medals.

Jo Shepherd

The course covered many key areas required to perform in sparring and in general Taekwondo training. We were put through our paces and covered ground footwork, drills, combination of techniques and counter attack combinations. We also learnt the importance of core stability and correct position and posture for sparring.

On the first day as Grandmaster Loh tested our stamina and endurance by doing plenty of drills and pad work followed by different stretch techniques once we were thoroughly warmed up.

We manage to build ourselves a big appetite after the first day and in the evening we found a superb Italian restaurant which provided the perfect solution for our hunger. Our stay was at a local B&B. It has to be said, our hosts were very pleasant as Esi was engaged in deep conversation however the rest of us were closely being monitored by their rather excitable pet dog. We had a superb breakfast with plenty of Yorkshire tea, which was a great start to round 2 of the course.

The second day was just as intense but we focused more on combination of techniques with paddles and with each other. At the same time we learnt about the importance of correct techniques and to be calm and focused when sparring.

The course not only provided us with greater knowledge for sparring but we also learnt one or two things about ourselves too.

Val Kostas