Latest News
Christmas
Party and Presentation Evening 2011
2011 has proven to be an extremely successful year for Tidworth Taekwon-do and a Christmas party provided an excellent opportunity to celebrate the successes of both the school and the individual members. With over 70 people in attendance and a range of games and presentations to get through it was a busy but enjoyable evening and a big thank you goes to everyone who helped out; either by providing food or helping prepare the hall.
With such a large number of people to entertain, a range of activities took place including table trivia, Irish bingo and a skittles competition. All proved popular, in particular the skittles competition in which individuals had 3 attempts to knock over as many skittles as possible. Congratulations to Matthew Bates and Alfie Hatchard who won their competitions and took home an enormous tin of chocolates each.
The
evening ended with the presentations where Tidworth Taekwondo members were
rewarded for their individual achievements throughout 2011. A huge number of
awards were presented including achievement awards for those who had
succeeded in grading and competition throughout the year and commitment
awards for those who attended more than half of the UKTA events in 2011. A
small number of students received merit and gratitude awards for further
achievements and contributions to the Tidworth Taekwondo School.
The final awards of the evening were the Students’ Student of the Year, voted for by the students, and the Student of the Year selected by the instructor. During training sessions in the previous week all students, from both the junior and senior classes, were invited to vote for a fellow student who they felt deserved the Students’ Student of the year. The awards went to Cameron Leid and Steven Murphy who have worked hard to develop their Taekwondo throughout the year and can be relied upon to do their best at all times.
The
selection of Student of the Year was, as always, a difficult choice with
several members in the frame for the coveted award. Consideration is given
to how students have demonstrated the tenets of Taekwondo during the year
and their conduct both inside and outside of the dojang. This year’s winner
was Martin Smith I Dan. Martin made the transition from colourbelt to
blackbelt earlier in the year and has worked tirelessly to improve on his
technique in this new, more demanding division. He always arrives early to
training and fully utilises the time to practice and prepare for class and
has become an integral part of the coaching set up, regularly offering words
of advice and encouragement to the colourbelt members and assisting with
running the classes in the absence of the instructor. Always eager to learn,
Martin takes on board every bit of advice or correction and strives to
continually improve his Taekwondo, often able to see instant results from
adopting the advice given. Despite issues with an on-going back problem,
Martin has continued to commit himself totally to his Taekwondo training and
is progressing steadily towards 2nd Dan.
In addition he has qualified as a C class umpire and used his new
qualification to gain practical experience immediately by officiating at the
next available tournament, the UK Open in Guildford. Always courteous and
helpful Martin is the epitome of the ideal Taekwondo student. Well done
Martin, the recognition is richly deserved.
As 2011 draws to a close it is always positive to look back and remember the achievements made by students throughout the year. Hopefully 2012 will prove to be even more successful and we look forward to presenting even more awards at next year’s presentation evening! Visit the gallery for LOTS more photographs from the evening.
Merry Christmas everyone!
UK Open 2011
The
UK Open is always a huge event for UKTA members and several Tidworth
students made the journey to Guildford spectrum to take part on Saturday
12th November. With over 400 competitors there were some large categories
but all students performed well, particularly those for whom it was their
first experience of competition. On the day members managed to win 3 medals:
1 silver and 2 bronze. Congratulations to all those who attended on the day,
visit the competitions page for more
details.
Welsh Open 2011
On
Sunday 25th
September four members of
Tidworth
Taekwon-do
travelled to Cardiff for the annual
UKTA
Welsh Open. The day proved to be extremely successful with
Tidworth
Taekwon-do
winning 6 medals in total; 3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze - a huge
success from only 4 competitors. To see more details on the day visit
our competitions page.
25 Years of Taekwondo
Mr
Barry Storton recently celebrated 25years in Taekwon-Do, and to commemorate
the occasion his students presented him with an engraved silver plated
double photo frame, complete with photographs of Mr Storton taken in his
very early days of Taekwon-Do and earlier this year. This was
just a very small token of everyone’s appreciation for the commitment and
dedication that Mr Storton has shown to Taekwon-Do and particularly to his
students.
Through Taekwon-Do, Mr Storton has made a positive difference to the lives of all his students, both past and present, and for that we all owe him a very big THANK YOU.
Local Grading
Tuesday
17th May was the date for the first local grading of the year. With a large
number of students grading it was a long evening but all students performed
their grading requirements to the best of their abilities and were
successful in promoting to the next grade. Visit the
gradings page for more information on those who graded.
English Open 2011
The
12th March saw the first UKTA tournament of the year, the English Open.
Tidworth Taekwondo saw 3 members go along to compete (with many more
supporters) and were delighted to bring home a total of 4 medals. For
details of the day please visit the competitions
page and we look forward to seeing even more members take part in the
remaining competitions this year.