ULTIMATE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS 11/11/07

2 players represented Champions at the tournament in Barnsley.  Stephen Lawrence and Sophie Agnew both brought back Bronze medals to add to their already impressive 2007 trophy cabinet.

Well done!

1-2-1 COMPETITION 04/11/07

3 players from Champions attended the 1-2-1 competition in Knottingley, hosted by Scorpion TKD.

Andy Pemberton brought back a Gold medal after a 5-1 win, Sophie Agnew and Andy Morley both brought back a Silver medal.

Rick Sedgewick, also fighting for Champions, recorded 1 win and 1 loss.

GRADING RESULTS 27/10/07

28 students From Champions TKD passed their grading under the watchful eye of Grandmaster Lindsay Lawrence 7th Dan.

Twice World Silver and Bronze medallist, twice European Champion, and World Games Bronze in addition to ten national titles, Grandmaster Lawrence is a very experienced and accomplished martial artist, and also the President of Taekwondo Chungdokwan Great Britain.  GM Lawrence has his own webpage for his club, LLTKD

Master Lawrence was pleased with the performance of everyone at the grading, with particular praise for the higher grades.  Well done everyone!

Kup gradings will be held monthly in future.  Check the Calendar page for dates.

TCGB DAN GRADING SEMINAR 1/12/07

TKD Chungdokwan are hosting a Dan grading seminar in Southampton in preparation for the Association Dan Grading in December.  It is recommended that you attend these seminars whenever possible, as the training will be conducted by the members of the technical committee of  Chungdokwan.

If you want to go, please speak to Master Graham as soon as possible so we can make travel and accomodation arrangements.

BLACK BELT TRAINING SESSION 18/11/07

Black Belt training is back on the calendar!

The class is open to all Champions members of Red Belt and above.  We will be covering all aspects for you forthcoming dan gradings.  It is recommended, but not compulsory,  that you attend if you intend to take a Dan grading in the near future.

The class starts at 10:30am.  £5 each.

Ultimate TKD 1-2-1, Rotheram 21/10/07

Champions TKD had 3 players at the 1-2-1 competition.  Stephen Lawrence won his match in the first 30 seconds with a sweet bit-chagi turning kick double that rattled his opponent, the ref stopped the contest.

Andy Morley gave a disciplined and assured performance against a powerful Black Belt, winning by the 12 point ceiling rule.

Matthew Kirkham fought with maturity and determination, but was beat 0-7.  The score unfortunately not reflecting Matthews performance.

KUP GRADING SATURDAY 27TH OCTOBER @ ROCHDALE ACADEMY

GM Lindsay Lawrence 7th Dan, the President of Chungdokwan GB, will be conducting our next Kup Grading.  Entry forms and £20 fee should be returned as soon as possible.

Start time is 12:00 for all grades.  The gym will be open from 11:00am.

NEW KICKBOXING CLASS BEGINS

The new Kickboxing class has begun! Sessions are every Friday from 7:00pm at the Rochdale Academy.  For more information on the class,  contact us via email, or call the Gym on 01706 355 222.

Champions Kickboxing Academy is a member club of Cobra Martial Arts Association, a muti-style organisation based in the North-West.  They are affiliated the the World Kickboxing Association, so we'll be entering teams at local, national and international events.

COMPETITION TRAINING @ ROCHDALE ACADEMY 13/10/07

Several players from Richard Simpsons Dal Seong TKD in Bradford joined our regular Saturday competition training session for some extra practice for the upcoming tournaments.

After tough circuit training and warm up, we did bag drills, paddle drills and an hour of sparring matches.  We finished of with a few light hearted games and a good stretch.

Special thanks go to Rick and his team for helping to make the day so enjoyable.  Competiton training is on every Saturday for team members and aspiring players, and is free for Champions members.

2007 BTCB BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS

Champions will be taking a team to the 2007 BTCB British Championships which is being held at the Tennis Centre in Sportcity (next to Man City's stadium) on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th December.

There are categories for the following age groups:

Children         Under 10 years (Green belt and up)
Cadets           10-13 years (Green belt and up)
Junior             14-17 years (Green belt to Red Stripe & Red belt and up)
Senior            18 years (Green belt to Red Stripe & Red belt and up)

For information on weight categories refer to the application forms.

Junior and Senior novices, Children and Cadets are on Saturday (all 3x 1 1/2 minute rounds).  Advanced Juniors and Seniors are on Sunday (3x 2minute rounds).  Weigh in is on Friday 14th from 6pm to 8pm for both days.  Sunday fighters can weigh in on Saturday from 4pm to 6pm.

If you wish to compete, please ensure your BTCB licence is valid.  If not, you must renew it before 20th October to ensure you get it back in time to photocopy and attach to your entry form.  All players will also need 2 passport photos for the entry form.  Please note that Junior and Senior Advanced players will need a valid British passport.

And you will of course need a white or clear gumshield and WTF approved protective equipment.  Adidas, SMAI, KWON or Daedo ONLY people.

Olympic Qualification Event

Sarah Stevenson was the only British player to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games at the recent World Olympic Qualification Event in Manchester.

Lousie Mair, Tony Grisman and particularly Aaron Cook all gave great perfomances for Britain, but unfortunately didn't qualify.

2007 WKA World Championships

Champions instructor Urooj Karim represented England at the WKA Worlds at the end of August in the Mens -90kg Light Continuous Kickboxing category.  He unfortunately lost to the eventual Silver Medallist from Germany.  Urooj now has his sights set on the 2008 WKA Worlds in Florida, USA, where we will hopefully be taking a team from our new Kickboxing class.   

Grading Success for Champions TKD Students and Instructors.

41 people successfully passed the promotion test at the Rochdale Academy on Sunday 6th May.  Amongst them were Mark Anderton and John Graham who achieved their 4th Dan Master grade.  Also promoted to 1st Dan were Lewis Thompson and Mark Fisher.  Matthew Kirkham and Paul Normanton were successfully promoted to 1st Poom.

The grading was presided over by Master Dung Levan 7th Dan, who was generous in his praise for all participants.

Many thanks to Master Levan, and to Ryan Green for assisting during the test.   Congratulations to all the students who passed.

Grading Schedule.

Due to the high number of entries at recent Kup Gradings, the tests will now be held monthly at the Rochdale Academy.

The gradings will be at 2:30pm and usually on the first Saturday of the month, and will take approximatley two hours.   The number of entries will be limited to 25, so get your entries in early.

Please note that your minimum time in grade will still be adhered to.  That means a minimum of 3 months between gradings up to green belt, 4 months up to blue belt, 5 months to red belt and 6 months to black belt.  These time spans are based on training twice per week.  It will take longer if you train less frequently.  Exceptional students, or those who train 3-4 times per week may grade sooner.  Please check with your instructor before taking a grading application from.

Champions & JM Taekwondo fight training class 22/04/07

Several players from JM Taekwondo paid us a visit for a 2 1/2 hour training session.   After a light warm up and a strenuous fitness circuit, there follwed an hour of pad, bag and partner drills.   Sparring matches came next, than finishing off with a light-hearted '1-point wins' drill and stretching.

Well done to everyone who came along, and  special thanks goes to Jason, Mike, Michelle and Lewis from JM TKD for attending.

Tickets for WTF World Taekwondo Qualification for the Beijing Olympic Games.

Tickets are now on sale for this exciting event, held in Manchester at the M.E.N Arena from September 28th to 30th.

ETF World Championships trip.

We are planning to take a team to the 1st ETF World Martial Arts Championships in September.   Please let us know ASAP if you are interested, so we can arrange transport and accomodation.

Club Sparring & Poomsae Championships 17/06/07

Champions students will have the chance to be crowned Club Champion in sparring or patterns at the forthcoming Club Championships.   This competiton will hopefully encourage some novice players and beginners to have a go at competition, without travelling 100 miles on a Sunday morning!

Sparring categories will be organised by age and weight, patterns categories by grade.   Entry is only £3, or £5 for sparring and patterns.   Entry forms and more information will be available in class.

Kickboxing success for Champions Instructor

Urooj Karim recently took part in the World Kickboxing Association English National Tournament held in Urmston on 25th March.

Urooj was competing in the Light Contact -90kg division.   After   winning in   the qualifying rounds he got through to the finals, where he came away with the Bronze Medal.   This means he has made it into the English Squad which is heading for the WKA World Championships in Karlsruhe, Germany, at the end of August this year.

"I was disappointed not to win the Gold" he says,   "But I'm in the squad and thats what I came here for.   Now the hard work really starts in the run up to the World Championships."

Ultimate TKD 1-2-1 & Technical Championships 25/03/07

Another fine display from our fighters.   Special mentions go to Dan Smith and   Max Phythian who both   KO'd their opponents, and to   Stephen Lawrence who won 7-0.   Another mention goes to Matthew Kirkham who lost in a sudden death 3rd round after a great match.

Daniel, Stephen and Max all had two matches, so our medal tally for the day was 6 Gold and 5 Silver in the sparring competition.   Well done to all the team!

In the patterns comp, first time competitior Fynn Birch, aged 9, put in a great performance to take the Silver medal in the 10th to 6th Kup division.   A brilliant start to your competition career Fynn!

Also fighting on the team were Ryan Green, Patrick Leung and Paul Barton from Ryans club.

New class

There will be a new regular class for poomsae competition players.   The class will be on Saturdays at 2:30pm at the Rochdale Academy.   It will be normally once or twice per month, with more classes scheduled in the run up to competitions.

Manchester 1-2-1 Competition 24/02/07

Our biggest team for some time made the short trip to Wilmslow Leisure Centre.   11 players took to the mat, many of them first time competitiors, so we were delighted to come away with 7 Gold medals.

The stars of the day were Domminik Lehmann who lost an amazing match in a sudden death 3rd round, and Daniel Smith who won against the regining Senior British -72kg British Kup Grade Champion.   Not bad for a 16 year old green belt!

February 2007 Kup Grading

Congratulations to the 30 Champions students who passed the Kup Grading.   Well done!

Ultimate TKD Kids & Junior Open 28/01/07

Stephen Lawrence was the sole representitive for Champions in Doncaster.   The semi-final was quickly won by Stephen in the first few seconds of the match with a crisp turning kick which stunned his opponent.

The final was a tougher test, with Stephen picking up the Silver medal against an experienced player from Halton TKD.

1st competition of 2007

A small team made the trip to Spennymoor in the North-East for the Chungdokwan UK 1-2-1 competition on the 21st January.

One Gold and two Silver medals were the reward for their efforts.   Well done to Andy M, Matthew K and Stephen L.