Sabumnim Michael Nguyen attended the Master McPhail Seminar on the 17^th & 18^th August at the ITF Fitness Center in Sydney. There were close to 50 black belts in attendance. Day 1 combined fundamental movements as well as Patterns Chon-Ji up to Yoo-Sin lead by Master McPhail. He is full of knowledge and it was amazing to train with such a dynamic and passionate Master in the Oceania region. He is one of the members on the ITF technical committee.  Our Senior Dans were very fortunately to be able to get some personal tuition from him on Day 2 covering all 4^th Dan Patterns.

Over the two day seminar, GM Daher the seminar participates on their toes through a variety of intensive sparring drills and unique methods. He offered insight into how your opponent thinks and how to read your opponent’s movements. He also offered advice to participants who are serious about developing their sparring abilities for international competition.

Towards the end of Day 2 we participated in an umpiring session conducted by Mr McIntyre which is an important element of competitive ITF Taekwon-Do on an international level. Mr McIntyre covered current tournament rules from an umpire point of view for patterns, pre-arranged and free sparring. It was a great chance to ask questions and understand how to impress the umpires/judges and get the edge on your opponent.

It was a very enjoyable event. We are very much looking forward to the IIC in New Zealand next year.

Michael Nguyen VI Dan ITF

International Instructor & Examiner

Impact Taekwon-Do Australia

In July Impact Taekwon-Do Australia, sent a team of 18 to the RMIT Championships. It was a well run event and students thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Thank you to the organisers for the invitation.

Results from the RMIT Championships in St Albans. Congratulations to everyone who competed today as well as a big thank you to everyone who came and supported! It is the biggest team we’ve ever brought to a tournament, with 18 people and 30 medals in hand.

Michael Nguyen
1st in 18+ y/o Male 2nd to 6th Dan Patterns
1st in 18+ y/o Team Patterns
1st in 18-35 y/o Male 1st Gup to 6th Dan 64-73kg Sparring

In June, Impact Taekwon-Do Australia sent a team of 6 to Sydeny attend the ITF Australian National Championships. It was a great event. Thank you to the organisers for inviting us.

Final Results from the 2019 ITF Nationals in Sydney

Michael Nguyen
2nd in 18 to 39 y/o Male 4th to 6th Dan Patterns
2nd in 18 to 35 y/o Male 1st Dan+ 63.5kg to 72kg Sparring

Adriana Enciso Galindo
3rd in 18 to 35 y/o Female 4th Dan Patterns
3rd in 18 to 35 y/o Female 1st Dan+ 55kg to 68.5kg Sparring

Larita Bouphasavanh
2nd in 18 to 35 y/o Female 2nd to 3rd Dan Patterns

Trevor Foulstone
3rd in 40+ y/o Male 5th to 1st Gup Patterns
3rd in 36+ y/o Male 5th Gup to 2nd Dan 78.6+ Sparring

Angela Foulstone
1st in 12 to 14 y/o Female Colour Belt Special Techniques

Thank you to Man Tim Hon for coming along to support and coach the team! Everyone did so well today. Now to rest and relax! Congratulations!!

Impact Taekwon-Do would like to welcome Ms Adriana Enciso Galindo from Columbia who is living, working and studying here. She is a 4th Dan in ITF Taekwon-Do and 3rd Dan in WAKO Kickboxing. She brings a wealth of international experience being to 2 World Cup (Jamaica and England) and 2 World Championships (Spain & Ireland) representing her home country. She is also multiple National, Panamerican & Sudamerican Champion in patterns and sparring in both styles. She will be representing Columbia at the her 3rd ITF Taekwon-Do World Championships in Germany this year in Patterns and Sparring. We look forward to exchanging knowledge as well as working together with her. Taekwon!

The ITF World Cup was the biggest tournament of the year with over 1000 competitors from 35 different countries participating. The atmosphere was amazing over 5 days. Master Daher also got promoted to 9^th Dan. Our first GM in this federation. Sabumnim Michael Nguyen also was promoted to 6^th Dan by GM Ung Kim Lan in an extraordinary grading.

Results for the tournament are below:

Leon Sejranovic
1^st – 14-17 yo 1^st-3^rd Dan Special Techniques
1^st – 14-17 yo 1^st – 3^rd Dan <68kg sparring
1^st – Junior Male 1^st-3^rd Dan Team Sparring

Angela Foulstone
Competed well, unfortunately losing to Argentina in Patterns due to a few critical errors.
In special techniques, she got full points for the flying side kick but missed the front kick due to nervousness.

Larita Bouphasavanh
She completed well unfortunately losing to Norway in Patterns due to some balance issues with the new mats being used.

Well done to everyone that completed. This was the first time two of our competitors had versed other international competitors. So it was a great opportunity to learn from this experience and to continue to work and build to improve themselves.

If there was an Overall Individual Junior Male award, it would’ve gone to him. There was no other competitor in the Junior Division that won 3 Gold medals. Well done to Leon.

Thank you for Mr Trevor Foulstone and Boosabumnim Tim Hon for supporting the team during this event.

In September, our students competed in the annual CHITF Lai Taekwon-Do tournament. We had 4 students participate. As usual there was big support from surrounding schools and interstate. Everyone had a great day. Thank you to GM and Master Lai for inviting us. Congratulations to everyone that competed today!!

Results are below: 

Leon Sejranovic
1^st – Senior male <68kg Sparring
1^st – Senior Male Special Techniques

Larita Bouphasavanh
3^rd – 1st-2nd Dan Female Patterns

Philo Lee
1^st – 1st -2nd Dan Junior Male Patterns
2^nd – Sparring

Angela Foulstone
1^st – 5th-1st Gup Female Patterns
2^nd – Junior Female Special Techniques

In August, Impact students attended a friendly tournament hosted by USMA. We had 4 students compete. It was a great build up to this year’s World Cup. It was great to see some Taekwon-Do friends from Canberra also. Thank you to Master Cariotis for inviting us.

USMA Open Tournament Results:

Leon Sejranovic
1^st – Junior Male Black belt Sparring
1^st – Senior Male Special Techniques

Luka McPhie
2^nd – Senior Male Special Techniques

Philo Lee
2^nd – Junior Male Mixed Sparring
3^rd – Junior Male Special Techniques

Chris Lin
1^st – Junior 1st Dan Male Patterns
3^rd – Lightweight Junior Black belt Sparring
1^st – Junior Male Special Techniques

Last weekend saw 5 of our black belts attend GM Phap Lu’s seminar. GM Lu travelled with General Choi as his assistant in the early 1980’s and help spread Taekwon-Do around the world. It was a great chance to train with knowledgeable students of General Choi. New friendships were made and it was great to train with different Taekwon-Do practitioners from all around Australia. GM Lu personal said the standard in our school was very high and encouraged us to keep training hard. Everyone that attended enjoyed ourselves and learnt a lot. Thank you GM and Master Lai for inviting us.

We had the honour of having the 2 x World Champion Power Breaker Mr Wesley Filiki from New Zealand grace our Do-Jang in North Melbourne. He recently defended his title in Ireland and was the only man to successfully complete all 5 breaks. He brought a lot of energy and laughter into our senior session. We were very fortunate enough to get some tips off this humble man. Thank you once again and all the best with the rest of your trip.

Report from Dublin

Sabumnim Michael Nguyen and Boosabumnim Leon Sejranovic traveled to Dublin in October to compete at the 20^th  ‘Senior and 14th Junior ITF World Championships in Ireland.

Tuesday 10^th October
Team Australia all weighed in today successfully. The opening ceremony just finished and the atmosphere was phenomenal. We rest tonight and competition starts tomorrow. Leon has patterns up first thing in the morning.

Wednesday 11^th October
Leon completed in Pattern’s today. He received a bye in round 1. He then beat Paraguay 4-1 according to the judges. He then beat Uzbekistan in the round of 32. He met with New Zealand in the quarterfinals and unfortunately lost. He kept his composure and did really well despite it being his least favourite event. Well done Leon.

Thursday 12^th October
Leon competed in Special techniques. He touched the front kick at 2.5m but under new rules it needs to bend 45 degrees, so no points were given. He got full points for flying side and turning kicks. He got a technical disqualification for reverse turning kick, even though it looked good – possibly due to the toes being too high. On the last technique, his foot got stuck during takeoff for the midair kick and didn’t score. He was ranked 5th for most of the competition. However, he finished 13th out of 50 competitors with most competitors aged 17 years old. Leon was one of the youngest in the division. Great work Leon.

Saturday 14^th October
Leon had sparring today. He unfortunately lost to Belarus. A couple of bad warnings due to poor umpiring, which would’ve changed the end result. Leon was much classier than his opponent but just needed to be a bit more assertive and use the ring a bit better. He was disappointed, but at the same time he has learnt a lot and is hungrier than ever to work on his weaknesses.

Sunday 15^th October
Team sparring completed yesterday. Australia lost to Scotland. Leon performed really well in his match but wasn’t enough to give Australia win. The end result was a draw in his fight. The level of competition was very high this year.

Tueday 17^th October
Hurricane Ophelia hit Ireland yesterday. Over 250,000 homes without power. 4 people have died due to this hurricane. It is the worst hurricane in 65 years. Leon and I are safe but struggled to travel due to harsh conditions. Flights, buses, taxis trains, lightrails were all cancelled. We were so lucky we found a taxi driver who was headed home to take us to our destination. Dublin was a ghost town yesterday with everything closed and everyone forced to take cover indoors.

Wednesday 18^th October
After the Champs, Leon and I were able to travel around Ireland and managed to secure some training with Mr Hong K Looi (5th Dan) of the Irish National Team and Irish Taekwon-Do Association Technical committee. He runs Newbridge Taekwon-Do. He is 2 x European Champion and 3 x World Champion. The training was intense and very informative. He gave us a lot of insight into how we should be training.

Friday 20^th October
We attended training at Northstar Taekwon-Do under 6th Dan Instructor and Coach Niall Jones. The club produced multi-World Champion/medalists this year (Adam Shelley, Ryan Shelly, Joanne Potter, Rebecca Mooney, Colm Carroll, Ellen Ince and Cian Ince). It was such a great atmosphere to train in. They are very humble and supportive people. We learnt so much and they train so hard. The bar has been raised.

Impact students completed at the CHITF Lai TKD tournament. Our team of 7, consisting of Chris, Claire, Ryan, Philo, Tin, Edward and Tommy. There were around 120 competitors from all different schools from Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Tasmania. It was a fun weekend. Thank you to GM and Master Lai for inviting us.

Results:

Chris Lin
3^rd – Junior Red belt patterns
2^nd – Lightweight junior male sparring
2^nd – Mixed male spec tech

Claire Lin
2^nd – Junior Red belt patterns
2^nd – Mixed junior girls sparring
4^th – Mixed female spec tech

Ryan Le
1^st – Junior Red belt patterns
1^st – Lightweight junior male sparring

Philo Lee
3^rd – Junior Red belt patterns
1^st – Middleweight junior male sparring

Tin Do
1^st – Peewee Green/blue belt patterns
2^nd – Lightweight junior male sparring

Edward Lo
1^st – Junior Green/blue patterns

Tommy Le
1^st – Peewee Division Yellow/green belt patterns
1^st -Peewee male sparring