Warwick University TaeKwon-Do – Seminar, 23RD November 2013

 

In preparation for the first grading of the year for the University of Warwick Taekwondo club, Mr Horan VI ran a seminar for all students of the club. Many of our students had begun training whilst at university and had never been taught by a non-student instructor making the seminar especially important to our club members.

After a warm up by Miss Kathryn Thompson IV, Mr Horan began by welcoming the club into the UTA and celebrating our recent affiliation with the association. The seminar then focused on set sparring, stripping the process back to the basics and providing emphasis on the importance of gauging the correct distance for the techniques by taking into account the type of technique used and height at which it was performed. We began by looking in detail at the measure for three step sparring and how to maintain the correct distance for aligning the attacking and blocking tools effectively. Mr Horan went through the basics of stances, correcting any mistakes before beginning the exercise. Mr Horan then varied the attacks to practise judging the distance to correctly block each blow.

After practising a variety of three step techniques, we then moved onto two step sparring, considering the difference in distance caused by the combination of one hand technique and one foot technique. Instead of setting specific attacks and defences, Mr Horan instructed us to create our own two step sparring techniques, causing us to think on our feet to effectively block the attacks.

After a short session of kicks, beginning with the basic attacks and developing onto jumping and spinning kicks to warm us back up in the cold hall, we then moved onto one step sparring before finishing with semi free sparring. Coming from a wide variety of backgrounds, many of us had never done set sparring before, making the seminar an eye opener into a different area of Taekwondo. Mr Horan emphasized how everyone''''s technique can be improved, making adjustments to the stances and positioning of everyone from white belt to black belt. Mr Horan explained how we are always still learning in Taekwondo regardless of what grade we are and should always be looking to develop ourselves further in Taekwondo.

After the seminar the colour belt grading took place. A high standard was shown by all members of the club and we are proud of everyone''''s achievements in the grading. On behalf of University of Warwick Taekwondo, I would like to thank Mr Horan for the opportunities he has brought to our club through affiliation with the UTA and especially thank him for leading the seminar and grading. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day and learned a lot from the instruction we received.