Toogee Taekwondo
works!
Congratulations to 18 year old Efogi Dojang senior student Andy Mox. Not
long after Master Frost conducted a self defence seminar in Papua New Guinea
at the village of Efogi on defence against Bush Knives (machettes), Andy
and 2 fellow students were walking along the Kokoda track to visit friends
at the next village. As they passed 3 men and a woman walking in the opposite
direction the woman called out for help so Andy went to her assistance.
He was immediatly set upon by the 3 men, 1 armed with a bush knife Andy
bravely fought off the attackers, unfortunately the man with the bush knife
was killed when he fell on his knife as Andy blocked his attack and threw
him to the ground. The other 2 attackers fled with our other 2 students
in hot pursuit. After a short chase thay caught the men and tied them to
a tree. It turns out that the 3 men were hardened criminals from the north
coast wanted by the police. They had abducted the woman from her village
up north and had bashed and raped her before threatening to kill her if
she didn't accompany them to Port Moresby. Andy was praised for his bravery
by the police who believed if Andy had not stepped in to help, the woman
would have surely been murdered.
LATEST NEWS
Instructors (from left) Colin Obed, Paul Muriki, Leka Geno and
Komane Akia with Master Frost.
Port Moresby students and Instructors with Master Frost at the autumn
grading held last Saturday at our Koni (Harbourside) Dojang.
Congratulations to Murray Barracks Dojang student Heyto Yasiling
on his triple promotion from 10th to 7th Gup.
UK
TRAINING
During a 7 week around the world trip at the end of
2007 Master Frost took the opportunity to train at a number of Taekwondo
Schools in England and the USA.
A highlight was an evening spent with Mr Stuart Anslow at his Rayners Lane
Taekwon-do Academy in London.
Mr Anslow is the author of the ground breaking book
Ch'ang Hon Taekwon-do Hae Sul, an in depth study into the
history and development of the Ch'ang Hon (ITF) Taekwon-do patterns (Toogee
Taekwondo Patterns).
Check Mr Anslow's website here
to find out more about this great book.
Mr Stuart Anslow and Master Frost
Master Frost with Mr Anslow and some of his students.
The Upper Hunter Region held its last combined training
session for the year at Barrington Tops on 15th & 16th of December.
Polblue Camping Area was chosen as the preferred site for this event as
it is easily accessible by car from the main road, there is plenty of space
for camping with reasonable facilities and there is some nice area’s where
we could enjoy our training. An invitation was extended to Instructors from
Central Coast and Port Stephens and on Saturday 26 people participated in
“Training at the Tops” including Instructors, Black Belts & students
from The Upper Hunter and Central Coast Regions.
Saturday, as planned, was our main training day. After everyone set up camp, we started with a run around the Polblue Swamp, stopping about every 500 metres to spend about 15 minutes to practice striking and self-defence techniques. This session took us through to 2.30 pm and ended with a quick fitness session and a race for the last 400 metres back to camp. Black Belt member Mitch Stibbard who may be the oldest person training at the Scone class, proved he was also be one of the fittest by beating everyone back.
Instructor Shayne puts 'a move' on Instructor Tim
Everyone then settled in for a barbeque lunch followed by the opportunity to wind down with a walk down to the creek or a look around the swamp. 4.00pm came and we were ready to get back into training again. NSW Director of Technique, Shayne McLaren spent the first half of the afternoon session showing how Toogee Tae Kwon Do techniques can be applied to vulnerable parts of the human body. Everyone was impressed with Shayne’s considerable knowledge as he showed technique after technique with seemingly very little effort but causing a great deal of discomfort for his Black Belt “guinea pigs”.
Clyde and Jarrod working on their self defence
The second half of the afternoon was spent on refining patterns, with a special emphasis by Regional Instructor’s Shayne McLaren and Brett Touzell on the application of techniques in each pattern. This session showed students that all movements in every pattern have a purpose designed not only to improve an exponent’s balance and technical ability, but also to broaden the repertoire in their self-defence arsenal.
BBs Dani and Jesse trying to squeeze as much
training as possible into the afternoon.
Saturday’s training finished as the sun set. This saw some of our student’s head back home while most camped. Even though we enjoyed a warm summer day, the creeks and rivers at Barrington Tops still run pretty cold. Not to be phased by the icy waters, Black Belt Dani MacGregor jumped in for an evening swim – luckily the warm campfires were well ablaze at this stage. After a barbeque dinner everyone sat around to have a chat and some adult members even enjoyed a couple of drinks. Scone member Jackie Sanders set up some games for the young (and young at heart) members and later the music was on and a few even sung a song or two of their own.
Group photo on this well known Barrington
(can't be named on this family website) rock formation
Sunday came and everyone was asked if there was any aspect of their training they would like to work on. A short session was spent revisiting some of the self-defence techniques from the previous days and a few had “one on one’s” with instructors, refining their pattern to finish the weekend’s training. Late in the morning everyone packed up camp and it was time to do a bit of sight seeing. Instructor Tim Jopson took some of the campers to “The Rock”, a strange shaped group of rocks that gave everyone a laugh. We saw a couple of other sites on the way home including the Devil’s Hole lookout and The Furs picnic area.
One of the locals keep a close watch on our training session,
he seemed particularly interested in our flying kicks.
Feedback received has encouraged me to try and include “Training at the Tops” as an annual event. Everyone who attended seemed to enjoy the weekend and left with a little extra knowledge. This was a great weekend due to the willing participation of those who attended including some of the parents and siblings of members who trained for the very first time. I hope next year will be even better with 50 participants!!