Black Belt Grading

Philip will be going for his black belt grading on the 22nd November. We wish you luck and hope that everything goes well.

Year-end

The dojang has been officially closed for the holidays from the 20th November

Happy Holidays to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


See you next year ...........

ITF Dojang in Seoul, South Korea

Last night I joined the ITF Taekwon-Do dojang in Seoul. It is amazing to think that in the whole of Seoul, which is one of the biggest cities in the world, there is only one ITF dojang. For all practical reasons, all the other Taekwon-Do dojang in Seoul are WTF-style Taekwon-Do. For more on this, read my post on eSAITF.

I will be going to the ITF dojang twice a week in preparation for my 4th Dan test next year.

Regards,
Bsb Sanko

Training and Gradings

There will be a training session on the 8th November with Bsb Karel in Pretoria.

There is also a black belt and colour belt grading held on the 22 November in Pretoria

We hope that everyone can make it to these events.

First Contact

Today I made contact with the ITF school in Seoul. It is located at Itaewon, a very fusion (foreigner friendly) part of Seoul and about an hour from where I live.

I'm not sure how often I'll go train there as I'm already cutting it thin with my Hapkido and Taekkyeon training, as well as going to the gym. But I am planning to test for 4th Dan next year, so I will make an effort of going to the ITF dojang occasionally.

Another problem is that I'm already spending lots of money on martial art tuition. As it is I'm spending over a R1000 a month on class fees. Adding to this the Taekwon-Do class fees is a serious consideration. The Taekwon-Do tuition fee for a single session is a hefty $50 (R400)! Monthly payment is much cheaper and works out at around R550 a month, however you have to pay three months in advance. I will therefor have to really consider my budget and see if I can effort it all, both financially and timewise.

Regards,
Bsb Sanko

Newsletter

The latest SA-ITF Newsletter is available from the SA-ITF website or use this direct link to download the .zip-document (1.49 MB).

Regards,
Kwanjangnim Sanko

Update

The proposed Potch-Rhodes action has been postponed to next year due to the fact that there was not sufficient time to organize the event. Nevertheless we do look forward to it next year.

On the 27th September there was a black belt Seminar. Phillip attended the Seminar. Alot of focus was put on stances and fitness in this seminar.

A feedback from the students regarding the Sparing gear that Mr Price stocks was that the quality of these products are not very satisfactory.

Mr Price Sport

Have you noticed the Mr Price Sport in the Mooirivier Mall? I walked through a day or two ago. They are sporting (pun intended) a lot of equipment and there is even some Karate doboks and colour belts. I don't know if the Karate doboks differ from ours, but it looked similar enough. Perhaps next time we need equipment/clothing, we should also check there...

Red causes bias

After reading this article sent to me by Retha, and then reading the abstract of the actual scientific article from Psychological Science, I am advising you all to invest in red sparring gear. The paper shows that referees are prone to be biased in favour of competitors with red gear, especially where the competitors are of relative equal ability. (There seems to be a 13% bias towards red.)

I doubt the rules will change any time soon - so I advise you to use this information pro-actively. Maybe I can get the Research & Education Directorate to run a study of our own and see if we can determine the effect of red vs blue ribbons, and red sparring gear in particular, in the overall results. It is not sure what other colours may be "winning colours".

But again, my advice in the meantime is to get yourself red sparring gear.

Possible Rhodes action

Recently Robyn from Rhodes made contact with us regarding a possible Potch-Rhodes Taekwon-Do action. How do we feel about this? Please comment...

Hapkido & Taek-Kyeon

Hi everyone,

So as you probably know, I'm safe in Korea and starting to settle in.

On Monday evening I went for my first Hapkido training session since my return to Korea. The instructor was really happy to see me and hugged me.

I also started with the first of my new techniques in my black belt syllabus. The new techniques are interesting, and although I grasped the principles immediately, it still find it difficult to translates the theory into physical action.

This morning I went to my first Taek-Kyeon training class. What a strange and wonderful experience. It felt more like Tai-Chi mixed with dancing. Many of the set-techniques (patterns) are done to folk songs. So we were singing and dancing most of the time. Apart from the instructor, I am the only man, amongst a bunch of elderly ladies. There's only training twice a week: Wednesday mornings and Sunday evenings.