Double forearm blog

Children and tournament coaching

2012-01-10T13:11:00.000-08:00

CHILDREN & COACHING

Should coaching be allowed at children's tournaments?

In many sport based martial arts there are tournaments held where children of ages of six and upwards are allowed to compete against each other. In many cases and rightly so the rules of the sport are altered to allow a fun and not so competitive match against a peer. In my own sport of ITF Taekwon-Do many associations will change the format from one of light contact continuous to one of semi contact or stop start points fighting, which for children is less pressurised and reduces the chances of the bout turning into a brawl due their limited skill and knowledge at that age.

Another rule enforced for children's bouts and this includes colour belts of all ages up to adult is that coaching is prohibited. The reason's behind this rule make sense to a degree but there are in my opinion more positives than negatives when you allow a child's coach be present at the ring during a fun bout.

Coaching in Ireland has come on leaps and bounds with credit given to the guys and girls at IMAC and Coaching Ireland who are rolling out level 1 and now level 2 coaching programs for their respective martial arts. Therefore increasing the knowledge of new coaches to the needs of children in sport including the code of ethics. Coaches in 2012 are more knowledgable in this respect. There are however 'coaches' to be found in many clubs who wouldn't know the first thing about creating an atmosphere of fun and inclusiveness for the children attached to their clubs, I have encountered individuals on the rings who are hot headed, aggressive and argumentative . It is individuals like these who have directly influenced the decision by many associations to prohibit coaching on children's bouts.

However, and thankfully these kinds of individuals are in the minority and as professionalism becomes more accessible in the 21^st century they will inevitably become a thing of the past.

The negative influences a bad coach and indeed a parent can have when attending a children's bout are many if the wrong attitude is adopted. Indeed parents and family members can be some of the worst perpetrators when it comes to shouting support.

As an umpire I have had to stop children's bouts and ask parents and family members to be quiet after shouting 'support' along the lines of “go on son get stuck in” and “get your hands up and kill 'em” among other slogans which were aimed at two seven year olds. Obviously this kind of event can only serve to damage the child's experience and alter the view of what fun competition is all about.

Toss the coin and on the flip side where you have a clued in coach and understanding supportive parents the positive influences that can be brought to bare on the child during the event are ten fold.

Therefore it is time to reevaluate the prohibition on coaching at children's events in order to develop and change the mindset of parents and coaches when it comes to children competing.

We were all children at some point therefore we can easily relate to how daunting it is to be sitting in a group of peers at the side of a ring waiting to be called to compete. It is even more daunting when you are on your own from your club amongst other kids who maybe from the same club or have met each other before. In fact you don't have to be a child competing to understand how this feels, it is the same for adults!

Now insert a friendly face in the shape of the child's instructor or coach. Now there is someone to help control the nerves and promote the fun element of competition. It provides a trusted face to ease the tension.

It is the nervous build up that blocks a lot of kids from wanting to compete. The flow adrenalin in the bloodstream and the effects this has on the child make it even more uncomfortable. Being able to talk with the child, reassure them and let them see a relaxed smiling face will certainly work towards keeping more children competing and having fun while doing so.

Two other major factors that will have a negative impact on the child is of course the risk of injury and losing.

As coaches and umpires we have all seen the little 8 year old who receives a punch to the belly and the shock of it sends them into tears. In the current rule set of no coaching, the already upset child now has to deal with an stranger in the form of an umpire bended on one knee seeing if they are ok, and the possibility of the a guy in a red and grey uniform with red crosses all over it coming to see if they need medical assistance. What the child wants and needs in a situation like this, is either a reassuring parental face or the trusted presence of the coach. Either one in this situation will help ease the stress on the child and if the coach is at the ring side it alleviates this all the more because the child is reassured of their presence.

In relation to losing, a child must never feel upset at losing. This can be negated by the beliefs and value systems instilled at the club. Competition must never be for winning, it must only be for participation. Winning of course is a bonus, coming away with a medal is a happy day, but competing is a great day. This ethos needs to be installed in the child at the club and the club must institutionalise such an ethos.

Having a coach present at ringside to deal with the upset of losing a bout can only serve to help reinforce the ethos of participation first, winning second. Unconditional positive regard must be to the fore at all times. Winning or losing, the child receiving a 'high five' as they come off the mat helps anchor the experience as one of positivity. Seeing how the coach interacts with the child can also benefit the parents who in some rare cases can become challenging as they question the results and the umpires decisions in front of the child.

All of this positivity that can be created by having a suitable coach in place at ringside can be immediately undone by that one individual who lets their emotions dictate their behaviour and thus become irate and overly competitive on the child. In order for tournaments to become more child focused and allow coaches at ringside stringent penalties need to be available to umpires and tournament committees so they can come down hard on such coaches and have them removed from the ring and banned from coaching at such events in future until proper training through the NGB is achieved.

In conclusion, I would like to pay tribute to those associations who are successful at running child friendly tournaments. Those tournaments that have a medal for every competitor, those tournaments that ensure enough medals to provide small and inclusive divisions, those tournaments that are matted and safe and those tournaments that put participation ahead of winning all need to be commended and supported. It is now time for those tournaments to allow suitable coaches to be allowed coach and supervise at children's bouts for all of the positive elements that it can bring.

Adrenalin – the ultimate game changer

2011-10-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

Reality check part 5

In part five of my column regarding the subject of reality based personal protection training I want to cover the very important topic of the adrenal dump. When the body responds to sudden shock or fright it releases a chemical cocktail that is designed to aid our self preservation. The physiological effects this cocktail has on our systems plays a significant part in how we react to such circumstances, it also heavily underlines why your standard self defence applications need to be put aside for a more progressive and realistic system of training.

Sensing fright.

The amygdala sits in the brain's medial temporal lobe, a few inches from either ear. Coursing through the amygdala are nerves connecting it to a number of important brain centers, including the neocortex and visual cortex. It is part of the limbic system. One of it's vast roles is to take information from our senses and have our system act accordingly. Therefore when a person receives a fright or shock, the amygdala triggers the medulla gland which releases a cocktail of hormones, those being adrenalin also known as epinephrine and noradrenalin.

Flight, fight and freeze.

Adrenalin is a hormone and a neurotransmitter. Once this is released into our blood stream a number of physiological effects can be noticed. It's main function is to aid the body during a period of extreme stress. The result of an adrenal dump in the body can be categorised into three elements; Flight, fright or freeze.

From a self preservation point of view the effects of adrenalin need to be understood and thus harnessed. Many systems of 'self defence' train without the slightest bit of understanding of the adrenal dump and how this physiological reaction to fright or the shock of a violent encounter can actually make years of training fancy release techniques a complete waste of time and energy.

The positive and negative responses to the adrenal dump.

The immediate effects of an adrenal dump can be felt as a warm sensation which engulfs the mid section. The medulla gland from which the adrenal cocktail is released is located just above the kidneys. The medulla gland is stimulated form an sharp increase in heart rate triggered by the amygdala. Adrenalin is then released and acts a vasodilator which encourages blood flow into the major muscle groups and constricts (vasoconstriction) blood flow to the extremities. This enables much swifter running and more powerful core movements as the blood is channeled into the major muscle groups that coordinate gross motor movement, therefore gross motor movement is enhanced while fine motor movement is diminished.

Gross motor movements are those found in functional striking arts. The use of the knees, elbows and hands are governed by the larger gross motor muscle groups. Fine motor skill is diminished resulting is less coordinated movement of the fine motor muscle groups that control the lower extremities such as the hands and fingers. This reaction alone makes wrist grabs and other fine motor movements like joint manipulation utterly pointless under certain stressful conditions, on a positive note however because of less blood flow to the extremities, any cut or stab wound to that region will result in a lot less bleeding than under normal circumstances.

While other positive effects of the adrenal dump include a dilation of the air passages which allows more oxygen to be pumped to the operating gross motor muscle groups, one of the most negative effects is when the adrenal cocktail inhibits our ability to make decisions.

Combative training principles guide us to understand the need to have a singular diagnostic response to threat. This is because one of the most dramatic effects of the adrenal dump is when the decision making parts of the brain are by-passed resulting in the mid brain operating as an aid to self preservation. The midbrain is the smallest region of the brain that acts as a sort of relay station for auditory and visual information.

The midbrain controls many important functions such as the visual and auditory systems as well as body movements. Before evolution brought us to where we are now, neanderthal man operated solely on midbrain functions.

Because adrenalin effects our natural self preservation triggers the midbrain is activated in order to aid the flight or fight response. The decision making elements of the temporal lobes are by-passed. This is where memory, decision making and speech are controlled.

So with memory diminished and fine motor skill diminished, questions need to be asked about the usefulness of many fine motor techniques (some martial arts boast hundreds of techniques for one attack!) trained two or three times a week. On a related note, school goers will associate with diminished memory under stress as result of cramming for exams, i've been there myself!

With decision making diminished well so then is target acquisition, the ability to strike small regions of the body under stress are rendered useless. You only have to look at your common street brawl to know it's nothing short of an unsightly mess of missed haymakers and hair pulling. This is why when training with Combative principles in mind we target the entire high line as a generic target with a view to shutting down the functions of the brain with temporary unconsciousness.

Other positive effects of the adrenal response include a reduction in pain due to the anesthetic effects of adrenalin, hence why people who have been injured in fight don't realise it until after the event.

Other negative effects include the body wanting to get rid of any excess waist that it is carrying, this results in the need to go to the toilet and or vomit.

Understanding these effects of the adrenal response means we can train within it's parameters and improve on the functions that it gives us to prevail. In order to do this you must create scenarios that will come as close to the real deal as possible and throw compliancy out the window. Only then will you understand for yourself if your training is productive and functional or whether all your fancy lapel releases and thumb locks quickly become as useless as an ash tray on a motor bike.

Non compliant scenario training by its very nature carries an inherent risk, however with the right guidance and training it can become a very enlightening part of your self protection training. Whatever you are training in, ensure you pressure test it under the influence of adrenal stress.

Peace.

Reality check part 4 - ECQ's

2011-08-15T03:43:00.000-07:00

A critical factor within combat that determines what techniques we can use is of course the range we find ourselves in. Range dictates what weapons that can be deployed effectively to deal with the opponent. Many combat sports today will exclusively deal with only one range, boxing for example as a striking art will train within the range of striking with the hands. Kickboxing like wise with the added range of the legs. Judo works within the range of clinch and ground fighting with MMA dealing with all ranges within a sporting context. Range can be defined as that workable distance between you and your opponent in which you can deploy your trained techniques, both offensive and defensive. All combat sports will compete within these ranges and within the guidelines of their respective rules settings.

If we take combat out of the sporting ring and explore it from a realistic point of view where the participants are not safe guarded by any particular rule set or sporting environment, range dictates not victory but survival.

Combative principles:

Training within Combative principles tells us that to significantly increase your chances of prevailing over an aggressor, we must where possible hit first, hit the head and keep hitting until the threat is removed. That being to seek a knock out with a pre-emptive strike or to seek knock out through a number of cycled shots to the highline while maintaining a tactile grip on the target. This of course is not always possible and the range you find yourself in will determine whether I can significantly strike my intended target for knock out or not.

Ranges within Combative training:

Ranges within Combative training and sport training are similar as they are a constant within combat. Striking range is a range where I can employ any significant shot with the hands to the highline, that being any target above the clavicle with the hand or any low line kick to any target below the umbilicus. Close quarters is a range where you can employ clinch tactics which enables the use of the big guns – the elbows, head and knees.

One step closer again is a range that stifles movement and restricts striking, extreme close quarters. ECQ’s is a range most commonly found where someone has been pinned to a wall or pinned to the ground. You can find yourself in an ECQ situation after an initial flurry of wind milling (punches thrown aimlessly, aggressively and erratically at the face) where two combatants clash and fall to the ground or crash against a static object such as a wall/hording, for that couple of seconds within a real fight dynamic that is extreme close quarters.

Maintaining dominance:

Maintaining dominance is a key factor for prevailing in a ‘balls to the wall’ mill up. Losing dominance at any stage means you are losing and are already on the back foot. All principles within Combative training is geared towards maintaining dominance over your subject in a bid to securing a clean and fast result enabling you to go home safely.

Finding yourself in a situation with an aggressor that has you both in ECQ’s means you have lost initiative somewhere along the way and now you find yourself in this tight fight where both of you will have an equal opportunity to obtain dominance, if he or she wins dominance they improve their chances of injuring you.

Closest weapon nearest target:

On finding yourself in ECQ’s with an aggressor what ever the reason, you must be immediate in regaining control of the situation. Regaining control meaning you create the opportunity for you to continue the tactic of ballistic impact to the head. In order to do that, you must have created significant distance between you and your subject since the extreme closeness has stifled the movement needed in order to strike.

This is where biting, tearing and gouging have their place within the field of Combative training.

Biting, tearing/ripping and gouging have come in for bad press, and in many cases rightly so. There are systems of “Self Defence” out there that use tactics such as this as their primary method of dealing with an attacker, or they will use the idea of gouging and biting to market what they do as being some sort of deadly street art imported from ‘X’ country in the middle east.

Ignoring all the bull shit that some perpetuate, biting, tearing and gouging have their place within the field of real combat. Bear this in mind before we press on, there are NO rules on the street, clichéd I know but never the less true.

Within extreme close quarters where our hands are pinned we can rely on the principle of closest weapon nearest target. This may mean that the closest part of the aggressor’s body might be the cheek, the neck or the shoulder, and the closest weapon you have is your mouth. Like wise within a messed up tangle of extreme close quarters the only part of the aggressor’s body I can index would be the eyes or even the ears. It depends of course on the situation you find yourself in but what ever the situation is, biting, tearing and gouging need to be used within the context of the dilemma you are in.

Not fight finishers:

Biting is rarely a fight finisher, as is sticking your fingers into someone’s eyes or even tearing skin such as an ear. The likely response to this will be an immediate reaction by the aggressor to pull away from the point of pain. This is the response that we are looking for in order to regain dominance. In effect what we are doing is creating a workable distance between the aggressor’s head and your wheeling shots to his highline. Once we regain the initiative through inflicting localised pain thus creating some distance we can resort back to ballistic impact – herein lies the importance of hitting hard, and being able to hit within a restricted environment.

Biting and inherent problems:

Biting has it’s place within the realms of street fighting but it also comes with it’s own problems of cross contamination. It would be remiss of me to write about the need to bite without mentioning the possible complications it brings with it. There is always the possibility of cross contamination anytime bodily fluids mix between one human being and another. Blood borne diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis can be readily transferred from person to person through cross contamination of blood.

Research suggests that the risk of HIV infection in this way is extremely small. A very small number of people - usually in a healthcare setting - have become infected with HIV as a result of blood splashes in the eye or being pricked by a needle.

Blood in the mouth carries an even lower risk. The lining of the mouth is very protective, so the only way HIV could enter the bloodstream would be if the person had a cut, open sore or area of inflammation somewhere in their mouth or throat (if the blood was swallowed). Even then, the person would have to get a fairly significant quantity of fresh blood (i.e. an amount that can be clearly seen or tasted) directly into the region of the cut or sore for there to be a risk. HIV is diluted by saliva and easily killed by stomach acid once the blood is swallowed.

On a finishing point, before those on the moral high ground turn to the next page, it is worth noting that the recent abduction of a young girl in England was foiled after the girl who found herself in an extremely tight grip bit her assailant. The result was him removing his arm from the point of pain which created the opportunity for her to run.

Every range creates opportunities to regain control of the fight, outside of a sporting context one must think outside the box.

2011-04-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

Me thinks it's time to start blogging again. It has been a while, but with all the hectic goings on it can be hard to find the time.

I'd like to share the details of my next article for the Irish Fighter magazine with you, have a read and feel free to leave a response commenty thing. All feed back is appreciated, so without further ado, you seen it here first...

Reality check part 3

Jon Mackey

April 2011

Edged weapons

The amount of violent knife crime that takes place in Ireland these days is disturbing. In the past six weeks there have been six reports of serious assaults on people involving knives or other sharp implements. Three of them assaults resulted in fatal consequences. This is life in the 21^st century where yob culture has now become the norm, where carrying a weapon, whether that be a weapon by design or not – has become the norm. In 2009 Gardai were dealing with more than 30 knife related incidents a week (ref -Evening Herald).

Before we go any further with this article and delve into the murky world of knife crime, let me say this; No system has all the answers when it comes to training for knife or edged weapon encounters. Some systems or styles of training however offer a more realistic approach and provide better options to some of the nonsense that is on offer from some systems of 'defence'. But NONE have all of these answers.

If you are training with an eye to reality you should already be aware of the two most obvious factors when it comes to dealing with a violent encounter, whether that be an opportunistic mugging, a hold up or violence for the sake of violence the two most important external components of theses scenarios are disproportional numbers and disproportional armament. That being there is a very likely chance that any person looking to inflict harm on you, for what ever reasons, will either have mates and/or be armed. Disproportional armament and numbers offer a higher success rate for the assailant.

The weapon of choice for thugs in the 21^st century are sharp implements. In Ireland however, it is illegal to carry a weapon by design, that being a knife or any other sharp implements that are designed to inflict puncture or slash wounds. The mandatory sentence is five years. It is not illegal however to carry a screw driver, a shard of glass, a piece of tin, a drawing compass or even a pencil – all of which can and have been used to stab, puncture and slash victims of violence. With violent knife crime on the rise in Ireland it is easy to suggest that the laws used to combat this crime are flawed. This is because the law is aimed at the carrying of the weapon, what the law misses completely is the real problem, and that is the persons intention to use the weapon and the culture that advocates the carrying of such weapons.

If you lock a knife away in a drawer, it is completely useless, it will cause no harm to anyone. If you put that said knife into the hands of someone who has the motivation to use the weapon to harm someone this is when the problem arises. In fact, you could lock every single knife under the sun away in a big dark vault and people would still be getting seriously injured and killed from being plunged and slashed with sharp implements. Human beings are weapon baring animals. One school in the US reported that when they initiated mandatory searches on students who were known knife carriers the cases in which assaults with knives were said to have reduced, but assaults continued none the less with one student being stabbed with a drawing compass through the face.

Knife carrying cultures:

As I have mentioned earlier, yob culture has become a lot more desensitized to violence. It is the norm these days to carry weapons. It is the norm these days to carry weapons and use them in fight – while you're being recorded on your mates mobile phone to be uploaded to nothingtoxic.com later that night for everyone to admire. Happy slapping is tame these days.

Add to that the fact that Ireland in the 21^st century is a much more international community. There are vast and various different races and cultures that we share this island with. In some of these cultures it is the norm to carry knives. In eastern Europe for example it is not against the law to carry knives.

In Russia you can carry anything that is bladed that is under 9cm , that can be any bladed tool like a dagger or flick knife.
You can also carry a blade that is over 9cm, but with only a single edge , or a second edge only where the edge is 35% of the blade, this can be any thickness but must not a have a guard over 5mm wide. Knives under 2.5mm can have a guard, can be double edged but must be thin..
also legal to carry are knives with a point that is higher than the handle and knives with a tip with a shape that makes the point greater than 70 degrees. It is legal to use knives for self defence also.

In parts of Asia it is common practice to carry knives and sort out disputes with knives where the first to draw blood has settled the score. The Philippines has what is known as a blade culture. Local folk in the Philippines are much more likely to carry knives. They are commonly carried as tools by farmers, used by street vendors to prepare coconuts, pineapples, other fruits and meats, and balisongs are cheap to procure in the streets as well as being easily concealed. Thus, they are much more used when tempers rise than by people in North America or Europe. In fact, in the language of Palau, the term for Filipino is chad ra oles which literally means "people of the knife" because of Filipinos' reputation for carrying knives and using them in fights. As a result, blade fighting is still very much a living skill in the Philippines, particularly in rural areas.

A MORI (Britain) Survey for the Youth Justice Board found that 29% of Secondary School-children, along with 57% of those excluded admitted to routinely carrying knives. Correspondingly, the Hospitals report a rise in ‘stab wounds’ particularly among young males. Knives and the reasons for carrying them, is a self-perpetuating, dangerous trend with horrific consequences. Here are some of the reasons given for their use:-

Fear and/or self-protection/defence.
To steal, by threats to harm (often to fund a drug habit).
Harass, intimidate or even for ‘kicks’
Peer pressure.
To command ‘Respect’ and status

(Ref – www.knifecrimes.org)

The attitude to carrying knives in Ireland is changing, and the law is not affecting it positively.

With all that in mind, it is easy to suggest that if you are training without understanding gang or yob culture you will be beaten by it.

Combatives approach

One of the principles of combative training is to engage violently and deal with the intention of an offending person. The purpose being, to turn the dynamic of the encounter from one of you being prey and the assailant being predator into you being the predator and the assailant wishing he or she had stayed in bed that morning. This brings in a second important principle in combative training- the ability to hit hard, the ability to hit hard and keep hitting until you turn your assailant into a quivering mess, thus reversing the dynamic of the initial encounter. The force to threat parallel needs to be observed in all cases, that being if your drunk uncle Sidney is gobbing off at your sisters wedding, well you know the rest – you hardly want to be giving him the beating of his life!

If a knife or sharp implement is used in an assault then the force to threat parallel has been increased significantly and the response if one is needed needs to be violent. This is where many systems of 'self defence' lack in areas of training. Combatives training is violent, it is geared towards the extreme ends of the violence scale. To put this into context I like to use a quote from Canada's most famous reality based personal protection instructors – Richard Demitri who said- “train for the terminator and everything else pales into insignificance”

So with the understanding that it is not the weapon that is being used, but the intention spurned on by the motivation to use the weapon that is the real issue. This of course, is all very simple in text, in reality if you have to do deal with a incident involving a bladed weapon there is a strong likely hood that you are going to get cut with it, especially if you have missed the draw or the weapon is already in play and the person is intending on damaging you with it. Any untrained response to a slashing or stabbing action of course is to flail the hands out and turn away as you try to make as big a distance as possible between you and the oncoming weapon. In the last four knife fatality reports in Ireland all the victims had one thing in common, defensive wounds to the hands. No one can be blamed for wanting to be as far away from any oncoming weapon with intention behind it, although this presents problems in so far as it allows the attacker to continue by creating a working distance between you and him, this results in defensive wounds and multiple stab and slash injuries.

Training with combative principles in mind tells us that the safest place for you to be (if you cannot run like the clappers) is inside the weapon range stifling the mechanics of the stab or slash. While within this range you need to be explosively violent baring in mind that while you attempt to stifle and stop the mechanics of the stab or slash you need to be smashing the offenders head with violent intention. Any hesitation within this range will result in injury to you. Hesitation has no place here, there must be forward pressure, vehemence and a god almighty attitude to prevail, that meaning be guttural and demonstrative in your counter violence, there can be only one outcome if you are forced to deal with knife crime, survival is not an option – prevailing is the attitude of combative training.

The purpose of this article is not to give a 2 minute lesson on how to deal with a bladed weapon attack, and it shouldn't be seen as that. Knife violence and crime is an entire subject on it's own and one that Combative instructors worth their salt the world over give serious research and consideration to. The purpose was to encourage self defence enthusiasts to take a serious approach to an ever increasing threat within the world of crime and violence. Understand it so you are not beaten by it.

“It is better to have a response and not need it, than to need it and not have it” - Lee Morrison

Looking forward 2011

2010-12-29T11:59:00.000-08:00

Another year is just about to come to a close. Another year is about to break over the horizon and bring all sorts of new challenges, new success stories and new ideas. We'll see how 2011 goes, but for now I'm looking forward to it. Mainly because of the ITF European championships are being held in Cork. Our very own Cork, so we can bring a big enough team I'm hoping.

I'm very excited about the coming year mainly because we have a number of cracking competitors starting to shine, and they are all at the right age of 10 and 11 years old. Some of these guys look like they've been competing for years. This year will be a great test for them. That's where my time is going to be spent for the next while, trying to get these guys to reach they're full potential.

Also shining at the moment are the loyal few at the top, I've a feeling we could have a couple of new teenage European championships come June. I hope it all goes well for them. If they put the effort in they will get the rewards for it.

We'll have a pile of tournaments this year also, we're going to try and get to as many as possible. The WAKO world championships are happening in Ireland also this year. That should be a super event too.

So all in all a very busy year ahead, I hope yours will be as busy as ours, but not as fun :D

First grading tomorrow

2010-09-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

It's a big day for all of the students of Red Star Taekwon-Do as they face their test tomorrow. It's also a big day for me as an examiner. I'm looking forward to it however. I remember as a 16 year old helping on the panel of the grading examiners in the Irish School of Taekwon-Do, I had to demonstrate the techniques the examiner was requesting. 16 years on and now I'm the examiner, how time flies.

There is a great bunch of red belts just ready to burst through to achieve a little bit of black on their belt.

The daunting black. We have five testing for 1st degree tomorrow, what a huge achievement to reach this test seeing as though so many fall by the way side. Incredibly students still duck out at red belt and even black stripe. Imagine, getting all the way to black stripe to pack it all in. That's at least three years training, all for diddly squat. It's a bit like competing in the marathon, you see the finish line but instead of persevering and pushing on to finish, you decide you're going to lie down and give up. Bizarre as only teenagers can be!

For those that have stuck the pace, you have my respect whether you are successful or not you have all proven your worth and all of you are very good competitors as only we produce!

Ádh mór gach duine, beidh sibhse iontach ;)

Another mountain conquered, a new challenge

2010-09-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

I'm really starting to enjoy this outdoor stuff. It has been a super two weeks, I needed a break from all the intense Taekwon-Do stuff post Korea. It was near on 24/7 in the build up to Korea and while we were there. I got sick of looking at doboks. I really wanted to do something different for a few weeks. I played around with starting back to grappling training in BJJ or Sambo, and I started back the UC training after hooking up with Lee for a weekend. In the end I reckoned I needed something away from the mats. So I headed for the water and the hills.

I started Kayaking two weeks ago. A bit unsure as to how I would like it, I decided to give it a bash. I love the water anyway and I'd be a half decent swimmer. A good friend of mine Gerry O'F is an avid kayaker up in the Wild Water Kayak Club on the Liffey, he's an instructor up there so I got some really helpful one on one's. He was impressed with the speed I picked it up and on my first night I was able to run the weir, having said that, the water was very low, so low that Stevie Wonder would have ran the weir and got through it alright. All the same, I was hooked. I loved it. I did the capsize drill and soaked and smelling of river I couldn't wait to go back in. On my second trip out I learned the 'T' rescue and some new strokes. The 'T' rescue is for when you capsize and you lose your paddle (or you can't roll just yet). You sit upside in the kayak and bang your hull three times and wait for another kayaker to butt you with the nose of his boat which you then use to right yourself. It's just great crack and the weirs and the small bit of white water i got gave me a great adrenalin rush even more so than competing in the ring. This competition is with yourself, it's all about your own inner courage to venture into surroundings that have taken life, albeit only in the most tragic of circumstances.

On Saturday 4th September another out door challenge awaited. The Cooley challenge is a 20Km trek across the Cooley mountains. It's a tough, arduous ascent at the best of times. We got the worst of times! It lashed rain, constantly. It was hoods up and heads down as we made our way to the summit. Our club entered a team the youngest being Lauren Bradshaw and at only 13 she made the trek without one complaint, in fact every time we checked on her she was smiling. She's a great kid. It was also Donna's first time up the mountain ranges, she made a new friend called Maggie. Maggie was a three year old springer spaniel that accompanied one of the hikers. She ran the whole thing! (Maggie, not Donna!)

The hike was put together by locals in Armagh who have invited people to trek their beautiful country side which was inaccessible for decades as the British army prohibited anyone venturing onto what it deemed to be its land. Now they're gone and thankfully people from all over the world can enjoy the mountains.

As we neared the half way point we bumped into Banjo Bannon. Banjo is Ireland's most famous mountain climber. He has conquered some of the worlds highest and most dangerous mountains, including Everest and K2. He has been all over the world and all over the TV! Meeting him on the mountain was a privilege. He was coordinating the hike and at that point he was herding some lost hikers to safety. He spoke to us and told us where to stick to as visibility was next to nothing, he could see we were up for it so he told us to plough on. He took others off the mountain however. It was a great to meet one of the greats of the outdoors.

We ploughed on regardless and as we came off the top of the first ascent the weather calmed down a bit, we stopped for a rest and took in some of the local beauty. A short distance down the way awaited the half way point, soup sandwiches, Moore streets finest fruit and Gerry's gone off chocolate, which we had to eat to prove a point, don't ask!

Fired up with food and red bull we headed off to the finish point in Carlingford. Another two hours on foot and the next peek unveiled Carlingford bay. It was breath taking through the mist. At one point some upset Sheep decided they'd block our path, we set Lauren on them and they ran off!

The descent was as tough as the ascent, lose rocks or 'scree' made it tough on the ankles but the sticks made a huge difference. Along the way down we came across a farm which had a huge mare in foul, she came over to say hello. She was huge, majestic and powerful, a lovely sight.

As we made our way down into Carlingford, we were like Japanese soldiers coming out of the jungle 20 years after the war. The little village was booming with tourists who glared at us, I'm sure they thought we were mad coming down off the mountain after that weather! The funny thing for us now was the fact that we couldn't find the marina to the finish line! Almost 20km's in the rain and clouds with no directions and we make it to civilisation to find ourselves lost, unashamed we had to ask for directions where we headed for the finish line to clock 4 hours 36 minutes. An admirable time indeed.

I can't wait for the next one. Like I said in a recent blog, I love the outdoors, I'm going to be spending more time there than anywhere else for the foreseeable future.

Urban Combatives training day

2010-08-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

So another great days training today with the lads. New additions today being Cathal and Paddy. The lads who have been training with me are the lads who work some close protection details with me, so the new additions are great as we open the classes up.

Today we drilled our main artillery working through the different strikes, cultivating impact, aggression and forward pressure. Once that was down we looked at an introduction to the sharp edge programme, designed by our lead man Lee Morrison and dedicated to the edged weapon.

As we only had one hour to dedicate to the module, we looked at;

Soft skills:

What is an edged weapon - by design and by improvisation
Current knife statistics from the Irish government
Video footage of live knife assaults as a learning tool
Photos of knife victims and wounds as a learning tool

Hard skills:

A knifers MO
Common knife concealment
trapping the draw (working off a rear deployment)
Breaking the structure and blasting the low line/followed by palms and elbows
Progression to trapping the draw

That's as much as we could get through in one hour and still not giving it proper justice but Lee always says, with your class, get them used to the concepts of the edged weapon programme from the beginning, knives are so common these days, to miss the opportunity to cover it is a mistake.

To finish the class we did some combative conditioning. Sprints, to press ups to burpee jumps reeling into knees and elbows to fatigue. A good days training had by all. Next week we'll add to the edged weapon module by dealing with the blade now in play.

Just give me a shout if you want to tag along, and stay tuned for www.combatives.ie

Tóg aire :)

UC training group

2010-08-21T15:27:00.001-07:00

Great class today with the lads covering the ballistic stiking module from the UC syllabus. We're going to open things up a bit to anyone else who wants to train in UC. The lads training with me at the moment are a tough bunch who work with me on security detail, some close protection stuff we do from time to time, having said that anyone is welcome to tag along, you'll be made very welcome. There is always room for beginners.

Next week we're going to have a look at some of the 'Sharp Edge' stuff dealing with knife concealment and deployment. We'll also look at fending the knife to crash and counter drills.

Should be fun. Bring a gum shield ;)

Urban Combatives

2010-08-15T13:47:00.001-07:00

There's nothing like knowing you've put in a good days training. I'm sat here now at 21.50pm, sore as hell, bruised and a wee head ache. I am surprised? Of course not. I was at a UC seminar. I haven't seen Lee for a while nor have I trained with him for about 12 months, so I was relishing the chance to catch up with him and Rob and put in some 'flight time'.

Lee's an interesting guy. I said that the first time I ever met him, interesting but enigmatic at the same time. He's a really great laugh and commands presence, but underneath that there's the other Lee, there's a darker side that has cultivated itself naturally over years of turbulent violent surroundings. These surroundings would have twisted the psyche of many a good man, the interesting thing about Lee is how he uses this experience to help others, he trains people now to avoid what he had to face as a young man in life and as an occupational self protection operative and security operative. Lee number two persona, to use a Jungian concept, is under lock and key until it's needed, and from time to time during one of his sessions you get to a peek at the attributes that make Lee famous for what he does. Lee's aggressive, incredibly fast and powerful, with a low centre gravity, wide frame and attitude to beat the band, he is your typical fighting machine.

Bear all that in mind now as I give my thoughts on the seminar and the fact that I'm his assistant for the day. Assistant is probably the wrong word, maybe the word victim is more accurate.

The seminar covered all the aspects of weapons. Edged weapons, blunt ballistic weapons, concealment, deployment, and the use of CS gas. Bolted onto those subjects were the concepts of flanking, preemption, body language cues, continuous counter offensive assault and take downs. It was a lot to fit into one 5 hour seminar, but as usually we covered a vast amount of the topics and finished up with a quick look at the possibility of live firearm hold ups, which was interesting to say the least.

Lee was in great form as he rounded up his summer finishing off a string of European seminars with this Irish one. He is only back from France and before that he was in Finland the Czech Republic and was a visitor to Kelly McCann's Crucible in the US. It's been a busy year as UC continues to expand as more and more people realise its usefulness way above any of the already better known "self defence systems" out there.

Being Lee's assistant for the day is always fun. You get to feel first hand the raw power on the end of the shots, you get to feel the blunt thud of the steel training knife as we drilled the counter knife stuff, if the blunt weapon causes so much pain, imagine the real thing! And that's why we train with an element of realism. You get to feel what forward pressure is actually about and why it's a vital cog in the wheel of self protection training.

The most interesting component of Lee's seminars however is the mindset module. Lee talks a lot about the need for a combative mindset. There is no point in learning any self protection concepts if you're not paying heed to your own mental approach. Mental approach is everything. One lesson he delivered this time round about mind set was about some of the nonsense being marketed which helped you "survive" an assault.

"Survival is a cop out" Lee says.
" If you get jumped upon by a nasty bunch of thugs, similar to those animals responsible for the death of two Polish men here in Dublin a few years back, and they give you a pasting the result being, you're brain damaged so much so that your paralysed from the neck down, or you're cut so severely that you are disfigured for life but you survive - that's a cop out"

"you have to train to win. You MUST prevail" Anything below that is not what our training is about.

Now that is the epitome of UC. For Taekwon-Do people, that is indomitable spirit. There's so much to be learned by people in the field of Combatives. Lee will be back again soon and we're already looking forward to it.

2010-08-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

It's coming up to that time again, a time when some of the students get ready to test for 1st degree black belt. It's a great time in Taekwon-Do life when this time comes around and years of training finally have an end in sight.

End? That is the puzzle. Is it the end or is it only the beginning? Well that depends what you intend to do with your black belt and your training afterwards.

The black belt signifies a time in your training when all your preparations get recognised and you only begin on your journey. It also symbolises all that time that you have spent with your club and instructor training, sweating and learning. A black belt is one way a mutual bond. Well to some anyway. To others it is a status symbol, a trophy and a misunderstood level.

Other than my own thoughts on what black belt means, I think General Choi's opinion of what he wanted Taekwon-Do black belts to be is most important, so here is what he wrote about it. It can be found on page 727 of the condensed encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do.

First Degree - Expert or Novice?

One of the greatest misconceptions within the martial arts is the notion that all black belts holders are experts. It is understandable that those unacquainted with the martial arts might make this equation. However, students should certainly recognise that this is not always the case. Too often, novice black belt holders advertise themselves as experts and eventually even convince themselves.

The first the degree black belt holder has usually learned enough technique to defend him or herself against a single opponent. He or she can be confirmed fledgling who has acquired enough feathers to leave the nest and fend for him or her self. The first degree is a starting point. The student as merely built a foundation. The job of building the house lies ahead.

The novice black belt holder will now really begin to learn technique. Now that he or she has mastered the alphabet, he or she can begin to read. Years of hard work and study await him or her before he can even begin to consider him or herself an instructor and expert.

A perceptive student will, at this stage, suddenly realise how very little they know.

The black belt holder also enters a new era of responsibility. Though a beginner, they have entered a strong honourable fraternity of the black belt holders of the entire world; and his or her actions inside AND outside the training hall will be carefully scrutinised.

Their conduct will reflect on all black belt holders and he or she must constantly strive to set an example for all grade holders.

Some will certainly advance into the expert stages. However, far too many will believe the misconception and will remain in novice, mentally and technically.

General Choi Hong Hi 1918 - 2002

Founder of Taekwon-Do

2010-07-21T04:01:00.000-07:00

So we are one week back today (Wednesday) and the thoughts of Korea are still very vivid. What an incredible experience. The championships, the festival, the cultural experience, just incredible. To be apart of team Ireland for this trip is something that can't be forgotten easily. Obviously it was a great trip for a number of reasons, my test, the students performance at the tournament, the experience of coaching at that level, being around some great people from across the globe and spending time with Master Choi and Master Dalton.

All the tough training certainly paid off, it was well worth all that effort. All that extra time on the mat, all those early mornings, the diet plans, the weight cutting, the hard slog of fundraising and the team building wasn't lost on everyone, and the results speak for themselves.

The World Taekwon-Do Festival was the first of the events to happen. This event saw both fighters from the WTF and the ITF compete along side each other in an amazing display of sport Taekwon-Do. Some of these WTF guys are savage kickers, explosive. Competing in the Festival for us was Lauren, Erika and Donna in the colour belt sections, Neidin and Alvy competed in the black belt sections.

The sections were huge, filled with competitors from Russia, Argentina, Uzbekistan, England, Korea and many more nations, all expecting the big G.O.L.D.
After the coaches meeting the draws were issued and for the first time we were able to see who faced who. The two girls, Erika and Lauren weren't phased by having to face some countries who boast the best TKD fighters in the world, if they were, they didn't show it!

They were first up to perform and boy did they perform, winning gold in their sparring sections and in patterns, Lauren took silver and Erika bronze. Erika looked very nervous in the patterns division, there was big expectations on her to perform well as she has medalled in every home tournament to date in patterns. She did a great Do San but she was the lowest ranking belt in the division so was up against some superb performances of Joong Gun and Yul Gok where beautiful side kicks will always score good marks. Never the less, she did us proud. As did Lauren who had to battle her way through a large section to meet an Argentinean girl in the final of the patterns, the girl did a near perfect Hwa Rang, technically very good, she had great acceleration and sine wave, she deserved the gold but Lauren was in great form winning the silver. I told you all many moons ago when she was an 8 year old white belt to watch out for her on the world stage. Told you so :)

Donna also competed very well in the patterns making her way to the final also. To think all of our competitors made it to the finals is mind blowing. She faced Russia in the final of her patterns and the final of her sparring she met Argentina. Tactically in the final of her sparring if she had have used her straight right a bit more she would have taken the girl, but it was a great performance a great result again on the international stage. She has the right attitude when it comes to competing, just get in and do it!

The black belts were another ball game altogether, the standard at that level was second to none and the contact was very hard, which suits the Irish. Neidin was performing the best she's ever performed in my opinion and she took a gold in sparring, Alvy was in a different league facing opposition like he's never faced before and got a rude awakening when he went out in the first round against Russia. However he was slotted onto the Irish men's team for the festival as Leon Brydon had to pull out due to an eye injury he was protecting. He redeemed himself on the team winning his fights and helping the team push through to the final where they met Greece and beat them easily, Alvy's inexperience in terms of ring craft caused him a loss as one final warning for exiting the area made it three warnings and a minus point which caused the scroll on the computer scoring to move over to his Greek opponent in the last ten seconds. Never the less it was a gold medal for team sparring in the festival so it was a great result. Neidin also won herself a gold medal in power breaking, smashing 7 boards with the side kick, which raised a bow from Master Choi up in the VIP section.

Master Dalton asked me to coach the team for the festival, this was a huge honour for me. It was a great learning experience and our tactics worked well.

World Championships

The Worlds were next, and the festival proved a useful warm up for the championships. There were over 2000 competitors altogether and the coaches meeting went on into the night as the draws were scrutinised. Competitors came from all over the globe to compete in Korea, and why wouldn't they, it's the chance of a life time.

It was great for our competitors to see such a standard, it's a standard to aspire to and very much achievable. The approach we've taken over the last few years to up our standard has worked well, but we must keep training and aspiring to that level. The level the Argentineans reach all the time.

The medals weren't as free flowing at the worlds! To earn a medal in this tournament you had to fight through sections with up to 40 in them over 5 and 6 pools. None the less, Neidin proved her worth as she battled through countries such as USA, Canada and Australia to meet the current world champ in the semi where after a very tough battle she lost out to Kimberley Bradshaw from England. The high point was the New York state trooper breaking her hand off Neidin's forehead! This was Neidin's debut as a senior too, some step up isn't it? To go from junior to senior at the worlds, nearly unfair, but she rose to the challenge in fairness to her winning three bronze in the championships, the only black belt to do so.

Alvy had a fierce battle in his first round against Canada which went over four rounds before Alvy stole the winning point with a well placed jumping punch. This fight took the steam out of him as he struggled against the US in his next fight but he took the win. In the next round awaited Jemaine Hemmings, current WAKO world champion. Getting past Jemaine was going to take a miracle at this stage as Alvy was shattered. As predicted Jemaine took the win and went on to face Christian Oriolani from Spain in the next round with Christian winning, only to be put out by Argentina in the next round, what happened after that I can't remember, the section went on for hours and there was no chance of us medalling there, not this time anyway. Maybe in the future, but that's up to Alvy.

For myself I also had the opportunity of participating in the first ever International seminar held at the World Taekwon-Do Education Centre in South Korea. You can keep your TKD palace Kim :) this place was great with some super instruction from international masters, including our very own Master Dalton and of course Master Choi Jung Hwa who taught patterns and theory of power to both ITF and WTF black belts.

The cultural experience however was the best part for me. The Koreans are beautiful people, very courteous and extremely helpful. The food was unreal and I got used to the kim chi after a few portions of it. The trip to the Buddhist temple was a great experience also, this is where we spent time with Master Choi who was in great form throughout the two weeks while we were there. Meeting him in the hotel lift he was in a buoyant mood as he told us the the ITF finals were carried on the main news network as well as live on Korea's sports channel. He told us that some Korean people were concerned initially as they thought it was some trick being played by North Korea on South Korean TV!

There are so many great memories about this trip, it was a valuable learning experience for us all on many levels, it was an opportunity to see the good aspects of some people and learn about their way of life.

I hope to return to Korea someday, and learn more about its people and its culture.

I couldn't finish this blog without mentioning our guide over the course of ten days, Eui Tae Jeong was one of the nicest guys you could meet. He was very helpful to us all and in a way he automatically became part of the Red Star team, it was sad to say goodbye to Eui Tae but hopefully we will meet him again sometime.

감사합니다 Eui Tae.

Moon Moo

2010-07-19T14:56:00.000-07:00

One of the most exciting things about this new level is the challenge of Moon Moo. Made famous on the Internet by Argentina's Noemi Prone Moon Moo is one of the toughest patterns out there in terms of dexterity, core strength and leg strength.

Tonight I got all the movements learned off. I've been studying it for a few days now thanks to YouTube, it's an easier pattern to remember than I would have initially thought. The easy to remember diagram is countered by the fact that it is physically difficult. Slow side piercing kicks to the high section, high back piercing kicks all in slow motion make Moon Moo very pleasant to watch (if it's Noemi Prone!) but very hard to master.

Either way I was happy to have all the movements learned off, now it's just about refining it and that will be the hard part.

What a nice feeling

2010-07-18T01:12:00.000-07:00

I didn't think it would feel as special as it did, but putting on the stripes for the first time was pretty cool. Makes the preparations all the more worth while.

:)

The test and what's next

2010-07-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

Jet lag is just about wearing off, wobbly ground syndrome is abiding and reality is kicking back in.
What a great trip, what a great country. Korea is amazing, the people are amazing, the event was amazing. No complaints.

When we arrived on Monday night we crawled into the Ramada hotel after a three hour bus journey from Seoul. Just as we were checking in I saw Master Dalton and Master Maidana in discussions. I went over to say hello. After a few minutes of catch up, Master Dalton asked me if I was ready for the test, I said I was, and so he said "right, half 7 in the morning it is then" and so it was!

I didn't sleep that night at all and at about 5.30am I got up to go over some theory and stretch off, in my head I recapped the patterns. I was operating on adrenalin only as the body was well and truly bunched from the 19 hour journey to the other side of the world.

At 6.45am I headed down to the lobby of the hotel to go over the step sparring, everything was in the head, tired and all as I was, I felt up for it. Ready.
Master Dalton and assistants arrived at 7.30 sharp and we disappeared into the side room of the hotel as the test got underway.

The test was scrutinised by a hotel security guard, North Korean TKD in a South Korean hotel, could he believe his eyes? He was impressed I think!

After the bow in, the patterns were up first. Sam Il; it went well, I felt good, the humidity was great for good warm legs and loose hips. Next Choi Yong; again a good pattern, no wobbles on the hook side kick combination and I was flying. Yoo Sin the same, no problems although the sweat was pumping off me at this stage as the heat set in.

Down through some colour belt patterns, Won Hyo, Yul Gok, Joong Gun and Choong Moo followed by Po Eun and Eui Am. I was saturated and only 30 minutes into the test. Next up was fundamental movements. Master Dalton is a tough examiner, he is well known for it. I wouldn't expect anything less from him. He gave me a number movements incorporating jumping kicks and jumping techniques, my lungs were gasping for real air. I didn't factor in the heat at all and it was getting in on me. I had to suck it up and keep going.

Next up was step sparring which went well, then self defence which never causes me a problem. We did some free sparring and foot sparring, Master Dalton wanted the free sparring fast, without a break. The pain was strong, all I was breathing was warm air!

Next up was the power test. I brought over some good solid Irish wood. I asked Mr Mick Flaherty for some wood a few months back, he doesn't do things by half, the wood he gave me was tough stuff, full of knots, this stuff needed hammering, and it got hammered. The breaks went very well.

First up, two boards front leg turning kick then a speed punch while holding the board and dropping it myself, it broke easy after a good solid bang. Then there was jumping high kick situated about 7 foot in the air and then the jump back kick on two boards. The breaks were challenging and I was happy to break all without much problems.

The theory was to finish. It was tough theory. Apart from the required theory I was asked to explain sine wave and to explain fundamental movements and their relevance to the theory of power and some of the training secrets of Taekwon-Do. In summary, it was all about relaxing the body, using knee spring, having a backward motion, acceleration and concentration. Then there was a quick fire round, or so it felt that way, fast questions fired at me, which leg returns in Toi Gye? What is twin fist downward punch in Korean, which leg returns in Po Eun, Ge Baek, Eui Am, what height is the kick such and such, no problems with any of that.

After the test, I was given the good news. I was delighted. It was a tough test and I was the only one on the floor so every mistake would have been spotted, so the challenge was enjoyable.

I am extremely grateful to Master Dalton for organising this test for me. It's a special one and even more special that it was in Korea. I gave him a good old hug after it, and I meant it. I'll remember this one forever.

So what's next for this blog... what it takes to be a 5th dan?? Na. Time a for a little break I think. Back teaching on Friday. I'm looking forward to seeing the kids again and telling them about the trip. They'll be happy to see the big black stripes on the dobok, they all wished me good luck before I left, I hope they're proud of their 'sir' - I'd love to bring them all to Korea some time for a Taekwon-Do event. I know they would appreciate that.

ITF Taekwon-Do in Korea, on Korean television and on the streets. Only possible in Master Choi's ITF. A wonderful organisation.

And that's that.

2010-06-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

So, a couple of posts later and here we are. The end is in sight. We leave for Korea tomorrow morning. We head for London, then London to Dubai (I'm looking forward to being on the big A380!) and then Dubai to Seoul in South Korea. It's a long bloomin' flight, something like 18 hours and this blog would rather be on Terra firma at all times!

The last year has been a whirl wind. It flew by. The preparations for this grading have been like no other to date. I've been juggling a lot of things in the last couple of months. Obviously our competitors who will be fighting in Korea have taken up most of my time with some intense training, I've been busy in work and also working on the ITF Ireland publicity committee for some weeks now too. But all in all I've handled the pressure OK, Donna may tell you different!

As everyone will know at the start of this blog I was destined to grade under Aidan Walsh. One of the Taekwon-Do pioneers in Ireland and the fifth Taekwon-Do black belt having graded in 1973. That idea took a bit of a nose dive, not due to anything with with Mr Walsh of course. In fact he helped me a great deal with preparations with my thesis.

The best move of the last year for me was rejoining ITF Ireland as an independent school affiliated to the ITF and so Red Star Sport Taekwon-Do was born.
Rejoining gave me this wonderful opportunity to grade in South Korea, the home of Taekwon-Do. I'm still reeling about that bit!

So in all I guess I'm happy with my preparations. I recapped all the patterns today and all the step sparring, 3, 2 and 1 step. The self defence will be a doddle, thank Lee Morrison for that :)
The patterns are good I think, if I can keep the nerves at bay on the day they should roll off the tongue.

My thesis is done. I could have written forever about the history of Taekwon-Do in Ireland but I hadn't got forever so I limited it to 20 pages and stopped at 1984 when the big split happened. I have the urge to continue writing however. I've been in touch with the masters of the RITA and they think it would be a good idea to continue with that piece of work, and I think I will. The information I have is priceless. I have a very special thanks to pay to both Master Robert Howard junior and Senior Master Howard VIII for all their help in my preparations and study for the thesis, I could not have concluded it without their help. I hope to see them again soon to continue the project.

I would also like to thank Aidan Walsh for some tit bits he gave me while we were spending time together training. I hope to revisit our conversations again soon.

In training, I really kept a watch on myself for this grading. Thanks to Jim Faulkner who trained along with me while he prepared for his fifth degree test, they were useful sessions on a Sunday.

Thanks to John Malone who gave me his 15 volume encyclopedia to study for the test, they came in very useful.
The theory is going ok. I hate memorising stuff, it reminds me of school! But the theory of power, training secrets, composition of Taekwon-Do, definition of Taekwon-Do and the moral culture are all well and truly on the disc, I just hope it comes off the disc in the right order!

My fitness levels are good. I don't think I have been in better shape ever, although my ma says i'm too skinny - ma's wha? (as we'd say in Dublin)

My biggest thanks for helping me prepare though goes to a non Taekwon-Doist. Physio Orlagh Sampson who pin pointed the problem in my creaky hips, it wasn't my flexibility, obviously as I could do two near perfect front splits, but my tight hip flexors and not so strong core. Her strength and conditioning home work have really helped my kicks...

See!
So a big thanks to her for her advice and professionalism.

Other people I have to thank would be of course by Master Dalton for spending time with me on some of the finer points of the patterns, Néídín for persevering with my step sparring faux pas, and of course the boss, Donna who had to put up with my crankiness as I prepared. I nearly had to do real self defence once or twice there :D

The World Championships

As for the Worlds, I have it in my head what I'd like to achieve with the guys but in my head is where it will stay to keep pressure off them. I am certain though that win, lose or draw they will perform well and for the first time on such a large stage a good performance is all I'm asking for. Although I have a hunch they will do a bit more than just perform well, just like my grading, it's in the lap of the gods.

I have to say that the amount of effort and training they put in has been commendable. They are gelling very well as a team and they are very confident, but not at all cocky, this is important. Both Adam and Alvy had to make a weight lower than there normal fighting weights and in fairness to them they got stuck in, they stuck to their diet plans that I put together (thanks to a few years working in the sports nutrition industry!) and their training and now Alvy is a lean 71kg's - down from a lean 76kg's! and Adam is 64kg's down from 68kg's. Both were carrying hardly any waste to start with so fair play to them!

Neidin is down to 68kgs and Donna is heading for 60kg's down from 68 which is a real jump! The cross trainer twice a day and a diet of fish and veg is the secret!

Erika and Lauren, lucky them they didn't have to make weight at all but both dropped weight due to training so every one is super fit.

In conclusion I would like to thank all of you (I think there are more than 7 people who read this!) for sticking along and sending me emails and texts wishing us all the best, you guys are true friends. So sin sin.

I'm going to try and twitter some reports from Korea if I can when we're over there so keep an eye on our website www.redstar-tkd.com or our twitter page www.twitter.com/redstarTKD

It's over to you an Badb Catha, the ancient Irish Goddess of War, death and rebirth. Bring me fortune.

:-D

The last furlong

2010-06-12T01:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while since the last update. Things have been unbelievably busy. It's hard to think in two weeks we'll be off to Korea, the whole thing has been a blur, a blink of an eye.

In terms of my own training, it's been a real pain for the past three weeks, I've picked up silly little injuries through my own fault and my own need to keep sparring. The injuries aren't life threatening by any means, just annoying.
I was sparring Néidín last week without shin pads, and clobbard her on the elbows with a dollyo chagi and now there's a nice little chunk gone out of my right shin. At squad training last week I threw a high turning kick to Willy Maloney, he covered well but my foot got pushed off in an awkward direction, I strained the ligament. It's not too bad today. And then there is the ongoing tight hip flexors, although I think I have that under control now.

I spent the weekend with Master Dalton last week. It was a great few days training. On the Saturday we covered the third degree patterns. He was happy with the performances and offered a couple a small changes. I was happy he was happy, he will be on the panel!
The movement he made me drill over and over was the 'W' shape block in Sam Il, I'm chambering that one a tad bit wrong, I've been looking at that since, so it should be ok.

Yoo Sin and Choi Yong were fine, he emphasised the need to perform the guarding blocks with a bit more prominence. I needed the pressure of performing in front of him, it settled my nerves some what.

On the Sunday we did more patterns training and then the senior team did their team pattern training. Then it was straight into a squad session. For anyone that's done a squad, well you'll know what I mean when I say it was business as usual!
The new full time place in Tralee is great, nice a bright with plenty of space. I didn't get to finish the sparring due to my foot injury, but I got stuck into the fitness work. I was happy to keep up with the guys who are super fighting fit.

In terms of the other busy-ness, I've been working on the new ITF Ireland website and in turn my own new website. The ITF Ireland site is www.itfireland.net and of course our own website is www.redstar-tkd.com .

The preparations for the world championships have been taking up most of my time. We're training very hard. Three mornings a week at 6am and four evenings, well three with a Sunday morning. I've seen such a huge improvement in the lads. They are savagely fit at the moment. Alvy, Néídín and Adam are moving better than I've ever seen them. I wouldn't feel too comfortable myself lining out against any of them. Alvy and Néídín are now into their Leaving certs so the pressure is off them for a little bit, well the physical pressure, I'm sure the leaving brings its own amount of mental pressure... I wouldn't know!

Win, lose or draw I'd be confident that they will make a good impression and perform out of their skins, of this there will be no doubt.

So we're nearly there.

Tuesday 25th May

2010-05-25T03:32:00.001-07:00

It's another lovely day. The sun makes it all the more worth while when you're up the same time it is. Headed down to the dojang for more work, similar to yesterday went through 3x2 mins of skipping as a warm up and then into some bag work followed by stretching. Then into the three bad boys, Sam Il, Choi Yong and Yoo Sin. They feel like shadows at this stage!

I managed to squeeze in some bench pressing and core work afterwards. I'm back to the physio on Monday next so hopefully there will be some progress there.

Enjoy the sun!

May 23rd / 24th

2010-05-24T00:30:00.000-07:00

Just back from a morning session, if haven't noticed already I love the early morning starts. Three rounds of skipping to warm up, four rounds of sparring topped off by Sam Il, Yoo Sin and Choi Yong. Some stretching followed that and then some core work. Plenty of planks!

Yesterdays Sunday session also followed a similar trend. I brought the 1st kups through their syllabus material and then I did some tul work myself along with Jim Faulkner.

Tonight it will be more of the same, a two hour class followed by more stretching.

The theory work is going well. Just finished the section on the theory of power and sine wave motion. The next section I'm aiming for will be the cycle of Taekwon-Do. I may just have Master Gallaraga on the panel so the theory will have to be top notch.

We're off to the ITA open next weekend so we're all looking forward to that. It will be a big test for the black belts as the standard is really high at these guys tournaments. No point in shying away from the lime light!

Stay tuned.

A well timed Master class

2010-05-17T00:58:00.000-07:00

On the 16th May we headed off to the sunny south east to attend a master class being hosted by Westpoint TKD Academy. Master Trevor Nicholls was over from England for the class which was well timed as this blogs preparations kick up a gear.

The class was excellent, very enjoyable with plenty of technical detail and he covered the 3rd degree patterns especially. Apart from the technical detail the class was a high tempo and was a super work out at the same time. Today my legs are feeling it, we must have done 1.5 hours of kicking.

Doing Yoo Sin and Choi Yong for Master Nicholls I was able to pick up on a few little gems of info that I needed so all in all it was a trip well worth taking.

Over all the preparations are going well now. I am happy with the patterns over all at this stage. The core development work is also paying off as I am starting to feel stronger on kicking.

I have my step sparring sorted out I have three step organised and one step, I just to put some two step together and I got my wood sorted. So that big digital clock gets closer and closer and now I'm starting to get nervous!

May 9th

2010-05-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

Another Sunday and another technical session.

Today's session was the most enjoyable to date. Things are starting to come together, progress is being made. We did a good amount of step sparring, pad work (isolated reverse turning kick and spinning reverse turning kick) plenty of fundamental movements and every pattern right form Chon Ji to Choi Yong and they all felt good.

Three hours later and I finished off with some breaking, some speed breaks - fore fist punch and knife hands for the crack. I'm considering doing the punch on a brick, it's been a while since I've hit stuff harder than parana pine. The brick would be a nice addition so I'm going to try get some sorted and see how I get on.

The core work is really paying off, the side kicks carry a lot more precision at the moment as do the reverse turning kicks in Eui Am, you need a wash board core to stop them bad boys in mid flight. Thanks to Orlagh for the improvements there. So much for informed performance, they never replied. Sure they probably only train with real athletes...

Next week we're off to train with Master Nicholls. He will be visiting Mick Flaherty's dojang for a master class. It's nice to get some master classes in before any big test. I did two with GM Choi before my third in 07, so I'm looking forward to this one.

There was a degree test today in Kerry, my friends Jim Faulkner, Sandra Doyle, Mary Mannion and Shane Fitzgibbon all tested and were all successful after what I believe was a brutally hard test. There's nothing like success after a grueling test.

Well done to them all.

Also recently promoted my Taekwon-Do brother in arms, or is it legs? - Paul O'Brien promoted to 4th by GM Willy Lim. They've all baked a lovely cake, I hope I can put the icing on it in July.

May 3rd

2010-05-02T23:27:00.000-07:00

Lovely morning this morning, I was up at 6. Time to change to routine slightly to tighten up that core area.

I came across some excellent core exercise workouts from a guy called Andy McDermott. You can see what he does on YouTube, if you visit our website - www.redstar-tkd.com and click on our YouTube channel and then subscriptions, you'll see his channel there. It's really tough stuff.

I've also put an email into Informed Performance gym. They specialise in core strength and conditioning. If I can get a few classes there in the day time I'll be a happy bunny. We will see.

You'd be amazed at how quick the heart rate goes up when you are doing core work, after about five minutes you could feel like you are out on a run. I'm going to miss the morning runs for the time being, but the core is where it's at for now.

I'll keep everyone posted, hopefully improvements won't take too long.

May 2nd

2010-05-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

We are into the last 8 weeks now. This last stretch is the most important. I've spent the last 3 weeks with the head in the books. Updating myself on step sparring, theory, theory of power, sine wave motion and all applications. I've also started the visualisations, I have Jaroslaw Suska on my Ipod. He's a good man to model, having won several world championships in patterns.

My only niggle is my hip. No point in lying about it, I got some news at the physio last week. Orlagh Sampson knows her stuff. She's being the physio to the Irish boxing team and the high performance training gym for years, she also physio'd for world level rowers and kayakers.

She identified a key issue for me. No lateral core strength. She gave me some pretty simple core exercises to do, and I couldn't do them. Therefore, when I use lateral movement with my legs, side kick for example, my core doesn't fire leaving the small hip muscles to take all the weight which in turn aggravates them and wears them out. So I've a pile of core building exercises that I have to do now for the next two weeks. She says it will build up in no time as I am 'hyper-mobile' - apparently!

The next few weeks will see an increase in aerobic training and a pile more studying. I will also have to press on with the thesis. I will also be doing patterns everyday, even if they are just in the kitchen. The next two months will fly by!

I'm getting nervous now!

April 23rd

2010-04-23T03:22:00.000-07:00

Long time no update!

Things have been quite busy for the last couple of weeks. Training wise things are going very well, very well indeed.

Although, I developed a problem with my right tensor facia latae. That's a muscle at the very top on the out side of the hip. At one stage I couldn't lift my leg over my waist as the TFL was cramped up. I had one visit to Orlagh Sampson and got immediate relief after some dry needling. I have to go back a few more times but already the right leg is much better.

I'm still training in Rivervalley with Stephen Cooley. They're a great bunch of guys out there and I'm enjoying the new surroundings and different ways of doing things.

Also on Sundays after I do the 1st kup class, Jim Faulkner joins me along with John Malone for about three hours of patterns work. Mr Faulkner is going for his fifth degree and John Malone is gearing up for his 3rd degree in the future. It's great to have other black belts to be technical with! Its funny all three of us have donkey's years under us and we're still only 2nd, 3rd and 4th degrees. John Malone got his 2nd degree 20 years ago, and Mr Faulkner has a pile of years done too, I graded to 1st degree in 1994, no racing here!

Mr Willy Owers also joined us last week, we had a great session delving into the books and performing all the tiny detail. It's incredible what you can forget!

Along side the physical training, my head is buried into the books. I've had to go back to basics with step sparring and get that right so volume 3 of the encyclopedia is out, as is volume 13 carrying all the details of Sam Il, Yoo Sin and Choi Yong. All the finer details of the patterns are important. I have to break out the theory of power next.

I've started the conditioning. My forefists are fine, as is the footsword, the ap kumchi is not too bad, but the reverse knife hand and the heel are still lagging. I'll keep banging away.

I hope to pop down to the degree grading on the 9th to see what is being done, good luck to all those going for degrees in front of Master Dalton on that date!

2010-04-03T04:49:00.000-07:00

It has been one if them weeks. I've been quite tired for most of it and I've been neglecting my water. Believe it or not, when I don't get enough water in it affects performance on all levels. Mentally, physically. This happens with everyone, however most people can't relate tiredness and stiffness to a lack of uisce. It is powerful stuff.

So over a quite coffee here (ironically a diuretic!), I look back on the week that was a bit of a blur. I haven't really trained since Tuesday. We ventured out to Stephen Cooley's club for an enjoyable kick about. However when I go and train in a club that has a very high standard it can leave me feeling like I've so much to do and so little time to do it in. I panic. There's a standard out there that we're just not at yet, and I need to get there. I get frustrated, but I must remain patient.

In 2004 I had a conversation with someone about ITF Taekwon-Do in Ireland. He had big plans for his clubs and he remained consistent in his message that he would achieve a standard to be admired. That was six years ago. Obviously patience and a methodical approach to training is what is needed to be the future of ITF Taekwon-Do in Ireland. I have time on my side, I'm still only 24, ok maybe not, but I'm still young in the greater scheme of things and time is on my side and I'm learning valuable coaching skills as I move along. Exposure to great coaches is what it is all about, and I am grateful to have learned skills from the likes of Don Dalton, Jose Maidana, Tomaz Barada, Aidan Walsh, Martin Lawless, Terry Donnelly and Stephen Cooley. I consider myself very lucky.

Taekwon-Do Advisory Board

This blog had some interesting meetings over the past fortnight. All culminating from the recent INTA ITF Open. The Taekwon-Do Advisory Board (TAB) seems to be hotting up. It has some great ideas in the way forward for ITF Taekwon-Do in Ireland. Government recognition for ITF Taekwon-Do is a great thing. All I need to do now is recognise the government, I'm working on that one :)

Standard is important. There are too many shoe string Taekwon-Do clubs out there. There needs to be one standardised ITF format for all. The ITA and the RITA are on board. It's fantastic to see the RITA involved. The original ITF Taekwon-Do association in Ireland, and the ITA which split from the RITA when it was the AITA in 1984- confused yet?. And so history comes full circle.

When I was told that the TAB will be providing govt recognised and certified coaching courses (FETAC), sports nutrition and weight cutting courses, child protection courses and one grand championship in 2011 I thought this is the way to go.

So with my certs and details off I set to join the TAB. This will be a positive step for Red Star, of this there is no doubt. Great stuff.

Tuesday 30th March

2010-03-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

I took a step outside of the comfort zone on Tuesday gone. We made a trip to Rivervalley in Swords to train with the ITA guys and see how they do things.

When we arrived, there was a larger crowd than I expected. It turned out to be a special session for their junior national team, so there was students there from across the country.

The training was super, although it got very intense very quickly probably at a pace I wasn't used to which caused me to retire for ten mins to get some air and some lucozade. Once I was settled into the pace of things I enjoyed the pad work. Stephen Cooley is a very knowledgeable guy and I picked up lots of different bits, he spoke about not using the side facing position at all for sparring, this made sense when I picked his brain after the class. I like his coaching style and everyone enjoyed the session.

I developed a little twinge in the right sartorius muscle, nothing major but I need to just watch it and not aggravate it.

We'll pop out to Rivervalley again next week, there's lots to be learned out there!

Wednesday 24th March

2010-03-24T02:49:00.001-07:00

It seems procrastination is my reoccurring dream every morning at 6am. I have to let all the excuses rise to the top so they disappear into the ether.

Excuses this morning:

1. I'm still sore from the other day

2. If I train again this morning, I'll be tired for class tonight

3. I deserve to stay in bed an extra hour

4. I'm tired.

5. I deserve to stay in bed an extra hour

Then the other side kicked in.

1. Highly effective people are proactive - according to Dr Stephen Covey. Google that lad he's great.

2. I'll cycle to the dojang instead of running.

3. No I'll drive

4. Ah feck it just get up.

Effective people are proactive - That's my mantra for this morning.

So up I got and stuffed the haversack, got the pineapple and the pre training shake in, let it settle, got the Asics on and hit the road. I hate Wayne McCullough he makes it sound easy.

Cranked up the Ipod, I'm enjoying some Petshop Boys at the moment. Some of their stuff is great to run to.

At the gym, I got stuck into the shoulder routine;

Standing military press - empty bar, high reps as a warm up.

Seated dumbbell shoulder presses - 3 sets again high reps for an awful burn!

Rear delts were hit using the resistance bands

Lateral raises with Dumbbells and resistance bands finished off a burner on the deltoids.

Then onto the Triceps. No good in working Biceps without Triceps, the largest muscle group in the upper arm and a muscle a lot of gym rats forget about. If you want big arms you have to pay attention to the tri's.

Some seated dips to start, 3 sets of 20 and the tri's were nice and pumped.

Skull crushers followed for that intense burn closer to the elbow followed by cable pull downs with the resistance band to finish.

All of this took about an hour, and a good stretch and I was back on the road.

I was so glad to get back home, not that I was tired just happy I beat the excuses and was proactive in the approach to a very early start. It's hard enough to motivate yourself to train in the evening, but 6 in the morning is another days work!

Job done.

Monday 22nd March

2010-03-22T01:29:00.000-07:00

The alarm kicked in at 6am, I could hear the rain outside which prompted thoughts of procrastination. In other words - "ah I'll leave it 'til tomorrow". Thankfully I didn't.

Up and at it, I got my pre training meal into me, 4 rings of pineapple, amino acids and an arginine based shake.

I loaded up the haversack with water, a towel and a dry t-shirt. Stretched off and hit the road. The run down to the gym is a quiet one, headphones on, head down, rain catching on the breath it's a good warm up for the training that follows.

When I got there I got straight under the bar for bench pressing. Two sets of 20 with the empty bar to warm up the shoulders and chest. Then came the plates. I kept it light with high repetitions. After three sets I did some dumbbell flies again three sets. Some cable cross overs followed using resistance bands and worked until failure. After the chest it was time for some ego training. Biceps. A useless muscle really but boys should have big biceps, so I'm told :-/

After some preacher curls and concentration curls I got into some stretching. I'm picking up some great tips from this guy - http://www.elasticsteel.com. I watched his DVD last night and picked up some great ideas for my tight hips and posture. Loose hip muscles are crucial to good kicking.

After some nice deep stretching I hit the road for the run home. The rain was heavier now. I remember speaking to Wayne McCullough once and he said he loved running in the rain, it was old school training, but it reminded him of home. Well it certainly reminds me of home! I felt good and strong over the last mile and kept a good stride right up to the finish.

Back in the door and straight to the protein isolate followed by a hot shower. For breakfast there was the usual 100 grams of porridge oats uncooked with alfalfa bean sprouts and mixed berries on rice milk. I don't eat a whole pile of dairy. In with the multi minerals and vits some DMAE and away we go.

In the news today, Barack Obama's health bill was passed. While it means very little here to us in Ireland, it means a lot to 30 million Americans who did not have access to health care cover. In the US health care wasn't a right, it was a luxury. Not anymore. That's another chink in the armour of what is a highly unequal society. Fair play to him.

At home, sad news at the death of Robert O'Shea. A member of the IUTF and most commonly known as the photographer at the IUTF competitions. He suffered a stroke. He'll be sadly missed by all that knew him.

Lá na Phádraig

2010-03-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

We trained today for a few hours. Went over all the patterns all the way up to the vital three! Above is a snap shot from Juche/Kodang, pretty happy with the twin directional.
Here at the end of all of that I did Sam Il tul, again unedited mistakes and all. Critique please!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2gG26YUiXI

ITF Irish open (INTA)

2010-03-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

We headed off to the INTA ITF Irish Open last Saturday and Sunday. It was a great pleasure to see all our friends again from the other schools, clubs and associations and catch up.

The tournament was certain to be a cracker as it had some top class Taekwon-Do teams from across Europe. The Norwegians never fail to impress. The first time I saw them in action was in Stratford Upon Avon in 2004 at the GTUK Open and they were great then, they were great at the weekend.

The standard of this tournament was extremely high, and the technical content was, well, technical! Our guys did well, it was a real eye opener for some of them coming face to face with excellence. None the less, they performed well. For me the the highlights were both Erika and Lauren winning gold in both patterns and sparring, Néidin counter fighting and Alvy. Alvy stole the show in the senior -80kg black belt sparring. When it went around the ring that he was only gone 18 he became a crowd favourite, especially after he clobbard a big Norwegian with a back reverse which sent him crashing to the mat. He was on fire. I was very excited at his performance, even though I nearly blinded him earlier in the day!

My goal for him was getting past the first round, he surpassed that and him with a flu. Another big step on his way into senior territory. He has come such a long way, when he came to our club first he couldn't take a smack! Alvy was eventually beaten by a very experienced Darren Smith. Darren is a gent, a true warrior of the art. No better person to be beaten by, he went on to win the section.

I was happy over the weekend. Some of the top Taekwon-Do guys were commenting on our performances, we're still only one little club, but we're punching above our weight. I love seeing the Europeans and the Scandanavians. Their will to prepare is super. It's frustrating to see how focused they are on the day, even their juniors. Some of our guys were too busy chatting each other up, the Europeans had their ear phones on, in the zone. It's that Irish thing I gave out about before. Irish teenagers, always content to operate 100% below their own natural potential. I know I'm making a broad generalisation, there are plenty of teens who break the mould, they know who they are and again I have big respect for them. They will ultimately determine their own destiny, and good luck to them.

I had some interesting discussions while I was there. The Irish Taekwon-Do Advisory board seems very promising. If it works out the way it should, it will the future of ITF Taekwon-Do in Ireland. I'll be putting in my forms. What ITF you belong to is irrelevant, this is a big step forward.

So in closing, fair play to Dave Elson from the INTA who organised this event. No doubt there was pressure. In the end, even after a long day, it was a great tournament so fair play to him and his team.

Fair play to all those incredible Taekwon-Do athletes who made my day, and fair play to our Red Star competitors who continue to make my time in TKD very worth while :)

A special visit

2010-03-01T14:44:00.000-08:00

One of the worlds most prolific Taekwon-Do historians was in Ireland this week, and I was happy to meet up with him for three hours of mind blowing Taekwon-Do information.

Master George Vitale from New York City was in Ireland for the GM CK Choi seminar in Cork this week. This blog couldn't make the seminar as it was mid week, on a Wednesday, unfortunately.

Master Vitale was in Dublin for the last few days of his visit to Ireland and dropped me an email. I was delighted to have the chance to meet with this wonderful fountain of knowledge. He sleeps, eats, breaths Taekwon-Do and its history. He is personally known by most of the Korean pioneers and current Grand Masters and Masters around the world.

We met at the iconic GPO in O'Connell street and walked to a cafe where the master class began!

The only thing this blog regretted about meeting Master Vitale was not having a pen and paper or my trusty dicta phone. I had to pay extra attention to the detail.
Master Vitale gave me some great information relating to Taekwon-Do history and its subsequent arrival to Ireland which will go along way to helping me with my thesis as it progresses. He also agreed to stay in touch from New York and provide any assistance I need. A true gent of the art.

Unbelievably, three hours past in what felt like 10 minutes and we had to say our goodbyes as Master Vitale had to catch a train back to Malahide. We covered a huge range of subjects, from step sparring to General Choi, Park Jung Soo, Park Jung Tae, CK Choi, Nam Tae Hi, sine wave, chambering, the KTA, Taekyon and Tang Soo Do... I had no dicta phone!

I won't make that mistake again. It was great to meet Master Vitale. When I interviewed Senior Master Howard, he told me he knew Master Vitale;

"He was a state trooper in New York. A tough man, tough but a lovely man, he knows his stuff!"

Master Howard is dead right.
I look forward to staying in touch with Master Vitale.

On top of the world...

2010-02-28T08:24:00.000-08:00

Well not exactly, but close. On February 27th we set off for the beautiful surrounds of South Armagh to take on the 'Twin Peaks Mountain Challenge'. The event provided an ideal chance to raise a few quid in sponsorship for the upcoming trip to Korea, more than that though, it was a perfect training session.

The challenge was an 18k trek across two of Armagh's most daunting peaks; Camlough mountain and Sliabh Gullion.
We headed in Camlough village for registration where we also met with all the other teams taking part. There was three teams from Dublin, one of them was team Red Star, which included Adam Quinn, Alvydas Jankauskas, Néidín Coulahan and Adam's mate Ciarán. This blog was attached to another team of experienced out door people, Gerry and Oisín. They craved the outdoors.

When we set out from the base I was unsure as to what to expect. I had prepared well, probably too well, I had too many layers on as I found out to my annoyance later on up the mountain. My pre-judgment had me believe I was heading for a stroll with a bit of a challenge. I was right, if you remove the stroll bit and upper case the challenge bit, add an exclamation mark -! -and were off.. CHALLENGE!

The beginning of Camlough is not for the faint hearted. It is an unforgiving sudden angle upwards. There was no warm up, just up. two or three minutes into the climb and the heart rate was well and truly at a pace, at this point I knew I was overly clothed, but there was nothing I could do except plough on.

The lads were hungry for the challenge, Adam and Alvy wanted to run it, I was content with the walk however.
Camlough was nearly vertical all the way to the top. It was a great relief to make it to flatter land, mission one was accomplished and no casualties.

Onto Sliabh Gullion now.

Armagh is an amazing county. Steeped in recent and not so recent history. The mountains we were trekking across were in the not so recent past inaccessible due to the British military being camped in spy posts across the region. The tops of these beautiful sleeping giants were out of bounds to locals and hill walkers alike. The spy posts are gone now and the walkers and locals of Armagh have made the mountains their own.
Unfortunately, a bit like litter bugs at the beach, the army left behind lumps of metal and barbed wire across the terrain. The locals don't mind though, for them the barbed wire is a symbol of what they campaigned to have removed, and now they can roam freely.

The views were spectacular. The snow was still intact on the peaks, the temperature dropped to -3 up there, but the body heat kept us all blissfully unaware of the circling wind.
A small winding road through some forest land led is to the beginning of Sliabh Gullion where waiting for us were Moore Streets finest mandarins. Nothing tasted so good. As we munched on mandarins we chatted with some local Armagh people who gave us some of the local history. We were told that on the top of Sliabh Gullion a small megalithic tomb existed. The druids of times long gone by burned the bones of the deceased in this ancient tomb. We headed on, excited of what lay ahead of us.

The lads on my team were a pleasure to have around. Both Gerry and Oisín were full of out door knowledge. There was plenty learned, new found knowledge ignited a possible new found love for the outdoors in this city dweller.

On the top of Sliabh Gullion my legs felt like they had taken part in two of Master Dalton's squad sessions, back to back. I was relieved to have made it. The fresh air up there was crisp and extremely clean. You could tell the difference. We were surrounded by nothing but clouds and it felt liberating.
We sought out the tomb and sat for a while as we loaded up with hot ribena, quinoa and simple carbs.
I took a moment or two to wonder at this marvelous structure on the top of the mount. It always amazes me that the people of a period over a thousand years ago paid such respect to their dead. Building this structure on Sliabh Gullion would have been no easy feat. Remarkable indeed.

We said our goodbyes to the tomb and to the Stewart's who were camped there for the day and we set off towards the ground. The descent was as challenging with most of the falls and tumbles happening as we clambered down. There was no serious injuries though, just damaged ego's and bruised rear ends.

About two hours later the ground started to level off and we were back near enough to sea level. Down through some small streams and across some knee deep soft ground and we had about 5 miles left back to the base.

On arrival we were timed, 5 hours 20 minutes it took us. We also found that the winners of the challenge did it in 2 hours 30 minutes. They ran it. I kid you not. Alvy reckons we could run it the next time. He's on his own.

After some soup and more mandarins we said a fond farewell to the folks that looked after us and headed back to the noisy polluted metropolis. Legs a bit weaker but minds a good deal clearer. Adam says we have to do this more often, I agree with him. And we will. I have now a new love for the outdoors that is tangible and not some pipe dream. The day was well worth it, and to make it even better it was a good days training.

As for the Sunday session, we took a break today. The memories of the mountain yesterday are good enough to create a sudden sweat. That will do us for today.

Inspired

2010-02-24T12:09:00.000-08:00

I love to be inspired. There are few people in this world who inspire me. Those that do will know I hold them in high regard. These are the people I admire as leaders and from who I honestly accept their advice. These people carry similar traits, successful coaches and leaders all carry similar traits. For me these traits are;

Honesty - It's inspiring to hear people who are in leadership positions being honest. Honesty is hard to come by these days.

Open minded - Without an open mind a person is going no where. When you hear someone in a leadership position with vast experience in their field take on board a point you've made and then say I'm going to incorporate that straight away, that is inspiring. Not the fact that they simply agree, but the fact that they hold an open mind to others is the inspiring part.

Integrity - The bed rock for successful leaders.

These are just some of the things we covered today, day 3 of a special course I'm on. The course which is run by the Irish Times and delivered by two professors from the University of Ulster and Trinity college is in itself, inspiring.

The list we made of examples of leaders that inspired us was a bit longer than that, none the less all the points raised on it were very relevant. It allowed me as a person to establish with scientific fact that people whom I may have thought were good leaders were in fact very poor leaders and the people whom I thought were weak were in fact very strong. Good leaders are recognisable by their achievements, but most importantly a good leader will have a high level of emotional intelligence or in other words good people skills.

I'm happy to realise now that I have these people around me. I'm a person that needs inspiration from time to time, other wise I can fall into a rut.

I've learned a lot about my own personality this last week also. Apparently I'm an introvert! Well I knew that. I like my own company. Nothing like silence and a good book, I don't like parties and I think socialising for the sake of it is a waste of time unless it's with one person with whom I share the same interests or similar open minded people, at least this form of socialising allows you to come away with a new point of view or knowledge gained. You don't need something to be 'alive inside' to enjoy this.

I'm also someone that acts on intuition, that gut feeling that has guided me up to now, I trust my instincts, I've learned some valuable lessons in the past about ignoring my gut, I'll try not to let that happen again. I don't like to humour people either, your mood won't effect how I react to you.
I also like to be thanked, so thanks to me!

It's amazing what you can find out about yourself when you have the right circumstances and guidance. Day 4 tomorrow and then two more days in March. I'm thankful for the opportunity to be inspired this week.

A week in review

2010-02-22T15:29:00.000-08:00

Last week was good. Training is going well. The effects of cardio training are kicking in. The road work is now enjoyable as the legs are well up for it. The new weight set we got for the dojang is a great addition to the training. I run down to the dojang now and train there for an hour with the weights and then run home. Very enjoyable.

The Sunday session was equally as good. We did the colour belt patterns, then the first degree patterns with the lads and then I did the 2nd and 3rd degree patterns and they felt good. We also did some one step and some practice breaking. I'm going to have to start practicing my special break. I'm thinking about doing the twin directional kick from Juche/Kodang, although that may not be required, it might be something more steady like jumping reverse turning kick. Either way I need to have an array of special breaks ready to roll. The conditioning has kicked in now also.

I had the opportunity to participate in some 'leadership training' courses this week. We started on Monday. This stuff is very interesting indeed. This is training that leading executives get to experience. It's a real eye opener to see why some people behave they way they do. Thought patterns, meta programmes and perceptions, all extremely interesting and thankfully I now have a better understanding as to why people feel the need to make daft decisions, Even myself!

Towards the end of this week we cover the hot topic of managing people. That should be as interesting.

I'm looking forward to Korea. The whole event looks very exciting. There is a special training course with GM Choi Jung Hwa towards the end of the week in Korea in a special Taekwon-Do training centre, that I really am looking forward to. It will be a once in a life time experience. I never thought that the day I walked into Thomas Carthy's training hall that one day I would be heading to Korea to participate in a world Taekwon-Do event. Surreal in many ways. You know my home had an outside toilet up to when I was 17, now there's contextualisation, what was that about looking at the stars?? ;)

Sunday session

2010-02-14T12:14:00.000-08:00

We gathered at the dojang this morning to go over some patterns.
The morning was freezing, you would think we would be used to the cold by now. I'll say it again - I hate the cold. It affects my enthusiasm. In the ice box we call our dojang it isn't uncommon to have the temperature of your toes drop to -1000 degrees farencelcius.

It's frustrating.

Anyway, we went over a number of colour belt patterns in detail. Do San, Yul Gok, Joong Gun and Hwa Rang. Then I went over Choi Yong. I'm not turning the wrong way anymore. I studied one of the video's of this pattern on the legacy DVD so I was able to pin point the moment I was turning left instead of right.

After the opun sulkut tulgi, it's the right leg that pulls up into narani sogi as you perform the sonbadak golcho makgi, then instead of left leg, it's right leg. So it's all right, which makes it alright!

That was the only bug bear I had with my final three patterns. I've known them now for two years so the movements and the diagram shouldn't be a problem. I really want to pull off a nice Juche/Kodang. I love this pattern, it presents all the relevant problems to an 88kg guy but when I'm warm I can do a nice one.

Master Brendan O'Toole said in 2007 that I had the dexterity and the grace to do a really good Juche, he was right in 2007. I just haven't practiced enough.

I look forward to grading in Korea. At least it will be warm and I won't feel so stiff! O how I'd love a warm dojang. Anyone any ideas??

Stay tuned.

2010-02-13T15:25:00.000-08:00

As I read some place before, situations and circumstances change.

The directions of this blog has changed also. Circumstances.

The date and venue have now been set for this blogs grading, and all going according to plan this blog will test in July, in the belly of the beast, the birth place of Taekwon-Do. Korea.

And so it will be.

Your man was right, I better get the finger out!

2010-02-11T04:11:00.000-08:00

Your man says I better get the finger out. I tried telling him that the last few weeks have been complicated. "Excuses, excuses" he says back to me.

Things change. Situations and circumstances are constantly in flux.

"Here we go again" says your man. "But it's true", I told him.

He sits down beside me and calls for two more of the same. Mine's a tonic water and lime, "I'll have something stronger" says he. He's interested now.

"Circumstances?" he asks. The bar man lands a pint of Guinness in front of him and he rubs the condensation off the cold glass with his thumb.
"What circumstances would that be?" he continues.

"well" says I. "You know the way sometimes you throw yourself into a project, and everyone in it has great ideas, everyone says the future is bright and the road will rise with us?

"No" says he, "can't say I have, the only project I threw meself into was PROJECT 1, but I got meself threw out of it just as quick" - his eyes light up as the Guinness has finally settled and he slurries a fine mouth full.

Project 1 was a pub off Clanbrassil Street back in the day, apparently.

"I don't remember that place" says I. "anyway, I threw meself into a different kind of project, one that promised resources a plenty, it was a grand project with a fair amount of potential"

"yeh I get where you're goin' alright. Dya want a bag of crisps?". Your man is hungry.

"Go on sure, I may as well, salt and vinegar" says I.

"So what happened?" He elbows me to continue.

"Nothing" I replied.

"Nothing?" says he. Your man is easily confused.

"indeed" i nodded. "Nothing."

"Ah jaysis" says he. "Have you been sneakin' shorts into that tonic water?" He second glances the bar man.

"I love salt and vinegar crisps" says I. "There's not a taste on the earth that equals it"

"will ye get on with it" says he, his mouth stuffed with cheese and onion.

"Are you still workin' with the window cleaners?" I asked.

"sure am" says he, just finished Carnlough this mornin', why dya think i'm in here now?"

"right, well imagine you decided to leave your window cleaning business for another. The other business promised you a much better way of doing things, they offered you certificates of approval and identity badges. New buckets and new ladders and new rags and more business, how would you feel?"

"Well" says he. "I could do with a few more rags, that's for sure, I'd suss it out for meself anyways"

"I'm sure you would, sure you're a man after me own heart, you'd suss out any project that promises you more than what you've got, wouldn't you?" I asked with interest.

"defo would yeh, i'd be mad keen I reckon" - He's half way through his pint now and he's well and truly settled for the day.

"Yeh course you would" I agreed. "You'd obviously get stuck in and help the project succeed"

"ah yeh, I would, I'd use all me local resources to get it off the ground, especially if it offered me a few new windows"

"you mean avenues?"

"well I do them as well, but I prefer cul de sacs, at least you have a starting point and finishing point with them"

I shakes my head with a smirk.

"So" says I continuing. "imagine that you've thrown your lot into the new window cleaning business, but nothing happens"

"ye mean, no new rags and stuff?"

"yeh no new rags, no new ladders no new avenues"

"ye mean windows?"

"Them too!" I quips back

"Well I'd be a tad confused alright" - he sits upright on the stool and places his fists on his hips. "Cos ye know, when I threw me lot in, I give it everything. I'd be profiling the business, telling everyone about it, supplying people to manufacture logo's and websites, jaysis I'd even offer me own house to meet up for business meetings"

"I've no doubt ye would" says I. keeping an eye on his dwindling Guinness.

"two more!" I shouts at the bar keep. He gives me a nod.

"Is there many window cleaning business out there like that?" I asks.

"There'd be a few alright. Most pretend to offer you everything you need, pffff never happens" he shakes his head.

"What would be the defining moment that tells you, you've made a mistake?" I asks, with genuine interest.

"Well, there'd have to be a few I reckon"

"go on" says I.

"Well if all your work went without a simple thanks at christmas time, that would make me think. If nothing that was promised came about, that would also make me think. The icing on the cake would be if the new company decided it was going to use your own ladders, buckets and rags to do it's business instead of buying it's own"

"well that's a bit rich isn't it" says I. Thinking he's exaggerating a bit.

"It can happen I'm tellin' ye. While the polit bureau keeps you distracted with red tape, the workers are up using your ladders. When ye go to look for one yourself, they're not around."

"Sure that's not on"

"Better believe it!" says he. He's animated now. Good job that second Guinness arrives.

"Well" says I. "I'll let you go"

"are you not staying on for a few, shakey will be down later"

"No I won't bother" says I, "I've plenty to be doing"

"right you are so, don't let those projects get you down"

"I won't don't worry" I says as I pat him on the shoulder.

"Their loss" - In more ways than one, I think to myself.

"Listen" he catches me by the arm before I set off.

"Will ye keep an ear to the ground for a bit more work for me, maybe ask Margaret Daly up on Viking Place if she wants her windows done"

"I will" says I. "Not a bother, but it'll cost you" I winks at him and leaves.

"Not you as well!" he laughs.

"Good luck to ye!"

"

2010-02-08T06:44:00.000-08:00

This blog had a busy weekend. In the course of three days we have covered the length of the country, from the beautiful green hills of Armagh to the steep San Fransisco like streets of Cork city.

Cork is a hub for Taekwon-Do, us Dubs may refute suggestions from those Cork boyos about it being the real capital of Ireland, but we'll give them one thing, it is the Taekwon-Do capital of Ireland.

The trials for the ITF world championships took place in Mayfield in Cork on Sunday. All the major players in ITF circles were there. All the groups attached to ITF Ireland including ourselves, all the groups attached to ITF Éireann and the lads and lassies from the MO (member organisation) Imp. Irish TKD Association under Micheal Flaherty were all there to pit their skills to find a slot on the national teams heading for South Korea this July.

The opposition was tough, it was never going to be any other way. Red Star had three competitors trying out. This was our first time trying out for the worlds and the guys didn't fail to impress.

Néidin, Adam and Alvy all qualified. Bhí bród mor orm. They're a good bunch, and it's imprtant now that they bond and I'm sure they will.

I know he gets mentioned alot in this blogs ramblings but Alvy never fails to impress. Since he went senior this year he is taking the big step up in his stride. On Sunday he met the fiercest of them all. Padraig O'Connor, former two times ITF World Champion. An incredibly strong guy and aggressive to boot. Before Alvy went in, I didn't tell him who Padraig was or what he had achieved, Alvy needed to know that he could take this guy. I said - "Alvy this guy is strong, he's tough and he'll come at you. You need to be sharp on your toes, counter him and move as fast as possible"

Alvy was up for the battle. And a battle it was. Although Paudy had the upper hand Alvy was holding his own, moving well, jumping double punching and angling off... then wallop!

Alvy was caught with a beautiful Sharp left hook. Alvy went down. Paudy is a hyper weight, Alvy's a middle weight he would have felt every pound of it. When I went over to him, he was aware of what had happened, but he kept saying "I'm out, I'm out" - this told me he was fine, if he wasn't saying anything that would have been different!

I told him "sit up" , he didn't move and he said "I'm out" then that Irish mentality kicked in, I grabbed him by the dobok jacket and stood him up to "oohhhs" from the crowd. It was quite funny in hindsight. In that moment Alvy came back to himself. I said "your going to finish this, you're doing too well not to" he said "I am going to finish this" he said in his very direct Lithuanian blás.

I knew he would. And he did.

What a performance. Afterwards I asked him. "you know who that was don't you?" "not really no" he says back to me. "That's Paudy O'Connor, two time ITF world champion, both junior and senior" - "really?" he says back to me with a smile. "I will beat him next time" he said as he was holding his jaw. You know what, I believe him.

Exciting times lie ahead for Red Star, not only this blogs impending grading but these World Championships and the new colour belts that are starting to come through, Dara, Erika, Lauren, Alisha, Leon, Cian to name a few. Exciting times indeed.

Back on line.

2010-01-31T10:36:00.000-08:00

We had a great days training today. A small group of us braved a chilly Sunday morning and headed down to the dojang. We initially had patterns in mind, but that expanded to sparring towards the end and a good bit of fitness work, all in all it was nearly three hours training, very enjoyable I must say.

We started off with Chon Ji and then isolated a number of fundamental movements from each patterns as we progressed up the ladder. Dara is getting really good, I'm impressed with her progress, she'll make a classy black belt if she keeps up the good work.

We worked as far as Po-Eun for the first degrees. We broke down the 1st degree patterns bit by bit and worked on several movements from each. I felt quite good throughout even though I despise the cold, I think I was reincarnated to the wrong country.

The sparring was enjoyable, we really worked hard and pushed ourselves to the limit. Alvy's a good lad to spar, he's not one of those young lads that feel they have to impose their strength on you, most end up getting hurt when they do that, then you feel guilty. With Alvy you can keep moving and jazzing, there's no ego there. He's getting very fast. I saw some snaps of him sparring Leon Brydon from the IUTF and he looked very comfortable, scoring some lovely shots.

This photo, which is courtesy of Robert O'Shea, a pro photographer that the IUTF hire at their tournaments shows Alvy landing a nicely placed back kick on Leon at the Munster championships.

Neidin was sparring well also, she can do some damage with her hands, she's very strong and very quick. As a coach I have to comes to terms with students who came to me as kids and who are now fit and strong young adults who are landing some hard shots on me and in some cases really hurting! That is a sense of achievement for me or is it that I'm getting old? Dara reckons it is, but she's mean ;)

On the diet front, I am still at 89kg's and happy. I've discovered a really remarkable food. Wheat grass. Do some research on that stuff, it is super food and all you need is a small shot of it twice a day. It gives you a real kick when you get it into you.

I'm enjoying life as a vegetarian albeit not a strict one, I still eat fish, I'd be mad not to.

In the ITF world the president of one the International groups, GM Tran Trieu Quan was in Haiti when that horrific earthquake struck. He hasn't been seen or heard from since. One can only imagine the worst but they're still finding survivors over there right up to the other day. I'm sure all TKD students around the world are hoping for his safety. Fingers crossed.

The ITF world championship trials take place next Sunday, we'll see how we get on at that. I have three people in mind for Korea, maybe four depending. We'll see.

2010-01-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to update you as much this week because my laptop decided it would roll over and die. It's in the process of being resurrected, I hope.

We took a trip to Athlone last week to participate in a squad session being conducted by Master Don Dalton. The session was very enjoyable. The squads have changed some what from the last time I did one. There was plenty of pad work and foot work, all the new stuff introduced by Master Maidana over the last few years.

The session was physically tough and my girlie feet (I'm too used to training on mats!) soon gave out and I was left with two very ripe and very raw wounds on my left and right feet. I managed to spar away, but those blighters put a stop to me moving well. Alvydas hadn't a problem with his feet, he says he's tougher than I am.. he's probably right!

At the end of the session we worked through a number of patterns up as far as Juche or Kodang as it is called now. I didn't pull off a nice pattern at all as I was wincing with the pain of my feet. They're still sore today but healing well!

Weight wise I'm sinking below 89kg's, it's all heading in the right direction.

Go away.

2010-01-09T11:36:00.000-08:00

The title is aimed at the snow, I saw this white bear rambling around Bannow Road yesterday, a sign of the times!

It's near impossible to get anything done these days, let alone training. We did manage only two sessions during the week though, myself and Denny that is. The hall was it's usual cold self but a good cardio warm up set us up for a good session for shoulder and arm workouts. Plenty of military pressing, hand stand presses and other such compound treats for the deltoid region of the body. Following on from the presses we did a good hour of cardio.

I'm starting to feel the benefit of the cardio now. We trained last night at Taekwon-Do and I felt good, the legs were moving well, even though it was sub zero degrees. I've also really tightened up on the diet, there are minimal refined carbs getting past my lips at the moment, apart from the odd one or two so I've dropped down to 89kg's - that's a good sign.

I'm in love with soya at the moment, soya beans, soya milk and tofu are all regular features on my plate as well as the usual raw veg. It's absolute devine stuff altogether, if you haven't tried soya, try it!

Well back to the weather, the sooner the better the white stuff clears off and let's us get back to normal. The response from the city council has been disgraceful. No grit, no sand on the paths and the estates are around Cabra (where people actually live) are lethal. Not that the council cares, sure the good old minister responsible is away on a beach somewhere, the life.

There's more snow on the way apparently, in fact it's coming down right now as I look out the window. Training tomorrow looks in doubt so.

My Brrrrr is slowly being replaced by Grrrrr!

Athbhlian faoi mhaise daoibh

2010-01-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

As it says, happy new year gach duine. 2009 is now well and truly behind us and as we enter the very early stages of 2010 we can be glad that the days are starting to stay with us that little bit longer. It won't be long before the spring is here and there's a bit of colour put back into the landscape.

2009 was a good year. There were plenty of surprises and plenty of expected catastrophes. One surprise for us all was the voting in of an African-American to the office the president of the US. He promised change and told the world that America could change, yes we can and all that, is feidir linn? Well time will tell, so far not much has happened internationally, but he is up against an inherantly corrupt politcal system.
The expected catastrophes? The December budget underlined this government as an ally of the super rich and an enemy of the working people of Ireland. Who's responsible for that lot anyway?

In Taekwon-Do terms, 2009 was great. This blog has new years resolutions, I've resolved not to have any, I'm still working on 2009. I'll get there in the end.

Master Choi Jung Hwa once spoke about new year resolutions. He said in all his wisdom that new year resolutions only serve to remind us that we are not perfect. He also said that it is a pity that we only promise to improve ourselves once every year. Everyday one should resolve to improve themselves, not every year. If you haven't trained with Master Choi Jung Hwa, you're missing out. I hope his 2010 will be as successful as his 2009 when he brought Taekwon-Do back to Korea after years of exile. A nice achievement for General Choi's son.

Our performance at the ITF European championships cemented our competitors as a formidable force and proved 2008 wasn't just one of them things. We can compete along side the very best, without doubt.
2009 saw some new arrivals to our club, all good people and capable Taekwon-Doists. 2010 will be good for them. Unfortunately, every year we lose good students for various reasons, it's always sad to hear that a student has decided to pack it in. The door is always a jar, feel free to rejoin us at any time, at your own pace.
2010 will be good for all of us together.

Most of our top competitors are sitting their leaving certs this year, it's typical. The world championships fall this year, and in South Korea at that. The belly of the beast. I'm not putting anyone under pressure to attend these, not on junior or leaving cert year, priorities are priorities.
As for top competitors, I've a feeling this year will be the year that some other younger students will make their mark on the tournament scene. Their time is fast approaching, their effort will pay off, trust me!

2010 will also be a year where we see a whole gansy load of students testing for 1st degree. I think we have seven, maybe eight. The future of Red Star Taekwon-Do is in safe hands that's for sure, and when this blog is old and gathering dust these guys will be alive and kicking.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have become an important part of my life for being the people they are, the kids and parents who grace our dojang every week, it brightens up my day, even if sometimes it doesn't seem that way! I would also like to suggest we all pay some thought to the man who created Taekwon-Do, General Choi Hong Hi. He died in 2002. Make it your business this year to learn a little about the man he was - http://www.comdo.com/founder.html
If we continue to strive in our training, if we continue to stop and think about the people around us, if we continue to stand up for what is right well then 2010 can only be one thing.

2010 will be good.

2010-01-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

I've a pain in my back side. There are two reasons for that, one being leg and squat day on Friday (yesterday) the other being people taking liberties.

However this is my training blog, so I'll report on my leg and squat training. We decided, myself and Denny, to do a light weight, high rep workout on the legs on Friday gone. So after a twenty minute leg warm up, off we set with deep ATG squats, only with an Olympic bar across the shoulders, three sets of ten in between each set were three sets of ten Hindu squats. Done with speed and full range of motion.

After that we did lateral leg swing and holds, this exercise is specific to Taekwon-Do kicking, so Denny was a bit out of his depth, but he managed well. From there we did farmers walks. Deep lunging walks with the Olympic bars, five lengths of the training hall.

The quads were well and truly wobbly at this stage and we were only starting! We worked then on some hamstring curling with resistance bands, again high reps, three sets of 50 working the last one until burn out.

Back to the Olympic bars for bunny hops until failure and straight into burpee jumps, at this point standing was out of the question, so it was up on all fours and then lateral knee rises for one minute each leg, a favourite I picked up from IUTF squad sessions!
For pig iron, and just because we had some air left in us, we finished off with some weighted decline sit ups and then a good amount of stretching just to ease the DOMS (Delayed onset muscle soreness - the pain the day after!)

I wasn't expecting to be as achy as I am today, I did a bit of sparring with the lads this morning and was moving quite well, considering! Right now though, my glutes are yelling at me, the cheek!

I'll do a bit on patterns tomorrow, if my legs are fresh enough I'll do Choi Yong and post it up for critique, I'll see how it goes. Back to crossfit on Monday, I can't wait :-/

Back to basics

2009-12-28T03:48:00.001-08:00

Today's blog comes to you from the comfy surrounds of my sofa. I'm here for a reason, I'm sore and not really enthusiastic about moving. The cause, a thorough back workout.

We did a complete back workout yesterday, but that's a bit of a misnomer. The exercises used are really over all body workouts but mainly hit the large muscle groups of the back.

We started with chin ups, three sets of twelve. My last set had to be assisted, me being tall and long I find chins difficult. My training buddy, Denny, is small and blocky, he eases through the chins. This morning the latimus dorsi muscles are well worked all the way down to the hip. It's a great feeling.

Moving from the chins, we went straight into deadlifting. Deads' are a super compound exercise. It looks ridiculously simply, you pick a weight up and stand up straight. However, it is much more than that. Form is everything for deadlifting, if your form is off you run the risk of seriously injuring yourself.

My heaviest deadlift recorded was 160kg's, this day we went as far as 100. We were aiming for more reps, and we achieved three sets of ten. Denny struggled with this, I was surprised, he usually leaves me behind in every other exercise. I like deadlifting though. After three sets, the buzz kicked in and the second wind arrived, good timing.

To finish the back workout, we used 30kg's for dumbell rows, again high reps. These were tough as we reached the end.

To add insult to injury, we did a bit of body sparring for 3x3 minute rounds. Denny has no technique so it was all about movement, high work rate, standing toe to toe at a light fast pace. He was knackered. I was ok funnily enough, I felt good though. Maybe it's just Denny stepped out of his comfort zone for some exercises he doest normally do.

Today I feel well and truly worked. I think it'll be a day off. Going to get some veg for juicing later on today, I live for veg, it's alive inside you know!

I've changed my protein also, instead of my usual whey isolate, I've changed to egg albumin. No reason for the change other than I've always wanted to try it, not that you notice any immediate difference. Egg protein does however have a higher BV, which means it's digested quicker and put to use sooner.

In the news, our finance minister has pancreatic cancer. Lenihan is at the other end of the political spectrum for me, politics aside, he's a human being and I hopes he beats this horrible disease, once he recovers he can set about abolishing the banks, scrapping NAMA and putting that 90 billion into local government so they can directly employ workers of all nationalities to get about developing our infrastructure, they could start with constructing a proper school for Gael scoil Barra!

Happy crossfit

2009-12-26T13:26:00.000-08:00

Well we're nearly there, another few days and this barmy time of year will be over. We'll be back to normal, what ever normal is.
It has been freezing all week, the hall I'm training in is like an ice box, the local butcher asked me the other day if he could rent out a bit of space as he wanted to hang some beef in it!

I've been pairing up with a buddy of mine for training over the xmas. He's a crossfit fanatic and trains with the big lads in the Hercs' gym. Your man said Crossfit is easy, sure it looks easy when you look at it on youtube, your man is wrong!

I've had two sessions this week, and it's ego bashing. The last one included push/presses and ab roles, I felt sick at the end, but what a rush. It's really great stuff. We'll be back again tomorrow morning for some dead lifting sets and a few other killer sets, I'll see what he has planned.

I love training over the xmas period, I get frustrated if I don't. Although there is too much grazing on rubbish, every where you look, rubbish. Chocolate sweets, chocolate biscuits, chocolate crisps, well nearly.

I thought I'd go for a run today, but instead I decided I'd go for a cycle. The canal was frozen over, my two buddies had to be content with standing on the water, jebus like, instead of swimming around. They looked peeved!

The best news this xmas was Rage Against The Machine keeping the X factor kid off the number 1 spot. It's just a point of principle. I'm a fan of Rage, they speak the truth.

Fuair mo chara nuacht olc seacthaine sa chaite. Nuacht go hainnis maidir a athair agus a dreartháir. Tá suil agam go mbeidh sé ceart go lear amach anseo, is duine ar fheabhas é.

Tá an bhliain nua ag teacht!

Swanning around

2009-12-16T15:01:00.000-08:00

I hit the road again today for a run. The thing with running is that it takes a couple of trips for the muscles to adapt. Already today I felt more of a spring in my step even though the quads were still a bit achy from the other day.

Off I set down the canal again, and there were my two new fans, pictured here!

If only they had the internet, I'd probably have 8 followers instead of a whole 6.

On my way back up the canal I decided to do a few knuckle push ups, I like doing them on the concrete for that extra impact. However the path on the canal is not concrete, it's made of thousands of little sharp bits, laid into the tarmac. Jebus, I lasted a full four push ups, these little yokes were painful! Ah ha a new challenge! If I can muster twenty towards the end of January parana pine won't be a problem. I hope!

It's nearly the xmas break. The last class will be on Friday. I look forward to the break, although I will be training over the xmas, I don't understand the need to gorge food over these two weeks. Families go out and buy food as if we're heading into a nuclear Holocaust. It is indeed a strange time of the year!

Bah! Humbug.

Road wars!

2009-12-14T04:35:00.000-08:00

Let the battles begin! I took to the road this morning I upped my running input for this grading training. I hate running, but that's probably because I run on a tread mill in the gym. Nothing passes you buy on a tread mill, only time.

Running on the road is so much more interesting. I set out down the canal this morning, the air was sharp as it cleared my head and all inhibitions about running passed and the heart woke up.

I was met on the first quarter by two huge swans, these guys were incredible to see and not a bother on them as chuffed passed. They looked at me with passive interest as if to say - "another dumb humanoid". It's times like this I wish I had my camera. But onward I slogged.

Down as far as Campbells bridge and into Cabra. Hard to believe it's 2009, nearly 2010 and we still have 19th century level crossings. Of course the country is broke so there'll be no investment here. Maybe if we call the level crossing AIB Bank the government will throw money at it. Who knows.

On into Cabra and around the estates. This is what makes running on the road more interesting than the boring tread mill. Passing known faces, friends and past students. How big some of these guys are now! They were in the club as kiddies, now it looks like they're giants. Good to see them.

Back around by Broombridge and an upward challenge, time to sprint up that hill and back down onto the canal. The canal is great. Plenty of wildlife and water. I have fond memories of fishing that canal as a young lad with my brother. I never caught much, he caught everything. He was a master fisherman, he could pull fish from a puddle. Everything went back into the water. He was a real angler, and I guess these early days on the canal cultivated a love of wildlife in me. I've always said I'll go back and do a bit of fishing some day. Nothing like it.

The last stretch back up the canal was tough, it's all up hill so I picked up the pace. The brisk air was now stinging the back of my nose. It's fresh though and clean. The heart is well up and the sweat is starting to flow. Your man kept telling me to stop, you've done enough. Your man got told where to go, it's so easy to give in, I was finishing this stretch, and I did.

My inspiration for running is Wayne McCullough. If you keep up to speed with him on his website http://www.pocketrocketbox.com/ you'll see he makes running sound old school, rockyesque!

Anytime you head out for a run you can't help but hum the Rocky tune as you head off, as you finish your humming is more like gasping, and the tune is incomprehensible!

Anyway the road wars have begun and I'm happy.

Living history

2009-12-11T15:20:00.000-08:00

As you will know, my thesis for my 4th dan test will be on the history of Taekwon-Do in Ireland. This subject has been covered before by many gone before me. This thesis will be different. I intend to interview as many as the original pioneers of Irish Taekwon-Do as possible.

I started my thesis this week, and there was no better start had than to conduct an interview with the very first ITF Taekwon-Do black belt, Senior Master Robert J Howard 8th degree.

This blog made contact with the RITA's Master Robert Howard junior, the son of Senior Master Howard, a number of weeks back. Master Howard junior is the youngest ITF Master in Europe. I was delighted to hear that Senior Master Howard would allow me the time to interview him.

I landed into the Cabra parkside sports centre on Tuesday last and waited patiently for this great man to arrive. I was nervous I have to say. I mingled with other RITA members telling them of my interview and then in he arrives, with a very proud walk and bundles of presence, he made his way down the corridor of the sports hall. I bowed and greeted SNR Master Howard, and he cheerfully said "hello Jon!" - The first thing you notice about SNR Master Howard are his hands. He has hands like shovels. Real Taekwon-Do hands, which have been responsible for the death of several hundred bricks, blocks and tiles over the years.

We headed upstairs to the cafe where SNR Master Howard brought me through a unique and highly interesting Taekwon-Do history, from 1967 to present day. I was delighted with the content, he remembered everything with clarity, from being with General Choi in Winnipeg, the first Taekwon-Do world championships and the very early days with GM Rhee Ki Ha.

We spent close to two hours chatting, and like anything that you're enjoying the time runs out on you. I hope to come back to SNR Master Howard again at some point. I FORGOT TO GET A PHOTO!!! "Blast it" I said as I drove away, but I hope he'll allow me the opportunity again soon.

I intend using this new found knowledge of Irish Taekwon-Do as the foundation of my thesis.

In conclusion here, SNR Master Howard is an absolute gent, he has a super sense of humour and carries all the traits of serious martial artist. I am very grateful for the opportunity, both to SNR Master Howard and to JNR Master Howard also.

My next stop will be Mr Aidan Walsh, then hopefully as suggested to me SNR Master's Phelan and Barrett. I have another few people to track down after that and then I should be ready to put pen to paper.

Brushing up

2009-12-10T09:11:00.000-08:00

This week has been very busy. I managed to get a patterns session in on Sunday. In the cold near Baltic conditions of our dojang in Cabra, but like Ernest Shackleton I ploughed on through the icy conditions!

I have to say, I'm always impressed at how patterns, while looking easy, have the ability to knock the wind out of you when done with full power. I began with Chon Ji, and worked up through the kup patterns. By the time I got to Won Hyo I was feeling warm. I do have problems keeping my hip muscles warm, but so far so good.

I came across a small problem in Toi Gye where I felt myself speeding up through the 'w' shape blocks, maybe it's because they're stamping motion that I felt I was going beyond the normal pace of the pattern. After Choong Moo, I moved on into the dan patterns, if it was Shackleton, he would now have the South Pole in sight! Only Juche and Eui Am stood in the way as awkward patterns, akin to a dodgy ice crevice in the Antarctic!

Unlike Shackleton, I didn't lose the endurance and made it through to Yoo Sin. I had to re-do Choi Yong though as one of the turns had me finishing the wrong direction. A quick glance through the encyclopedia and I was back on track. I did three versions of Yoo Sin. I taped the last one for you criticism.

Please feel free to let me know what you think, now bear in mind, I am feeling tired and I do realise I made the wrong step turn from the middle punch to the reverse knife hand middle block, your man says the back leg moves first. I tend to agree with your man.

But here you go, warts, wobbles and tiredness included.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXbZqC4q6B4&feature=email

My next installment will be soon. I met with Senior Master Howard of the RITA. Ireland's first ITF black belt. An incredible source of Taekwon-Do history and a gentleman at that. Stay tuned!

Brrrrr....

2009-11-30T14:36:00.000-08:00

Tá an geimhreadh anseo! This blog hates the cold. It can be a real challenge to motivate yourself on a morning where the weather greets you with zero degree temperatures. The cold can be stingingly uncomfortable and of course it's fierce hard to get the blood flowing, and the joints remain stiff.

I missed the Sunday session gone, a lack of sleep that night got the better of me. I pushed myself to the gym this morning and gave myself a good punishment. Benching to failure and squatting like wise. I'm suffering now. Squats are a killer. My legs are like jelly, but it's a good feeling, at least you know you worked hard.

Tonight's class was good, I enjoy the Monday class. We have a good mixture of beginners on Monday and we train hard.

I really enjoy when a beginner comes along and takes to Taekwon-Do like a duck to water. Every now and again this happens and I get excited. This beginner is at the right age, 14 years old, already has a good base in gymnastics and understands body mechanics, this kid will go far once the mind is in the right place. I'm positive about it anyway. Feicfimid!

We're nearly into wind down mode now for the December holidays. A nice paganistic time of year. I enjoy the break, but the commercialism of the whole thing is quite pathetic. I would say Bah humbug, but I saw 'A Christmas Carol' - 3D the other night and it scared the pants off me! If you haven't seen it - see it! Tá sé ar fheabhas, it's excellent.

I'll be working out my training schedule over the xmas, the hardest thing will be keeping the chocolate intake down to a minimum!

2009-11-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

This blog reckons it's time for a change. I've been toying with the idea of re branding the club and renaming it. It has been on my mind for the best past of six or more months now. I'm happy with the name Pilsung, however it doesn't resonate with the masses. The whole idea of a name is that it is automatically recognised, and recognised with success. Pilsung isn't even English, and worse again not even Irish!

This blog also needs to make more use of the interweb. I've been exploring these twitter and facebook phenomena, I hate facebook, but the king of the south east Daragh Bolton says it's great for promoting the club, I'll see. Twitter is interesting, not sure why people want to tell the world what they're doing every minute of the day, no one is that interesting! However twitter seems a good way of supplying club breaking news or updates. The jury is out though.

One thing is for sure, there will be a new name for our clubs, and it will be coming shortly. I've run a little competition for the kids in Cabra, if someone can guess the name I'm thinking, they'll win a new dobok for themselves. There a two hints on our website - http://www.pilsung-itf.com/

There is one winner who got her answer in sharpish, I thought no one would get it, but there you go!

Training is going well, my abs are sore still from a session two days ago. It was a real burner! We're trying to get a power rack for the club, hope to have that sorted soon. That will mean the 6am starts will be more productive, the club is closer to me than the gym. I've put it out there if anyone wants to train with me in the morning starting at 6.30am they're more than welcome to join me, I'll warn you now.. it's easier said than done!

Training tomorrow as well, not sure if there'll be many there. Marto isn't going and there are plenty who have a cold, it's going around, so far so good for this blog anyway.

So the new name for the club will be announced soon enough, it will coincide with a new look website. Like any change of name, it'll take time to get used to it, or will it? Time will tell.

You are what you eat

2009-11-24T07:06:00.000-08:00

Or so they say. I've always wondered though exactly what that meant. It doesn't make sense really. If it did, I would be an apple right now. Clearly I'm not.

That slogan would be better understood if it was - 'if you want to be a top class athlete, if you want to be fit, healthy and happy - eat well'

That makes more sense.

This blogger has been called a food Nazi in the past. I can be fierce strict when it comes to my food. I fell into ill health a number of years back. I was about 23 and inflicted an inflamed gall bladder on myself while on holidays. I could barely walk. I was over 17 stone in weight. I had stopped training for a year or two to concentrate on other projects and jobs.

I visited the hospital while away, and there the Colombian doctor who tended to me read me the riot act after he took a blood test. Here I was 23 years of age, meant to be in my prime, a fat waste of space, sick on holiday. Things were going to change and change they did.

I got back training in Taekwon-Do, the rest is history as they say.

There is no need to be over weight these days, although it easy to be. A lot of the food we eat these days is processed, meaning it has been tampered with by man, and once man has touched it, it is rendered useless. Processed food is bad.

Keeping it natural is the way to go. You cannot beat natural foods, straight off the tree or straight out of the ground.

Here is my typical food intake for an average day, beginning with breakfast;

Raw oats with blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants and banana - (rice milk, I don't drink milk)
30g of milled flax seed, goji berries, sunflower seed and hemp seed

30g of protein isolate

Supplement g Vit C, 4g of garlic, potent multi mineral and vitamin tablets

Meals during the day;

With me throughout the day is a box of raw vegetables, tenderstem brocolli, a whole pepper, olives, cherry tomatoes, peas, carrots and sweet corn.

100g of tofu

A whole mango

an Apple, a banana and a kiwi

A yogurt

2 litres of water

I would graze on these throughout the day until the evening when I would have;

Scrambled or boiled eggs, with some olives
Cottage cheese with a yogurt

I don't eat meat anymore. I don't believe we were designed to eat meat originally. In fact scientific evidence states we were herbivores, but we adapted as we evolved, hence our different blood types. Type A were grazers off the land, type O were meat eaters.

I do eat fish though, I'm a big fan of raw fish, sushi style!

My weakness is chocolate. Although I limit my intake (sometimes) I do try have a small bit everyday. I'm worth it :D

I don't eat bread, biscuits, crisps, fizzy drinks of any kind or any processed meats.

There is no better way to go about your day knowing that what you're eating is keeping your body in prime condition. With that diet you won't even catch a cold!

The rule is simple. Eat naturally. Avoid as much stuff as possible that has been processed by humans. Give it a month and you'll see a huge difference in your hair, skin, eyes and energy levels.

For more information you should read a book called 'Optimum Nutrition' by Patrick Holford

Pic- My breakfast bowl and my food for the day =)

Integrity

2009-11-19T03:18:00.000-08:00

This blog is tired this morning. I had every intention of an early night last night after training, but the soccer match in France dictated a different departure time for me. Never the less, the six o'clock start wasn't missed and the wet and windy trip to the gym was tackled with gusto. I've been concentrating on some core work for the past week. This morning after the warm up, I worked a wee bit on the arms then concentrated on core exercises. Those swiss balls are fantastico. I'll feel it in the morning no doubt.

I was asked about my diet the other day and what I eat throughout the day, maybe my next installment I will detail that. But for now, this blogger wants to mention something else.

Any student of ITF Taekwon-Do will of course have some understanding of the tenets. Five important concepts that we are 'supposed' to use in our every day lives.

Courtesy

Integrity

Perseverance

Self Control

Indomitable Spirit

When you're a coach, you get many questions from the juniors asking for examples of each so they can have a better understanding of what are, for an 8 year old, complex words indeed.

Well for all you youngsters who may browse this blog and read this bloggers ramblings from time to time, I came across an ideal example of someone who has no integrity.

This is Thierry Henry of France, handling the ball deliberately, creating an unfair goal for his team.
Cheating.
Cheaters have no integrity.

Thanks Henry for providing that classic example for those youngsters out there. You've taken the 'VaVa Voom' out of your character.

HIIT or miss

2009-11-17T02:07:00.000-08:00

No, it's spelt right. HIIT, high intensity interval training.

We got into anaerobic thresholds last night in the class. Boy was it tough, 8 rounds of 30 second explosive works with a 90 second break in between. I padded for the lads, Alvy, Fiachra, Adam, Shokri and Neidín, I threw in a little bit of adrenal stress drills, it keeps them under pressure and pushes them way outside their comfort zones, both mentally and physically. Poor Fiachra reproduced his dinner, in the shower! He's a Cork man so we'll let him away with it!There will be plenty more visits to the club from the HIIT bogey man in time to come.

Anaerobic exercising is an interesting topic. I had one of the lads come into class last week and tell me his teacher said Taekwon-Do wasn't an anaerobic sport. Apparently his teacher said an anaerobic sport has got to do with holding your breath. That sounds like a lot of fun, I must say.

Me thinks this teacher is confusing the actual term anaerobic with anaerobic exercise. The word anaerobic literally means without air. There are various forms of anaerobic materials and substances on this earth, that do actually function without the aid of oxygen, some bacteria for an example, and a special underwater adhesive, apparently.

When we talk about anaerobic exercise however we are talking about anaerobic work, involving maximum effort, the body is working so hard that the demands for oxygen and fuel exceed the rate of supply and the muscles have to rely on the stored reserves of fuel. The muscles, being starved of oxygen, take the body into a state known as oxygen debt.

The body's stored fuel soon runs out and activity ceases - painfully. This point is often measured as the lactic threshold or anaerobic threshold or onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA). Activity will not be resumed until the lactic acid is removed and the oxygen debt repaid. Fortunately, the body can resume limited activity after even only a small proportion of the oxygen debt has been repaid. Since lactic acid is produced, the correct term for this pathway is lactic anaerobic energy pathway.

The alactic anaerobic pathway is the one in which the body is working anaerobically but without the production of lactic acid. This pathway can exist only so long as the fuel actually stored in the muscle lasts, approximately 4 seconds at maximum effort.

Anaerobic endurance can be sub-divided as follows:
Short anaerobic - less than 25 seconds (mainly alactic)
Medium anaerobic - 25 seconds to 60 seconds (mainly lactic)
Long anaerobic - 60 seconds to 120 seconds (lactic +aerobic)
Anaerobic endurance can be developed by using repetition methods of relatively high intensity work with limited recovery.

Types of anaerobic exercises include interval sprints, plyometric drills, high intensity pad work, stair sprints and Olympic lifting. Types of anaerobic sports would include both WTF and ITF sport Taekwon-Do, sprinting, speed skating, Rugby, sprint cycling and other such high intensity low time span sports.

So, I suppose after 20 years of Taekwon-Do, having a secondary school teacher tell me and scientific research that we're wrong is a bit like me telling that teacher that the capital city of Argentina is Peru.

It is, isn't it?

Setting the standard.

2009-11-16T07:37:00.000-08:00

Standard in ITF Taekwon-Do is everything, to me anyway, and I'm sure to many other TKDists out there in the real world.

Standard was something that I got a good old gander at, at the weekend. We went to the IUTF International Irish championships. The tournament is very good every year, this year the standard of Taekwon-Do competitor at it was the highest I've seen in a long time in Ireland.

The tournment itself was huge, winning at this tournament doesn't come easy. My guys did exceptionally well, most medalling. They all did us proud as usual.

Winning a TKD bout is tough, winning it with style and with that unique ITF agility and speed is even tougher. For me it is such a pleasure to watch stylish Taekwon-Do competitors, well trained, fast as hell and as tactical as they come.

Marauding and swinging your arms everywhere as if punching, isn't nice to look at and undermines our sports credibility on the world stage. Bombing and charging around the ring belongs in the WWE.

With that my hat goes well and truly off to the Dutch team the Croats and the Italians that were present at the championships. These guys and girls were hot stuff. Inspiring.

With that, I found myself asking. What makes these guys tick? What gives them the edge? What is their mindset towards training?

Mindset, this is the key. I remember Tomaz Barada telling us that his juniors train with him 12 times a week... twelve times!

Mindset, mindset, mindset... I want to know how these people think!

We struggle in Ireland to produce such quality in most major sports. I blame the government, their lack of interest in amateur sports in this country is despicable. I also blame the USA, their imposing cultural imperialism through brain washing TV has produced a generation of Zoe 101ers, Christina Aguellera (whatever you call her) and Britney Spears wannabes, I also blame the makers of Xbox and bebo. Gulags for the lot of them.

The Soviets got many things wrong, but if they got anything right it was their approach to sports, they cultivated athletes from a young age, they had sports schools and provided financial assistance to all state run sports academies.

Ah maybe i'm being bitter, but the attitude to amateur sports here in Ireland, excluding the GAA of course, is below par.

I want to know what is the missing link? What makes the Dutch so good? What makes the Italians so stylish? What makes the Polish world champions time and time again. What made Paul Germaine so good? What made Tomaz Barada the best ever?

We've a long way to go, but I'm confident, our guys can win and win in style, but they need to have that mindset to be the best, when you wake up in the morning you are numero uno, when you go to bed you are numero uno. Unless you create that mindset for yourself, skill and tactics go out the window.

One of the answers is experience of course. The more you compete the more confident you become, and Ireland does have exceptional Taekwon-Do competitors.

Anyway enough rambling, I'm inspired again and I like people who inspire me, they are few and far between. So again, to all you top class stylish Taekwon-Do and kickboxing people out there..I bow down. Keep up the good work, I may need inspiring again at some point... soon!

Pic - Silvia Farigu of Italy. One of the best in the world.

Nobody comes close.

2009-11-10T05:18:00.000-08:00

It's as simple as that. Nobody comes close. Of all the people I've trained with over the years, Tomaz Barada has been the best of them.

Not only has this man won everything there is to win on the ITF Taekwon-Do circuit, he was also untouchable on the WAKO kickboxing circuit. He has a pro kickboxing record of 84 wins - 0 losses. He retired undefeated.

I had the opportunity of visiting his trophy gallery in Slovenia in 2008. A splendid sight indeed. You could have mistaken it for a trophy store.

The word retired however is probably a misnomer. When you retire, you normally pack things up and go off to have yourself a nice life, fishing, gardening etc. Not Barada, while he has retired from competing, he is still very much at the heart of the ITF competition circuit and the WAKO kickboxing also. He teaches everyday, he trains everyday, he has several world champions training under him, and no doubt several more to come.

All of that, and he's the most approachable, down to earth kind of guy you could ever meet. Every time I've trained with him he has something new to offer. A new skill, a new drill, a new conditioning exercise, always something new. As a coach myself, learning new skills and passing them on is the key to future success.

The sessions themselves were intense. After the Saturday sessions I thought I would never make it through the Sunday, but I did. Even some of the younger ones weren't able for it, this mindset wasn't for packing it in.

I was happy enough with the fitness levels, although the left leg was a bit stiff. That hall we have is an ice box. It doesn't help at all. You could hang sides of bacon in it and they'd be fine there for months. I'll have to do something about it, I can't train in the freezing cold. Fair enough you warm up, but my left hip flexor only needs 30 seconds to cool down and then it's a nightmare to get going again!

Tomaz is back in January, he's doing a session for Ian Kingston in Cork. We'll be travelling down for that. Then the Slovenia trip in May. I'm looking forward to that already.

Aspirations and apparitions

2009-11-01T12:24:00.000-08:00

It was the right time of the year for the folk of Knock to be searching the skies for something spooky. Apparently a message was given, and we all wait with baited breath for that message to be revealed, maybe it'll be the results of my grading, who knows?

I wish I had an apparition. I could do with the help. Are my chambers correct? Is there enough power being generated? Is it turn left, or right in Choi Yong? God knows.

Your man says I shouldn't mock the almighty. This blogger is a realist.

Realism. The Sunday sessions continue, they don't get any more real than this. Lung stunningly tough. Plenty of pad work today, and plenty of sparring, plenty of detail and plenty of sweat.

God it was tough... here's your man again.

I'm still shooting too much off the back leg. That's the consequence of tiredness. Marto reckons I'm moving better now than I ever have. Marto knows technique, if he says that, God knows I'm happy.

News in the ITF is that the North Koreans are talking to Master Trans group about unification. It wasn't long ago they were at logger heads in the courts over who owns the office. I used to have a real interest with what the groups did at that level. Used to. It's really all about men in suits, status, power blocs and above all airgead.

Freud was right.

Tomaz Barada will be in Dublin next week. I'm looking forward to that. The most accomplished of them all, and not an air or a grace about him. I hope to be fit enough, I reckon I'll be alright, once the mind set is right.

As for my four followers, I will make an appearance sometime around 3pm tomorrow.

Jesus, even Brian of Nazareth had more than four followers!

oops here's your man again.. leg it.

A big ask

2009-10-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

A big ask indeed. I remember turning from 17 to 18. It's a time of many wonderful freedoms, but for the Taekwon-Do competitor, it means the big step from the junior ranks to the seniors. The senior ranks can be a scary place to be. It's where the big boys hang out, and for the new kid on the block, it can be very intimidating when you now have to mix it up with the lads that you only enjoyed watching in the past.

I've come across many black belts who have stepped across the Rubicon to senior level, and who unfortunately, decided to pack their bags and leave. That's their decision of course.

One of the lads from the club made the big change over this year. If you follow our website, you'll know who it is. I admire this young lad. His first tournament at senior level wasn't only the Leinster championships, nor was it the Dublin open, it was an international fight night. To stand on the mat for the first time as a senior and against what could be the best another country has to offer takes steel.

I admire him, not only for his guts, but he has a good way about him. He's always ready to help, always ready to train. I've never heard an excuse from him not to train, or to compete. He'll go along way in life. Maybe it's his eastern European upbringing, tough times in the old bloc no doubt. New kid on the block? Maybe new kid from the bloc? who knows, either way, his performance last night at the international fight night warrants a mention within these ramblings of mine.

Back to my own training, another trip to the gym today went well enough as the cardio improves. The treadmill is now on incline runs. I prefer it that way for some reason, tough and all as it is.

Funny watching the fights last night, or any fights for that matter, you always get the urge to put the gear back on and compete. It's all about finding the time though, the training is demanding for that level. Maybe I'm just making excuses. I did say to hell with it a few months ago after a let down regarding my position on the senior team. Unfortunately, the many miles between my home and the training hall in Cork stood in the way. Such is life and it goes on.

My mind is focused on coaching at the moment. The IMAC sports council recognised coaching courses were a big help in this regard. Unfortunately, no matter how much knowledge or experience you have, nothing matters a care if you're not the right degree for coaching in Taekwon-Do. Not that you have to be of any particular degree, fact is, as long as there are degree holders higher than you, they automatically assume these positions, irregardless of experience. Such things like this represent one of the many contradictions of a military martial art, now being practiced by civilians. Experience, past record, success, means náid, nada.

Either way, ours is not to wonder why.

The real coaching for me is done in the dojang. That's where it all happens, and that's where it will continue to happen.

I think my own club now is in a very strong position. The young lads and lassies training with me at the moment have all huge potential, this is what keeps me going, thoughts of future titles are inspiring. What makes it harder for these bunch of kids is the times they are in. They're all in the teenage years. So many demands, so many problems (perceived of course!), so many challenges and so many distractions. Sure weren't we all there in the past.

Getting through these years, remaining focused and dedicated to your dreams is what it's all about.

It's easy to get distracted, there's no challenge in that, you just float down river pulled along by a peer current, you don't have to move, you just follow. There's no challenge in smoking, until your in your 40's of course, when the challenge is to breath easy. There's no challenge in binge drinking, until your liver challenges you to a life or death duel. There's no challenge in stealing some one's bike, or maybe their car. That's easy, any idiot can do that. Any idiot who wants to waste their time and cause distress to others.

There is challenge however, in staying fit, staying healthy and most of all staying focused. Avoiding the current is probably the biggest challenge of all for teenagers. To all those young people out there who independently decide to live by their own guidelines, and not by some other punks, I admire you. You will ultimately be what you want to be, a world champion or even better.

Anyway, enough rambling, this is meant to be about MY grading.
Bloody teenagers!

2009-10-21T04:57:00.000-07:00

Tá an lá go hainnis.
And so it was, the day was terrible. It's hard to motivate yourself for anything when you look out the window and see that it is well and truly 'weather for ducks'.

None the less, it was off out the door just before 7am for the gym ritual. Todays focus would be on shoulders. Again the workout was light, and it will be for the first and second week. It's always best to ease yourself back into the swing of things. Injury is always lurking around the corner, although I've been lucky injury wise the last while, where's that proverbial wood when you need it?!

A quick burn up on the shoulder region from dumbbell pressing at an easy pace with 20kg's in each hand and then some standing military press's. This was followed by lateral raises and rear shoulder shrugs. The cardio ensued as did the stretching.

I had a bit of space this morning to run over Yoo Sin quickly. It has 68 movements, but even still it is quite an easy pattern to remember, probably down to the easy symmetry of the diagram, or in other words, you do something on the left then you do it on the right. I have all three 3rd degree patterns learned. It's a matter of just perfecting them, if perfection is ever achievable.

In the news is the ICTU march on November 6th. Probably another pointless exercise. Who's in charge of that Congress? Oh yeh, it's the Grand Old Duke of York.

I bet those ducks are happy.

Early mornings

2009-10-20T02:40:00.000-07:00

So the early mornings have begun.

I thought pushing my usual 7am start back an hour was going to be easy enough.

When the alarm burst into its early morning frenzy at 6am, the first thought to enter this drowsy mind was, 'not already'.

'Already' it was, and I dragged myself up to tackle the day with a visit to the gym.

There is now a separate more immediate reason to up the fitness levels, Tomaz Barada is returning to Ireland on November 7th and 8th for a series of sparring workshops. His sessions demand that you have a fairly decent level of fitness. Fitness for him comes as a given, the man walks around with a heart beat of 36 beats per minute. Similar to the folk who live on 'the roof of the world' in Tibet. He is probably the man I most admire in the field of Taekwon-Do and sport in general, he leads by example.

For training in the gym, it's easy to disregard cardio work. To say 'Ah sure I'll lift a few weights, that'll do me' is missing the point of training for a specific anaerobic sport like Taekwon-Do. Sure lifting weight is productive, lifting them functionally even more so, but skimping on cardio work will leave you gasping uncomfortably during a Taekwon-Do training session.

Fuelling me for the work out was 4 pineapple rings, 2 rice cakes and a mix of protein isolate. Nothing too heavy for that early in the morning, and that soon to a work out. As for energisers, Im a big fan of the amino acid citrulline malate and the natural stimulant caffeine. I did contemplate the Rocky approach to early morning workouts, a few raw eggs, a couple of chin ups and a dirty black hat, but I'm passed that stage already!

Caffeine is a really effective stimulant. However its over-use is non productive. The nervous system slowly gets used to the effect of caffeine, which in turn means the user has to up the dosage, of course addiction then ensues. The key is using it sensibly.

The workout itself was light. Some chest pressing with 25kg dumbbells, cable cross overs, dumbbell flys, and then into the triceps for a burn. Triceps are best hit with heavy compound lifts or pushes. Weighted dips are very effective.

As is good practice, the session was concluded with a good run. I'm not incorporating sprint work just yet, I'll wait until i'm a bit more at ease with the pace.

The session, just under an hour, finished up with some dynamic stretching. Those that suffer with stiff hips, dynamic stretching is a super way of loosening them out, here comes the caveat, you will have to stretch up to twice a day. It's worth it, or as the glamorous hair ladies might say...you're worth it!

The recovery meal is as important as the workout. No point in training your body to be a high performance sports car, then dousing it with green diesel. Only the best fuel should follow a session that is tiring. My recovery meal was as follows:

100g of raw oats, yup uncooked. Topped with blackberries and raspberries, soaked with rice milk.

4 Spirulina algae tablets and a sachet of a very powerful multi-vit and multi-mineral called Genesis by Universal.

That's me propped up for the day, and it's only 8.30am.

Putting the record straight

2009-09-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has achieved the rank of 4th degree in the ITF knows that a thesis must also be submitted.

There are many subjects to consider for this thesis, and there are many I have considered. Nutrition for Taekwon-Do, Taekwon-Do and children, Ho Sin Sul (self defence). However there is one subject that has really inspired me over the last twelve months or so. The history of Taekwon-Do in Ireland. I spent some time with Aidan Walsh in Slovenia last year, during which I got a real chance to encounter living Taekwon-Do history. I wanted to know more.

It's probably a subject that's been done to death by many other 4th degrees gone before me. However, I want mine to be different. I want it to be comprehensive, complete so to speak. There is only one way to achieve that, and that's to go to the source of Taekwon-Do in Ireland. The originals, the pioneers.

It causes me to make a crumpled face sometimes when I see some instructors re-write the history of Taekwon-Do to suit their own agenda. The word 'Pioneer' is indeed a hackneyed word in Irish TKD circles.

Maybe the word is misunderstood? Let us see. Pioneer: To open up an area or prepare a way; initiate: take the lead or initiative in; participate in the development of - courtesy of dictionary.com.

There can be no dispute and no misunderstanding. Lately I came across some face crumpling information on the world wide web, apparently there are more Irish 'pioneers' than we original anticipated. My face is crumpling again. I must stop reading nonsense!

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a student of history and someone who relies on fact over fiction. Armed with this sense of keeping the record straight I set about making contact with the real deal. The original ITF Taekwon-D0 pioneers.

I was delighted to receive an email in response to my request.

Senior Master Robert Howard 8th degree has agreed to an interview. President of the RITA since it's foundation in 1972 and a Taekwon-Do student since 1968. I was honoured to be accepted into this mans company.

My thesis will then, hopefully, get a special audience with Mr Aidan Walsh, also one of the original pioneers and then Master Liam Dandy, the man who made initial contact with GM Rhee Ki Ha. I've yet to contact Master Dandy, but I have a number there somewhere from yester -year

Who knows where I'll end up! I know for sure however, that this thesis will be the most comprehensive to date. I will make it so. It's not about cobbling together a few words and sending it to an office where it might not even get read, it's about putting the history down for all to see, putting the record straight if I may.

I'll keep you all posted as this intrepid journey from 1968 to 2009 unfolds.

Pic: Aidan Walsh, Brendan Roche, Robert Howard, Liam Dandy and Tony Phelan.

Sunday session

2009-09-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

It's easy to pretend you're fit!

When you're an instructor and coach, it's easy to fall into a trap where you think that doing a bit during the class you're teaching that this is the same as training.

Today (Sunday 20th) I headed out to Loughshinny to train with the rest of the ETA lads. The class was conducted by Terry Donnelly with the help of Marto. Martin Lawless is great to have around every session, he breaks everything down to the minutia!

The class worked on drills and foot postioning. I was hoping it would remain at a nice pace. I was kidding myself! I felt grand during the drills, the legs were moving ok. The last few weeks of stretching my over tight hips had been paying off. High hook kicks weren't a problem.

We moved into sparring then. Jeez it's unbelievable how flat footed you can become when you haven't sparred for a few months. The initial drills were just about moving and dodging around your attacking opponent, five seconds in, yours truly takes a hook kick to the mouth, courtesy of Mr Donnelly!

That was frustrating, but it'll be a couple of classes before im back up on my toes properly.

We did a few rounds of moving and dodging, I was feeling it on the old lungs!

We moved into proper sparring then and after about 8 short rounds of sparring I was wearing down, slowly but surely. The sparring is always at a pace arond 70% of full on speed and power. There's no better way to train. It allows a high pace but at a comfortable enough level where you can use the techniques learned in the drills and you can put them to work. Laying into each other inhibits you from experimenting and finding out solutions to circumstances as you spar.

Here's a small sample, after the class Terry and Marto moved around. Plenty of action at 70% with an emphasis on constant movement, enjoy!

We moved through the rounds alternating between boxing rounds and Taekwon-Do rounds incorporating an emphasis on both the hands and the feet. At the end I was out of gas, well and truly. The lungs were on fire, this blog as no problem telling you that!

Not to worry, it won't be long before the fitness levels are back up a tad. I'll have to start hitting the road again for some 'morning runs' down by the canal if possible.

Anyway, to finish, one of the best things about training with these guys is the approach to scientific sparring. That's not to confuse the issue, it simply means drills, movement and body positions are put to the test and if they're usefull they're kept, if they're not working they're disposed of. Simple really.

Afterwards it was back to Terry's house for a cupán tae and a video of the master at work.. Tomaz Barada.

RIP Dazzler

2009-09-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Boxing is probably the only sport I'd be a keen fan of. I've followed the Irish boxing scene now for many's a year still having fond memories of that morning in 1992 in Ger's house watching McCollough and Carruth winning the silver and gold in Barcelona.

I had the same pride watching Darren Sutherland do what he does best in the ring in China at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Darren was found dead in London yesterday, aged 27.

Ireland has lost a sporting hero. There is nothing worse than hearing news like this.

RIP.

2009-09-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

As part of some ongoing training, this blog attended a Master Class on September 6th 2009 in
Stevenedge, Reading, England.

Master Choi never fails to impress.

The son of General Choi Hong Hi, the founder of Taekwon-Do, Master Choi is now the president, leader and guardian of modern day ITF Taekwon-Do.
I use the word guardian intently.

His work over the last number of years has been to bring ITF Taekwon-Do into it’s rightful place in the world, as a martial art and a system of self defence.
When Taekwon-Do was initially developed by General Choi back in the late 1940’s and the early 1950’s. It’s purpose was to enable the practitioner to develop raw power from the training methods involved. It was, undoubtedly a full contact system.

Over the years, and as Taekwon-Do became a worth while business concept, training methods changed to become a more family orientated, and child centred martial art. The training methods of old would have slowed Taekwon-Do from developing as a uniquely popular family martial art. It would have been the staple diet of genuinely hard men and head cases, such was the training methods.

It can be said that over the many years, Taekwon-Do has become a some what watered down version of it’s original mould.
It has inevitably become a system of sport and an art based on aesthetics rather than any sense of realism.

This now seems to be the target of change of the ITF and in particular, Master Choi Jung Hwa, who wants to see Taekwon-Do become a more realistic system of fighting. He wants to see an end to the pretty and ‘dance’ based tul. An over emphasis on prettiness has over shadowed Taekwon-Do’s true nature.
This latest master class was all about power and the use of kicks and strikes to create the utmost damage to any opponent.

Prettiness in performance was not an issue, in fact master Choi, as he always does, insists that to perform any Taekwon-Do strike or block with full power will of course pull the practitioner off balance, and this is ok. It means that in the first instance, power is to the fore. Training over and over will bring balance, inevitably.

To quote master Choi’s own saying - “once you know one thing through and through, then you know it for everything” - this was the under current for the master class. There was repetitious training of single strikes and techniques until the concept was fully understood.

Taekwon-Do is going back to it’s roots. It’s true identity is being revealed once again.
When you look at the many pioneers of Taekwon-Do, to name a very few, GM Nam Tae Hi, GM Rhee Ki Ha, Master Han Cha Kyo, GM CK Choi, GM JC Kim, all of these in their hay day, and some even now are power houses. Their training was real, it was gruelling and it was all about blunt force trauma.

When you look at the instructors that came out of these pioneers, and from our own point of view here in Ireland, Mr Aidan Walsh and Master Robert Howard (two of five) who were original students who came under GM Rhee were all about impact development. Even when I was training as a kid, Master Trevor Nicholls was all about raw power, and the destruction of the opponent. His destruction of six Irish boards with a lead leg side kick in Aughrim street sports centre, circa1992 is etched in my memory.

Many things in life come full circle, and these days I find myself training with and under one of those Irish pioneers, Aidan Walsh, who was instrumental along with others, Robert Howard, Liam Dandy, Frank Mathews, Brendan Roche and Tony Phelan in spreading Taekwon-Do around the Island of Ireland.
I shouldn’t be surprised then to find that Mr Walsh’s primary concern in training is to learn how to hit hard, and be scientific it your delivery.

This master class was also a poignant one, after 30 odd years master Choi met with Mr Walsh for a trip down memory lane. In 1974, Mr Walsh was part of a demo team along with master Choi who performed a Taekwon-Do demonstration for General Choi on the back of a truck in Winnipeg, Canada. The two had a good old laugh as they recalled good times in Canada and at the residence of the General. The two Taekwon-Do stalwarts embraced each other. As someone who has only dipped his toe in the vast ocean of Taekwon-Do life, I found it was quite an historical moment.

I think all of us who travelled to England to train under master Choi share Mr Walsh’s opinion. Master Choi is genuine, and is not afraid to show the courage of his convictions.
During lunch with master Choi, he outlined his vision for Taekwon-Do in the near future. With South Korea now accepting him and the ITF with open arms, the ITF and Taekwon-Do in general is quit rightly slotting back into it’s rightful place, acknowledged and understood as being a complete martial art, now with all it’s priorities in the right place.

Power is key!

Thank you to all those involved in the UTA and England ITF for the kind invitation to the Master Class, Master Trevor Nicholls and Mr Glenn Horan - Thank you, this was a great help on the road to the big 4th.

A start has to be made.

2009-08-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing I've learned from being around people like Aidan Walsh and Terry Donnelly is that standard is everything. For the first time in a long time, I witnessed the unfortunate circumstances of someone failing a dan test. Such is life.

There would be no easy route to the covetted dan levels of Taekwon-Do with these guys. If you weren't ready, you weren't passed. That's the way it should be.

I've been sussing out what level of standard I will have to achieve before I step onto the floor in front of this senior grading panel. So far, I've learned that they expect power. Taekwon-Do is not Tai Chi, Taekwon-Do is about blunt force trauma. It's about single shot knock downs. Power coupled with speed and agility will be the name of the game for me.

Let the training begin!

This blog will follow the ups and downs of the training needed to step onto the floor in front of an Irish Taekwon-Do pioneer and say - "sir, i'm ready for the next level" - no easy task that.

My instructor for the grading will be non other that Terry Donnelly VI. I'm confident his guidance will see me through. He prepared me for the ITF European championships in 2008. The only time in a long time I felt ready for a tournament.

On Saturday next, I'm off to train again with Grand Master Choi in England. That will officially kick off my training for the big 4.

Stay tuned!