ukta_news

Student News

The Student newsletter below has information on the following areas:

• Seasons Wishes

• UKTA Instructor Training, AGM and

Awards

• Competitions

• Olympics 2012

• Instructors Course

• International Dates

Seasons Wishes

The UKTA would like to wish all its members best wishes during this festive season.

UKTA Instructor Training, AGM and Awards.

The day started with each of the registered Instructors going and collecting their new doboks, a quick

change and all looking smart we went into the dojang to line up. Senior Master Cutler welcomed everyone

and explained the aim of the training was to achieve standardisation across the Association. Master Helstrip

started and to quote him ‘a Helstrip warm up’ was what ensued. Senior Master Prewett moved us on to sine

wave motion; emphasizing excessive knee bend is not the way to achieve optimum movement. Senior

Master Williamson took us through our kicking paces and Master Miller through the various jumping

techniques. All of the Masters reinforced the importance of being prepared and using the correct technique

at gradings. To finish off V Dan’s and above were taken through their patterns whilst the IV Dan’s and

below completed some more jumping practise. Our President, Senior Master Cutler, brought the training to

a close at 2pm and wished everyone well with their (potentially) sore muscles the following day.

At 3pm the UKTA Annual AGM commenced, Senior Master Cutler welcomed everyone and explained that

a lot of work had been going on behind the scenes and that the Instructors will start to see the benefits of

this work soon. New services, already running, include a text services to keep Instructors informed of

updates and the new webshop. Senior Master Prewett explained that the administration process was being

overhauled to make it more efficient. Master Helstrip posed some interesting questions to the Instructors

regarding the black belt gradings that generated some debate, whilst Master Miller explained that Russia

wanted to take a bulk order of the UKTA Today magazine because of its popularity there. There was a lot

achieved in the 1.5 hour long AGM with the majority of Instructors feeling it was a productive meeting.

7pm saw the members of the UKTA and their friends, all dressed in their finest, congregate at the bar to

start the Annual Awards evening. First Grand Master Rhee Ki Ha lead the way into the dinning room where

we were all seated for dinner. Following the dinner the winners of the UKTA 2009 Awards were

announced:

Instructors Award: Senior Master Williamson (Well done on the double)
Best Umpire Award: Jackie Harris
Male Competitor Award: Tom MacCabe
Junior Male Competitor Award: Cedric Cools
Junior Female Competitor Award: Katie Oliff
Child Competitor Award: Kane Collins
Veteran Competitor Award: Leighton Prosser
And the winners of the awards that required nominations and votes were:
Supporter’s Award: Master Blackburn
Educational & Technical Award: Senior Master Cutler
People’s Choice Award: Dylan Hey
Inspirational & Motivational Award: Cedric Cools
First Grand Master Rhee completed the awards part of the evening by thanking everyone for attending and
proudly mentioned his son our newest Master; Master Andrew Rhee and his daughter Alexandra Rhee. The
party kicked off with the DJ winning a bet with the hotel staff by playing ‘Everybody was Kung Fu
Fighting’ as the first song to which First Grand Master Rhee danced with his daughter. Great fun was had
with some of the male black belts borrowing handbags to dance round! Senior Master Cutler showed some
fancy moves on the dance floor, look out for the next magazine to see more.
Finally it is worth mentioning that the nominations for 2010 are now open (and we have already received
our first nomination), so if your nominee missed out this year and you would like to re-nominate them for
the same or a different award, or if you would like to nominate someone new, simply send an e-mail to
nominations@ukta.com giving your nominees name and which award you would like to nominate them for.
This year we had a new record set in the most number of votes received for an award; Cedric Cools
certainly inspired people for his award with 125 votes received (this was 4.5 times the number of votes
received for any other award), lets see if we can beat that record next year.
Nominations can be sent in for a nominee from any source it doesn’t have to be an Instructor. A description
of the awards for which we are asking nominations for are below:
• Education & Technical award these awards will overlap and are in recognition of members who have
helped the Association to grow. Examples may include the spreading of knowledge via educational
material produced or personal technical advancements that help to inspire others (not necessarily the best
technical person).
• Supporter’s award – this award is in recognition of the best Supporter of Taekwon-do. It is for someone
who has supported Taekwon-do activities above and beyond normal expectations; this person does not have
to be a practitioner of Taekwon-do.
• Outstanding Lifestyle Improvement award – this award will be divided into two categories; Junior and
Senior (under 18 and over 18) and is for the member who with the support of their training has enriched
their life. Examples may include an improved performance at school, better attitude at home, or a student
that has been able to overcome a disability etc.
• Inspirational & Motivational Character award – this award is for the member who unwittingly thorough
their actions inspires and encourages other people to persevere towards their goals.
• People’s Choice award – open category from 10th Kup to IX Dan send in your nominations and reasons.

Competition News

Below is a letter from our new Events team:

Dear Instructors and Students,

I am writing to advise you that as of Saturday 21st November at the 2009 UKTA AGM Mr Alan Clarke 6th

Dan has stepped down from his role as Competitions Manager (which of course includes his trusty side

kick Carrie Proctor) and they have handed over responsibility to us (David and Jan Norris), obviously we

were made aware of this earlier in the year and were asked if we wanted to take on the role, at first we were

shocked that two of the most hard working people in our association were to step down so that they can

focus on other future projects, having given it some time to sink in we accepted the position. Jan and I

would like to thank both of them for all they have done over the years, I am sure you will all agree

competitions have improved year on year since they took on the job.

In reading this I am sure some of you will be worried about what the future holds, I can assure you that Jan

and I are very experienced in organising competitions (some of you may have attended the London Open

Championships which we have organised for nearly 13 years) and we have worked closely with Mr Clark

and Carrie Proctor to make sure we understand every aspect of how they run the events at present.

We welcome any ideas instructors and students may have to help improve the events over the coming

years.

Dates and venues for 2010 are as follows (please notes some events are held on a Sunday):

Scottish Open Championships – Saturday 17th April 2010
Bellahouston Leisure Centre, 31 Bellahouston Drive, Glasgow, G51 1HH
Welsh Open Championships – Sunday 16th May 2010
UWIC, Cymcoed Road, Cardiff, CF23 6XD
English Open Championships – Saturday 25th September 2010
K2 Crawley, Pease Pottage Hill, Crawley, RH11 9BQ
UK Open Championships – Sunday 7th November
UWIC, Cymcoed Road, Cardiff, CF23 6XD
We will be sending a batch of leaflets that show all the dates of next year’s competitions to the instructors
at the start of 2010.
Have a great Christmas and we look forward to seeing you all at the 2010 events.
David & Jan Norris
Tel: 020 8306 8960
Talent 2012 – Fighting Chance

Talent 2012: Fighting Chance is a talent transfer initiative offering high level combat athletes from all

kicking orientated martial arts, including taekwon-do, the opportunity to trial for a place in the elite

taekwon-do academy. The academy, based at the National Taekwon-do Performance Centre in Manchester,

is a highly professional performance environment that supports athletes in training full-time for their sport.

Couple that with some of the best coaching and scientific support in the world and you have the ideal mix

for creating future Olympic champions. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to find out if you've got

what it takes to win gold in London in 2012. For more information go to

http://www.uksport.gov.uk/pages/fighting_chance/
Instructors Course

There will be an Instructors course the weekend of the 9th January 2010 in Reading. The format of the

course will be: Saturday AM: Administration side of teaching, Saturday PM: Practical teaching, this

session will be separated into the following classes: International, A, B & C. Sunday AM: BTC Course, for

those who need to renew or sit the course initially.

There will be no charge for Instructors who have completed their 2010 registration. The course will be

open to Black belts at a cost of £35, should they then open a new school by 1st July 2010 the School

registration fee will be waived. Please keep your eye on the website for the final details.

International Dates for your diary

There will be an International Umpire & Coaches course in Amsterdam on 15th, 16th & 17th January 2010

The European Championships will be held in Italy 10th-14th March 2010

Sunnybank Taekwon-Do

TaeKwon-do for everyone in the North Manchester area