Taekwon-do Nationals update

  By David | October 12, 2009 - 12:44 pm | Jayden, Taekwon do 1 Comment
Me at Nationals Awards dinner 2009

At the ITFNZ Taekwon-do Nationals awards dinner on September 26th I won the Gup Student of the year award - it was a pretty amazing feeling! Thanks to my instructor Grant Eccles and Gwyn Brown from Silla club for the nomination.

At the tournament itself I got a bronze in both Sparring and Patterns, and I helped out on the Saturday with Id-cards , the tournament was fun and another great experience.

Both Charlotte and I stayed down in Christchurch with Gavin, Liz, Jayden and Corban which was also awesome – Jayden is becoming very talkative and aware and he’s very smart too. Hopefully we will be going back at christmas time to visit again.

We leave for Thailand in 3 days and the weather over there looks very hot around 34-36 degrees, so that will make it interesting, also all the forecasts look like Thunder storms so hopefully we don’t get rained out!

ITFNZ Nationals 2009

  By David | September 15, 2009 - 3:18 pm | Sports, Taekwon do Leave a comment

I’ve been extremely slack in updating my blog recently – with the increased use of FB just about no point – but I’ll try to keep up with it …

I’ve had some ups and downs in training for the Nationals this year. I’m competing in Sparring and Patterns and over the last few weeks have managed to injure my knee, neck and ribs. With only 2 weeks until Nationals now i’m hoping i’ve done enough :) I’ve had quite a bit of extra training in sparring than I did have before regionals, so hopefully i’ve picked up some useful tips and can apply them in the ring – still have a bit of weight to lose to get back into the correct division – time is running out — ahhh !

I’ve been very busy updating the ID card software from last year and processing all the new photos from all the regions.

TKD Nationals this year is in Christchurch so i’m taking a few extra days and staying from thursday until monday. I get to spend some more time with Gavin, Liz, Jayden and Corban this way too.

I am also helping to organise the Midlands TKD camp for next year, which is turning out ok – 1 guest instructor has confirmed so far, venue confirmed, and dates 99% confirmed so not too bad for 6 months out.

A couple of days until my birthday too – wonder what its gonna be like, I have a short TKD training after work, and then some drinks. A big dinner is planned for Friday and not sure what Saturday will bring :)

Off to Thailand too for a holiday in October- first trip to asia – so doing a lot of reading up of that area and things to do – hoping to get lots of beach time in though and mainly relax …

Pinnacles Tramp

  By David | April 17, 2009 - 8:19 am | General Leave a comment

On Good Friday Mark, Charlotte, Tozan and I , along with two of Tozan’s friends went for a tramp up to the pinnacles near thames. The weather was warm and although rain threatened throughout the day it never happened. 

It was definitely easier than my last pinnacles trip – which was around 3 years ago ? and being a holiday weekend was very busy on the track. Since last time they have put in stairs nearly all the way up to the pinnacles top from the hut so its a relatively easy excursion to reach the summit. 

We ended up getting out just before dark thanks to daylight saving being over.

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Grading April 2009

  By David | April 5, 2009 - 7:23 am | Events, Sports, Taekwon do Leave a comment

I had a shocker of a grading for blue tip – including knocking someones contact out, and although I didn’t get an A pass this time, I still passed so I’m now a blue-tip or 5th gup half way to black belt ;)  

The grading examiner was Andrew Salton 6th dan from Levin and he conducted a very rigorous grading. I’m now looking forward to learning my new pattern Yul-Gok which has 38 movements.

Green belts1 step sparring

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March already

  By David | March 12, 2009 - 3:33 pm | Site updates, Taekwon do, Travel 1 Comment

Well somehow it has become March ! So much has happened so far this year – In February I did two tramps in the South Island (Kepler and Routeburn), Nick and Phiny have visited from the states and left again for another year. I spent some days at the beach at both Waihi and Orewa. Taekwon-do has started up again and I have been on the regional camp and performed with the demo team at the relay for life.

Me Breaking a board at the demo

Grading for the next belt is coming up very shortly too (April 4th) and we have another demo this weekend at Bunnings.

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