Archives February 2014

ITF Scotland held their first National Umpire Course on Sunday 23rd February.  The course was delivered by the ITF Scotland Umpire Committee of Master Gordon Wallace (VII Degree), Mr David McNairn (VI Degree), Mr Mark Boydell (V Degree) and Mr David Lupton (V Degree),and hosted by Tournament Committee members Mr John McIlvaney (V Degree) and Mrs Gillian McIlvaney (IV Degree) at their GMAC gym in Livingston.

67 participants took part from across Scotland, with 18 of those attending from GMAC schools.

The course started with an introduction to the ITFS Tournament Rules for 2014 by Master Wallace, who was happy to discuss the changes and answer any questions the participants had.  He then moved on to cover Pattern competition judging, as well as some discussions on team pattern.  Mr McNairn explained the changes to Sparring competition rules prior to lunch, with a more practical session after lunch involving all participants, giving everyone the opportunity to practise umpiring in scenarios (there was some super acting on some of the participants parts, to show the use of warnings and minus points…Miss McGown…Mrs Dickson?!).  Mr Lupton moved the core forward to the points sparring section, for our junior competitors.  The course culminated in Power and Special Technique umpiring shown by Mr Boydell.

This was the first umpires course prior to the ITF Scotland National Championships to be held in April.  We look forward to putting these new skills into practise in time for the 2014 competition season.

Congratulations to the following GMAC participants;

1.  Mr John McIlvaney

2.  Mrs Gillian McIlvaney

3.  Mr Arthur Doyle

4.  Miss Roxanne McGown

5.  Mr John Munro

6.  Ms Myra Foster

7.  Mr Iain Stewart

8.  Mrs Kerris Dickson

9.  Mr Christopher Dickson

10.  Mr Michael Murray

11.  Mr Aaron Walker

12.  Mr Alexander Barclay

13.  Mr Ross Strathearn

14.  Mr Ethan McKenna

15.  Mr Kieran Cain

16.  Miss Patricia Doyle

17.  Miss Megan Brown

18.  Miss Heather Carter

Click on the thumbnails below for full picture.  Further pictures from the course can be found on Scotland TKD Team’s Facebook page here.

On Saturday 22nd February GMAC held their first Grading Day of 2014.

We’d like to congratulate the following students on their promotions.

TAEKWON-DO KIds

Promoted to Green Stripe;  Ethan Ho

Promoted to Blue Stripe;  Gabriella Lawrie

Promoted to Black Stripe; Jacob Rowan & Allysa Davis

LITTLE NINJA’S

Promoted to Nifty Ninja (Yellow);

Sophie MacDonald & Adam Weir.

Promoted to Speedy Ninja (Orange);

Shay Condron, Josh McAlaney, Samuel Little, Jack Penrice & Junior Bett.

Promoted to Cool Ninja (Green);

Sophie Freckleton, Camreon Boyd, Kinga Jaffke, Sophie Hampson & Ruben Pearson.

Promoted to Super Ninja (Blue);

Gray Nisbet, Nathan McGahey, Jack Snodgrass, Christie Bell, Zara Bell, Kieran Farrell & Lewis McIlvaney.

Promoted to Top Ninja (Purple);

Joshua McCart.

Promoted to Ace Ninja (Red);

Lewis Watson & Robbie Watson.

KICKIN’ KIDS

Promoted to Quick Kicker (Yellow);

Eoin Harker.

Promoted to Cool Kicker (Green);

Callum Houston & Evie Turner.

Promoted to Super Kicker (Blue);

Lucy Moffat & Niamh Kellechan.

Promoted to Top Kicker (Purple);

Adam Wright.
Promoted to Ace Kicker (Brown);

Conor Linkston.

Promoted to Premier Kicker (Red);

Fraser Morrison & Harris Russell

TAEKWON-DO

Promoted to 7th Kup

Meggan Carroll & Courtney Carroll.

Promoted to 6th Kup

Skye Russell

Promoted to 5th Kup

Conor Russell, Josh Miller & Luke Miller.

Promoted to 4th Kup

Scott Hay, Declan McCourt, Martin McGahey & Dana Jovetic-Rankine.

GMAC took a small contingent of competitors to the Irish Taekwon-Do Association’s Cork Open over the weekend of 15th & 16th February.

The competition was attended by 620 competitors from Ireland, Scotland and Germany, including many World & European Champions.

The first day of the event was for competitors 14 years & up, with 5 of our competitors taking part on day 1.  The day got off to a winning start with Karys Taylor medalling in the Cadet’s Female Red Belt Patterns after four rounds taking Bronze.  Next up was Pattern for Kieran Cain who recently moved up to the black belt ranks.  He won through the first round comfortably, and in the second round lost 3-2 after very good pattern performance.  Good show for his first Black Belt competition.

The sparring divisions were up in the afternoon, with Kieran up first in <68kg division, and after three rounds narrowly missed out on a medal placing.  Iain O’Hare was up immediately after Kieran in the adult <70kg division, this division was a round robin, after a well fought first round Iain went on the next bout with previous World Championships winner Luke Woods.  Iain taking Sliver after a mammoth battle by both competitors.

Megan Brown was up in the -60kg division with very experienced competitors and World Medalists.  Both bouts went very well, with her overcoming her first opponent convincingly, and in the final she was against a much taller opponent.  Megan showed great skill and pushed herself very hard in the final with the closely fought match going the way of the Irish competitor.  Well earned bronze for Megan.

Kieran took Bronze in the Junior Male Black Belt Special Technique as well as Bronze in the Power test, after more than 10 rounds of breaking.  Megan also took Bronze in the Female Black Belt Power Test event.

Day one of the championships completed, the team took the opportunity to relax in the Hotel for the evening as we had another day of competition ahead of us as well as journey home afterwards.

Jay Jervis was our sole junior competitor on the Sunday, competing in the 11-13 years Male Red Belt Pattern event in the morning.  Jay’s hard work on his pattern of late was seen on the mat, but was narrowly pushed out to the Irish competitor.  Good experience for him however.  In the sparring division Jay went out strong in the first match against a taller opponent, comfortably advancing to the next round, The second and third bouts went the same way, resulting in Jay picking up Bronze in the category.

A very successful weekend with the team taking away 1 Silver, and 6 Bronze medals from 5 competitors.  A full picture galley can be found on our Facebook page or by clicking here.

GMAC’s first grading day of 2014 will be Saturday 22nd February and run according to the following schedule;

10:30am     Taekwon-Do Kids

12:00pm     Little Ninja & Kickin Kids

2:00pm       ITF Taekwon-Do

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All grading’s will take place in our Livingston Gym.  A map can be found on our timetable page here.

Your instructor will advise if you are ready to go forward for the grading.