Santry TKD - Cho's Tae Kwon Do

March 2010
Black Belt Grading
Our senior student has just received his certificate from Grandmaster Cho confirming that he has successfully passed his 2nd degree testing. Mr Jack Connolly has worked hard for 2 and a half years to go for his 2nd degree black belt, only taking an extra half a year because he thought himself no ready for the testing. This is an extremely admirable trait in a martial artist, knowing when to do something is easy, but knowing when to wait and extra 6 months is quite difficult, but Jack really shone through on the day and proved to himself, his instructor, the Masters and Grandmaster Cho that he fully deserved to complete the testing and attain the desired grade. To say that Jack did the club proud is an under statement, he out shone any of his previous testings, his traditional was dead sharp and strong, his patterns were precise and perfectly executed, his sparring and fighting curriculum were done with the speed, strength and viciousness of a true fighter and his breaking was spot on, breaking 3 boards with a back turning kick. But most of all Jack showed his sense of being a martial artist through his theory. It’s not enough for Jack to learn the theory from the book; he is constantly researching everything about AIMAA, Grandmaster Cho, the different patterns, and different martial arts, making him an all round martial artist. Jack has also taken up another martial art Hai dong Gumdo, using weapons in a Korean style of fighting.

Since his testing Jack has really excelled in all his training and becoming more of an assistant instructor, helping with all grades and aiding their development in AIMAA Tae Kwon Do.

This year we will hopefully have two new black belts with Ms Nora O’Brien and Mr Adam McMahon testing for their 1st degree grade in June of this year.

Also this Saturday we have Mr. Gerard Breen, Mr Shane Corr and Ms. Emma Champion testing in Mr. James Farrell’s School for their next colour belt and so
there will be no class this Saturday the 27th of February.

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August 2009
Grandmaster Cho will visit Ireland Grandmaster Cho will be returning to Ireland this September for an international seminar and Black Belt Testing. This will be held over the weekend of the 19 th and 20 th of September.

The testing will be on the Saturday in the Clontarf wheelchair Association, and we wish everybody the best of luck especially our own student Mr. Jack Connolly testing for 2 nd degree, members of the Airport school, Siobhan Gerard, Cian Gerard, Fabio Viti, Cathy Cullen, also good friend Mr Gerry Long testing for his 4 th degree. Last but by no means least we wish Master Darcy the very best of luck as he is testing for his 7 th degree, this will be an excellent testing I'm sure and defiantly not to be missed. We would like to wish every body testing the very best of luck.

Then on Sunday Grandmaster Cho will be giving a seminar for all students, this is being held in the Basketball arena in Tallaght. I have trained with Grandmaster Cho a couple of times and he is one of if not the best Martial Artist in the world today and leads by example training 6 hours a day. This is certainly not to be missed for anything short of hospitalisation!!

Click here to downlaod high res PDF poster
For further information and tickets contact Daniel Farrell at santrytkd@gmail.com

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August 2009
Summer camp 2009
We are now making plans to attend the next A.I.M.A.A Summer Camp in the USA . Join us for an action packed week of training and seminars with World renowned Grandmaster Hee Il Cho and the A.I.M.A.A Masters. The camp will be held in Trinity College Washington DC, over the week of the 12th to 16th of July.

Last year saw AIMAA members and non AIMAA members come together to train under the AIMAA Masters and senior Instructors in Orlando , Florida . It was an amazing experience for myself and Mr. Gerard Breen who attended the summer camp and looking for much bigger numbers next year, so a saving scheme is being started by the Santry TKD club to help to gather funds, also we will be doing a sponsored event later in the year to help those travelling.

For more information or any questions, please contact Daniel Farrell on santrytkd@gmail.com

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July 2009
Jersey European Summer camp 2009
This year saw the first European Summer camp in the beautiful Island of Jersey . There were free seminars given by Master John Darcy, Master Peter Byrne, Mr. Gerry Long and Mr. Paul Healy. The training started on the Friday night of the 19 th of June with a seminar from Master Darcy in Fort Regent , a massive sports complex in St. Hellier the capitol of Jersey . This seminar was a two hour session of leg strikes, body conditioning, grappling and take downs with some K1 fighting techniques thrown in. This was a really tough session in the heat of Jersey . The following day saw a fantastic two and a half hour seminar from Master Byrne on the one step curriculum and self defence. Master Byrne is an innovator in self defence and brings his amazing ability to the One-Step techniques. From number 1 all the way up to number 55, along with his trusty side kick Mr. Paul Healy, he expertly demonstrated and taught all of the one steps from junior white belts all the way up to senior 4 th degree black belts. After the One-Steps, Master Byrne did a quick self defence demonstration on Paul and showed the difference between the two ways of defending your self, one with strikes, and one without.

The main seminar of the weekend was Master Darcy's Sunday seminar on a wide variety of topics from fighting curriculum, traditional curriculum and patterns to boxing. This was an amazing display of the huge range of martial arts that grandmaster Cho has brought us and the Mater Darcy continues to teach us. This seminar also taught us the difference between knowing your curriculum and doing your curriculum properly, you cannot just walk through your patterns, they are the basis of self defence and fighting, if you can't complete and knifehand guarding block strong and sharp how will you have the strength and focus to block somebody attacking you on the street? It was a truly amazing class by a truly amazing martial artist.

Monday night saw the last classes, these were held by Mr. Gerry Long on sparring techniques, covering all types of sparring form points to continuous and even some street fighting techniques, and then the last class was an exercise to music class that was absolutely killer by Mr. Paul Healy (now dubbed the fittest man in AIMAA) where he put us through our paces with all moves coming from muscle toning or a martial arts move from kicks, punches, knees etc.

This was an excellent opportunity for all AIMAA members no matter where they are from to come together and learn under two wonderful masters and instructors, and to make new friends with all instructors and students with AIMAA Jersey. I would personally like to thank all of the students from Jersey for making us feel so welcome, and to Mr. Robert Fernandes and Ms. Monika Markowska and Mr. Miguel Ferreira without whom this weekend would never have been possible. Under Mr. Robert Fernandez AIMAA jersey has really taken flight and up to a huge standard and will continue to grow.

Daniel Farrell
AIMAA Santry

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July 2009
Grading 27 June 2009
The last grading saw one student from the Santry school of Cho 's Tae Kwon Do in the Airport school. This testing saw six schools come together to test under Master Darcy and Master Byrne. Along with Mr. Gerry Long, Mr James Farrell, Mr Declan Dermody, Mr Peter O'Connell and Mrs. Miriam Fahey and Mr Daniel Farrell all had students testing in a very warm room on a very hot day.

However they all gave it their best with all the students on the floor together to do one steps and patterns together, and then to do their individual curriculum and fighting techniques. The student from our school was Mr. Paul O'Hara who did an excellent testing from Yellow belt to Orange belt. So Paul will now be testing for green belt in his next testing.

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April 2009
Traditional Nationals
A number of DCU students made the short journey to Rolestown TKD School on March 22 nd to take part in the AIMAA Traditional Nationals; this is one of the main events in the AIMAA calendar. This was a first competition for many, so nerves were on a high as students prepared their Individual Patterns, Team Patterns and 1-Steps for the day. This year, the championship was of an extremely high standard with 200+ students from all over Ireland and AIMAA Scotland competing for honours.

DCU students had shown a lot of hard-work and dedication in training coming up to the Championships and this all paid off on the day. It can be very daunting to stand up and perform a pattern on your own in front of a crowd of people, so a really big well done to all who took part and did themselves proud.

GOLD
Megan Reilly and Paul O'Hara (1-Steps)
Nora O'Brien (Individual Pattern)
James McGlinchey, Paul O'Hara and Megan Reilly (Team Pattern)
Nora O'Brien and Siobhan Gerard from Airport TKD (1-Steps)

SILVER
James O'Brien (Individual Pattern)
Emer O'Brien and James O'Brien (1-Steps)
James O'Brien with 2 members of AIMAA Wexford (Team Pattern)

BRONZE
Emer O'Brien (Individual Pattern)

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March 2009
Weekend in Scotland training with Master Kirkwood!
Well, all I can say is WOW!! Everything about our weekend in Hamilton and Blantyre was amazing, the training, the fun, the sumo, and the way we were treated by Master Kirkwood and his school was amazing.

We flew out of Dublin on a sunny Friday morning, straight to Glasgow airport where we were greeted by Master Kirkwood and his son and senior student Mr. John Kirkwood. We were dropped to our hotel and from there we spent the day shopping around Hamilton and taking it easy!

So Friday night and we went training, with a light warm up in the gym and straight to class, with a heavy warm up of 100 press ups, 150 sit up and a lot of core work, we were well and truly straight into it! The class consisted of doing kicks for different situations, as in fast and strong for fighting, sharp with a pause and control for patterns etc, an excellent session and a lot taken from it and everybody had a great time.

Saturday morning we all went to East Kilbride shopping centre for a day of relaxation and shopping for the girls! So we headed to Celia Gough's Cafe for lunch and we were welcomed with such a welcome and it was such a lovely meal and possible the most amount of food and fun had together!!

So after a little chill out from all the food, we headed to the sumo night, this was a fundraiser for Master Kirkwood's School, with people betting on the sumo fights and the winners going into a raffle for prizes which were all donated! This was an excellent night with some great sumo battles and even more dancing battles!

So onto our last day and Sunday squad training with Master Kirkwood's Scottish team, warm up was a round of death ball, which will get you sweating in no time, from workout or fear!! Then a two hour session of sparring, both points and continuous, more circuit training and sprints!! From these training sessions, it is clear that Master Kirkwood is a true ambassador for AIMAA and a true gentleman. Also to his family and students a special thanks for everyone for the weekend, it is one that I will never forget and will defiantly return the favour at any moment and will be back over to Scotland soon!

More News items on the way!