Andre Conchon & David Kerr

Last night, instructor's Andre Conchon and four times ITF World Champs sparring winner David Kerr visited us for training at The Way, the ITF Dojang in Seoul.

Sbnim Kim Hoon &
Sbnim Andre Conchon

Sbnim Kim Hoon &
Sbnim David Kerr

We had a great training session. Master Kim-Hoon led us through warm-ups and some basic kicking exercising and pad-drills. Afterwards Instructor Andre Conchon had us practise evasion and counter-attack drills for the side-piercing kick, using side-stepping maneuvers. With such excellent sparring specific exercises, it is easy to see how come Mr David Kerr was able to win the World Champs four times! We ended the training by going through the patterns from Chon-Ji Teul to Gae-Baek Teul. Afterwards Master Kim-Hoon presented our guests with the ITF 태권도 가이드북 ("ITF Taekwon-Do Guidebook"), a book he authored in 2008 as part of his work in reintroducing original ITF Taekwon-Do in South Korea.

David Kerr, myself, Ok Chan-Yang and Andre Conchon still
flustered and sweaty after a fun and exhausting training session.

Afterwards some of us went to a local hangout to cool down. The locals introduced our guests to makgeolli 막걸리 (I had some yogurt-drink instead) and pajeon 파전.

Instructors Conchon and Kerr are presently in Korea to attend the Taekwondo Hall of Fame ceremony that will be held at the Kukkiwon on Thursday, August 24, 2011. To read more about Mr. Conchon, Mr. Kerr and the development of ITF Taekwon-Do in Brazil, read Mr. Conchon's contribution to Issue 20 of Totally Tae Kwon Do Magazine.

Black Belt Promotion at 'The Way'

Last Thursday evening, Lynne, a student at 'The Way' Martial Art Academy of Seoul--the only ITF dojang in Seoul, had her 1st Dan promotional test. As part of the test she prepared a pattern self-defence demonstration using selections from the pattern Choong-Moo. Assisting her was Tim.



Congratulations to Lynne on attaining her black belt. Lynne practices basically everyday, often attending multiple training sessions per day. This is a black belt well deserved. Apart from answering theory questions thrown at her from the black belts attending, Lynne also answered the pattern theory all in Korean! Now that was impressive!