Excellence - September 2010

Read or download the September issue of Excellence. Please note the update on Saturday classes.

Download Excellence (September 2010)

Black Belt Grading - September 2010

September's Black Belt Grading is this weekend, Sunday 19th at Wembley CKD:

Wembley CKD School
Barham Primary School
Danethorpe Road
Wembley
Middx.
HA0 4RQ

Click here for a map of Wembley CKD School

10:00 Line Up, Promise, Pledge, Principles, Welcome & Introductions.
10:10 Dan Test: Brown Senior, Il Dan Brown & Ee Dan Brown
11:45 Tag Test 1: Il Dan Plain & Il Dan Yellow
12:35 Tag Test 2: Il Dan Gold, Orange, Green, Blue & Purple
13:25 Tag Test 3: Il Dan Red, Ee Dan Tags & Sahm Dan Tags
14:15 Scheduled Finish

Click here to pay Grading Fees online

Next Black Belt Grading: Sunday 5th December 2010

First Classes In September 2010

A reminder that Ealing Choi Kwang-Do classes resume on Monday 13th September back at Ellen Wilkinson School at the usual times:

Children 6.00 - 7.00pm
Teens & Adults 7.15 - 8.30pm

Look forward to seeing you all back in class after the summer break!

Cancelled: Leadership & Black Belt Training - 11/09/2010

Unfortunately the session scheduled for Saturday 11th September has had to be cancelled.

If you are due to take the Black Belt Grading on Sunday 19th, please ensure you attend regular classes in the weeks preceding.

Black Belt grading times will be posted shortly.

To Spar Or Not To Spar?

Alongside health and personal development, as a martial art Choi Kwang-Do also has a focus on developing self defence skills. Having said that, the fact that learning Choi Kwang-Do does not entail sparring often raises questions (and a fair amount of criticism).

Sparring is commonplace in many martial arts and can take a number of forms. Loosely speaking, sparring defines students engaging in combat with one another for the purpose of training or competition. Some martial arts allow no contact, some light or semi contact, and some full contact. The rules and format of sparring will vary between different martial arts.

The question is: do you believe that you have to practise sparring to be able to defend yourself effectively?

In Choi Kwang-Do we believe the answer is 'no'.

Based on this premise, Choi Kwang-Do Defence Drills comprise of a series of exercises which allow students to practise and develop their self defence skills progressively with another student.

More specifically, the Defence Drills are geared towards developing the confidence and ability of both students in a safe and controlled manner. (Point to note: Choi Kwang-Do Defence Drills are often described as non contact. I prefer to use the term non impact contact: while no contact is intentionally made when striking your partner, contact is obviously made when blocking).

Working in pairs, the Defence Drills start off by introducing basic foot work and dodging (evading an attack). An attacking partner will move in with punching techniques, and a defending partner will move back, begin to read and anticipate body movement prior to an attack, and dodge accordingly.

Then, instead of merely anticipating body movement, the defending student will start to respond by applying blocks to the attacking punches.

In the next stage of Defence Drills this basic conditioning is extended to include defence against combinations of punches and kicks combined with more advanced footwork, eg. angling off.

As the student’s confidence grows during these preliminary exercises, the Defence Drills become more dynamic and move closer towards a ‘real life situation’; a sudden suprise attack.

At this stage the Defence Drills focus on conditioning the student’s reaction to an attack using both defence (blocking, dodging and footwork), and offence (combinations of punching, striking and kicking). Pre emptive striking is also practised.

Visually, certain Drills may bear some resemblance to sparring, but the explanations above hopefully give an indication of how the drills are designed to develop student ability in a structured fashion.

Attempting to develop self defence skills in a highly stressful and competitive environment such as sparring can drastically impair some student’s ability to work with their partner, and the developing student’s opportunity to learn and develop their abilities. Hence, the Defence Drills begin by being cooperative, rather than competitive. However, once foundation skills are in place students work with increased intensity and intent and less cooperation, whilst maintaining the theme of mutual respect.

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Jason Wright is a 5th Degree Black Belt and Master Instructor in the martial art Choi Kwang-Do. For further information on Choi Kwang-Do classes in Ealing, West London visit www.TheMartialArtForLife.com

Excellence - July/August 2010

Everything you need to know about Choi Kwang-Do at Ealing this summer can be found in the July/August issue below.

Download Excellence (July/August 2010)

A Closer Look At Belts

In Choi Kwang-Do, like many other martial arts, the colour of the belt that you have will signify your rank within the system.

Even if you have never taken martial arts before, you'll have some idea that white belt indicates a beginner while black belt indicates someone advanced.

However, aside these two belts, white and black, there is no universal means of ranking within the martial arts world. Different styles (and even different martial art groups teaching the same style) may have a different number of belts and colours of belts in their system. Some martial arts do not use belts at all.

In some styles of martial art a student can earn their black belt within 2 years.
In others it could be as many as 7 years or longer.
In Choi Kwang-Do the is average is around 3½ years.

In my opinion, belts serve 3 main purposes:

1. They tell others how much you know about your specific martial art.
2. They imply one's level of technical expertise.
3. They indicate how long you have been training (bear in mind that this last point can be affected by breaks in training).

In addition, the belt system and our movement through it displays progression of learning; a visual indication to both yourself and others on our improvement over time.

Belts also create strong emotions; we all enjoy the feeling of being rewarded for our achievements, like being presented with a new belt if successful at a grading, especially if we've had to work hard towards that achievement involving lots of planning, preparation and training over a period of time...not to mention sweating in the dojang!

In innovation to martial arts, belts give students something to aim for and a reason to keep learning, practising and improving.

What belt are you...and what do belts mean to you?

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Jason Wright is a 5th Degree Black Belt and Master Instructor in the martial art Choi Kwang-Do. For further information on Choi Kwang-Do classes in Ealing, West London visit www.TheMartialArtForLife.com