Dragon Tang Soo Do

Cardiff International Championships - May 9th 2009

On Saturday May 9th the Traditional Tang Soo Do Federation’s international championships was held in Cardiff, at the Cardiff Indoor Athletic Club, and what a wonderful day it turned out to be. Many competitors participated from across the globe, Italy, United States, Holland, to name a few. It was a very large event with over 620 competitors, well organised with 16 rings to accommodated us all.

Quite a number of people from Bristol Dragon Tang Soo Do, including myself, had the privilege of attending. We were given a warm and friendly welcome by Master Trudgill, the good feeling and friendly atmosphere permeated throughout the day. We were well represented from Patchway, Filton, Chipping Sodbury, and Bradley Stoke clubs.

The event was opened by Master John Trudgill who introduced us to Grandmaster Richard Byrne (President and founder of the American Tang Soo Do Association and the United Tang Soo Do Congress) and Grandmaster Dominick Giacobbe ( President and founder of the intercontinental Tang Soo Do Organisation). That was an honour in itself.

The day began with the Black belts competing in their various events. It was great to watch them perform and show off their skills. It differed from our Competition in the fact that when they were assigned to rings, they performed all their events i.e. forms sparring & breaking in the same ring.

A booklet was available filled with information about the day’s events, which included pages for autographs that you could collect from all the Masters and Grandmasters. This proved very popular with the junior members. And us older ones too! What I found quite entertaining was the younger members called tigers tots, rings were set up with instructors putting them through various exercises. One of the things they had to do involved a pad fitted on a pole held by two instructors and the tigers had to try front jump kicks to hit the pad. A good time was had by all, they loved every minute!

In the afternoon the lower belts had their turn to enter the ring. We had a quite a few winners from Bristol which was very encouraging. Sarah Parker came 2nd in forms; Karthi did an excellent job coming second in forms and 1st in sparring; Congratulations go to Sah Bah Nim Alison Harding who won Grand champion.

Although I didn’t win anything myself I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to enter and made new friends with some of the welsh ladies who were in my category. I look forward to returning next year and meeting them again. Maybe next time I will come back with something.

The final event of the day gave the Masters an opportunity to enter, and we were certainly not disappointed with the performance they gave. Congratulations to Master White who came second in weapons, but just missed out on breaking techniques.

Trophies were presented to the younger contestants by those who judged their category. However, Grandmaster Byrne presented the Adult winners with medals, which were a little bit special in the fact that they were made from materials from Korea.

An announcement was also made regarding the Olympics and how efforts are being made to get Tang Soo Do qualified as an Olympic sport. It came as a bit of a surprise as we parted way with Taekwondo, who made their style an Olympic sport, while we kept our traditional roots. So watch this space...

Tang Soo!

 

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