News of Recent Events
London Unified Taekwon-Do Open World Championship 2013, 2nd – 4th August 2013
The Unified Taekwon-Do Open World Championships 2013 was held 2nd through 4th August, in London. SG Taekwon-Do School was invited to participate and 2 Black Belt students were selected to take part in this event.
The event took place at the Hertfordshire Sports Village with more than 500 participants from 22 different countries around the world.
Team Singapore consisted of 4 members of the SG Taekwon-Do School. Mr. Thomas Kuah, Senior 2nd Degree Black Belt competed in the 2nd Dan pattern and Sparring (under 60kg category); and Mr. Diogenes Nowacki, Junior 1st Degree Black Belt competed in the 1st Dan pattern and Sparring (70+kg category). The Team was led by Head Coach Sabum Kenneth Kuah and BooSabum Katherine Kuah-Hsu as the Team Manager.
Singapore Team performed extremely well, returning home with 2 medals from the Taekwon-Do World Championships. Mr. Thomas Kuah, 20, won a silver medal for his under 60kg senior sparring category and Mr. Diogenes Nowacki, 16, a won bronze medal for his 70+kg junior sparring category!
“The World Championship was an eye opening and the atmosphere was amazing where you can’t imagine the feeling and adrenaline pumping inside you. The crowd was overwhelming which mainly came from Ireland. There was a loud cheer coming from the Aussie Team, USA, England and Ireland is trying their best to compete who has the strongest cheers. Everyone at the World Championship came with one purpose “To do their very best” and of course to have great fun too!” said Thomas, Silver Medalist.
The next World Taekwon-Do Championships will be in 2015 Italy!
Sabum Kenneth Kuah, Chief Instructor of SG Taekwon-Do School, says, “We hope to bring more students for the next 2015 World Taekwon-Do Championships, Italy and spend the next 2 years training to build on the success and experience this year and improve on the medal tally in Italy.”
Unified-ITF Seminar & Testing in UK, London 31st July 2013
Grandmaster Hwang Kwang Sung conducted Testing & Promotion for a group of Junior Black Belts to 2nd & 3rd Dan respectively. Some Senior Black Belts from 5th Degree to 6th Degree and a hand full from 6th Degree to 7th Degree, Master level.
After testing, Grandmaster Hwang starts the seminar with patterns (Tuls) training from Colour Belts to 1st Degree. Prior to the seminar, Senior Grandmaster Hwang gave a short history of Taekwon-Do and General Choi’s legacy. He told every instructor at the seminar that the techniques he teaches comes from General Choi’s Taekwon-Do and not him. Grandmaster Hwang commented that every instructor should follow and teach General Choi’s Taekwon-Do and not creating own techniques, claiming theirs are better.
At the seminar, there were many instructors coming from different countries like USA, UK, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Singapore, South Africa & Australia. Grandmaster Hwang called for some instructors to perform different Colour Belt tuls and explain their mistakes. He also pointed out what the instructor should look out for during training and teaching of our students. During the Black Belts tuls, Grandmaster Hwang commented about the Po-Eun tul movement 4-11 should it be “Fast Motion” or 6-12 should be "Continuous Motion”. Reason was that in the Taekwon-Do Encyclopedia some version stated “Fast Motion” and some newer version stated “Continuous Motion”. His only regret was that he didn’t spot this issue earlier to ask General Choi which was the right one.
Grandmaster Hwang urged every instructor to search if there were any old video Taekwon-Do Seminar conducted by General Choi and see if General Choi did comment of the Po-Eun tul 4 - 11 movement should be “Fast Motion” or 6-12 should be “Continuous Motion".
Unified-ITF Seminar & Testing in Australia, Brisbane 17th – 18th March 2013
Sabum Kenneth Kuah, BooSabum Katherine Hsu and BooSabum Thomas Kuah were invited to Australia, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast for the Taekwon-Do Seminar conducted by Grandmaster Hwang Kwang Sung. The Seminar was organized by Master Jamine Moore of Worldwide Taekwon-Do. When the seminar starts, Grandmaster Hwang provides some history of General Choi and his Taekwon-Do. Grandmaster Hwang told us he had the opportunity to be taught and trained personally by General Choi only when he was a master. During the Seminar we were taught and practice of sine-wave, momentum, timing and techniques of all Colour Belts patterns (Tuls); including Black Belts Tuls to 4th Degree.
Near end of the first day of the seminar, Grandmaster Hwang conducted a Black Belt testing & promotion for 3 candidates, Sabum Kenneth Kuah for his 5th Degree, BooSabum Robert Rabbet and BooSabum Peter Wolstencroft for their 4th Degree.
Grandmaster Hwang commented that he was impressed with Sabum Kenneth Kuah’s testing that his tuls were well performed and amazed of his self-taught 4th Degree tuls.