2009 U.S. Open / U.S. National Taekwondo Hanmadang Results

Now that we've had a day to catch our breath, I thought I'd send along the results from last weekend's 1st U.S. Open Taekwondo Hanmadang/ U.S. National Taekwondo Hanmadang in Schaumburg, IL.

• Kopcha family -- bronze, Family poomsae division
• Miranda Kopcha -- gold, individual poomsae
• Jim Kopcha -- gold, individual Poomsae
• Deanna Jones -- silver, individual poomsae
• Master Chuck Beyersdoerfer-- gold, individual poomsae
  -- gold, knifehand breaking
  -- gold, Power side kick breaking
• Master Kim Limes-- gold, individual poomsae
• Master Bobby Jones -- gold, individual poomsae
  bronze, Power side kick breaking
• Bo-Kyung Kirby -- gold, individual poomsae
  NOTE: Chuck Beyersdoerfer and Bobby Jones competed against each other in the Power Side Kick event.

Over all, we had a fun weekend. Saw a lot of new friends from around the country, and our team brought home a medal in every division entered -- not bad for Grandmaster Ahn's first "Hanmadang Team".

Referee Seminar in Chicago

Once again, the USTC hosted another successful event: the Hanmadang Referee seminar. Although the training was "intense" (in the form of a power-packed one-day seminar), it was just as informative as it was fun. We saw many of our colleagues from the Dallas Poomsae seminar, and met a few new friends too.
Our instructor, (our Sahbumnim), Grandmaster Kyongwon AHN, now Honorary President of the USTC, joined us with Master Chuck Beyersdoerfer for a quick picture of the Cincinnati "delegates" to the event.
Now, we have less than two months to prepare for the US Open/ US National Taekwondo Hanmadang in June!

Guests at Priceless Martial Arts May Promotion Test

We just wanted to take a minute to say THANK YOU to Priceless Martial Arts for their hospitality on Saturday (May 2, 2009) and for letting us (and Master Hickey) be a part of your Promotion Exam. We also want to offer a big CONGRATULATIONS to the students who passed their promotion test! It was a pleasure meeting all of you, and watching some great performances by the students. You certainly have achieved great things within yourselves. We look forward to seeing your future progress!
And most importantly, we want to say GOOD JOB to young Luca, the newest (and youngest) Tang Soo Do junior black belt. Good luck in Florida!

Hanmadang International Referee Seminar

This coming weekend the USTC (United States Taekwondo Committee) is hosting officials from the Kukkiwon, located in Seoul, Korea, to present a special Referee seminar. This seminar is focused on the Kukkiwon forms. The Kukkiwon forms (poomsae) are a standardized set of techniques put together in a pattern for training. Training in those patterns will teach many things related to self-defense. Unfortunately, many of the instructors in America have created their own version of the Kukkiwon standards. Competing in the Hanmadang World Games or the WTF International Championships requires you to know absolutely the exact method of performing the poomsae as done by the originators, the South Koreans at the Kukkiwon.

Those in attendance will be either getting certified as a Hanmadang IR, being re-certified as a Hanmadang IR (that's me..) or if you're a 3rd DAN or lower getting certified as a US Hanmadang official.

Being certified as a Hanmadang IR means that you underwent the training necessary to grade and judge the performance of those competing. To know when and where they made mistakes and the appropriate amount of points to deduct. It's harder than it sounds because of all the factors you have to watch for.

For more information on it go to this website. http://www.ustaekwondocommittee.com/mc/page.do

Happy New Year...

For some of you you're probably wondering why I'm saying "Happy New Year" so late. For those that celebrate, the Lunar New Year is now upon us. Happy Lunar New Year!!

Master's Class

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 is my scheduled Master's class in the rotation at the main school in Blue Ash, Ohio. One of the neat things that the United Taekwondo Association does is allow each of the Masters (5th Dan and above) in the association a turn to come in and teach a class Wednesday evenings.

This class also gives students the opportunity to work with instructors they don't normally see until test night.

Each master will typically focus on something different. Some do forms, others do sparring, while others focus on more internal principles like meditation. I like to work on advanced kicking, self-defense as derived from Poomsae and work on the usage of "hips" towards the concept of "hard/soft" techniques.

One note with regards to classes at Blue Ash. Luckily this has been a mild winter thus far here in Cincinnati, otherwise it would be very cold in the main school. As it is now, though, the temperatures in the school are kept around 62-64 degrees. If you are thinking of attending my class this Wednesday, I highly recommend that you wear a T-shirt under your dobok top and even some thermal underwear or leggings. I wear an Under Armour Cold Gear shirt myself when I train at the school.

If you're planning on attending my class this week and have something you'd like work on, send me an email. I won't guarantee that we will get to your request, but if I can work it into class Wednesday, I will.

See you!

Happy New Year 2009!

As we begin 2009, we wanted to send a note of thanks for sharing your time, energy, and friendship with us last year.  It certainly was a year of new beginnings and opportunities, new friendships and journeys.  May 2009 bring you peace, good health, and happiness in all your endeavors.

 

Best wishes for a joyous new year,

 

Deanna and Bobby