2012- A new year for Axe Taekwon-Do!  (By Master Todd)

We attended many events last year!  Axe TKD participated in a hosted an instructor’s course and participated in a couple of school tournaments including the International tournament in Colorado where students had the opportunity to meet TKD artists from as far away as Australia!  We have a tentative plan of events for 2012 and hope to provide many more challenges this year allowing students the opportunity to travel and further their Taekwon-Do education.   Often our courses are not local.  This provides students the opportunity to travel and we do so as a group. Parents are always invited to attend and if a parent can’t attend we typically have enough adults to provide supervision. Testing eligibility for black belt ranks can be reviewed at:  http://axetkd.com/TestingEligibility.html.  Remember that black belts have specific requirements and qualifications that must be attained prior to your testing.  Failure to meet these requirements will result in those students not testing.  Please take a moment to look through the list of dates below and start your TKD planning now!  

Upcoming entative dates for 2012t

- Thursday, February 16th.  Promotion testing for all eligible and approved students.  Mr. Bushor has reviewed all attendance records, and we will begin reviewing all students to ensure they are ready technically to test.  We will be making final decisions on who is testing by January 15th. 

- April 27th.  Mr. Bushor has been contacted to perform a demonstration at a local elementary school.  Black belts that are not travelling to the instructor’s course will need to be available to assist Mr. Bushor, more information soon.  We will select a few color belts to participate also.

- April 28th & 29th.  There will be a USTF Class C Instructor’s Course in Broomfield, Colorado.  Master Todd will take students to this event.  To be Class C Instructor certified you must be at least a 1st gup, Red Belt/Black Stripe.  We will have more information on this soon.  Any black belt previously certified can attend this course as a refresher.  All black belts are now required to attend one USTF course per year (instructor, referee or ho-sin-sul) as continuing education.  This course will require us to leave here early Friday, 4/27 and return Monday 4/30.  It is roughly 24 hours of training on Saturday and Sunday (typically due to questions).   Eligible for certification during this course are Mr. James Bushor, Mr. Buckley, Mrs. Buckley, Ms. Ragone, Mr. Carter, S., and Ms. Navratil.  Again, all black belts can attend.  We are starting to arrange for rooms and rides now. 

- Saturday, May 19th.  Our 5th Annual AXE TKD tournament will be held at the Youth Center.  .   I expect as many of Axe TKD students as possible to participate in this event with the few exceptions of those who are out of town.  The tournament is open for all ranks and ages.  There will be team patterns competition, individual patterns and sparring competition and breaking for yellow belt green stripes and above.  This year we will require pre-registration.  We will send a flyer out with more information soon. 

- Thursday, May 31st.  Promotion testing for all eligible and approved students.   Mr. Bushor will review all attendance, and we will then review all students to ensure they are ready to test.  We will be making final decisions on who is testing by end of April.

- June or July.  Kirksville Taekwon-Do in Missouri will host the USTF Advanced Ground Fighting Tactics Course.  This one day event is taught by Master Hannon, the Kansas State Director who is a retired Army Special Forces Major.  This course is open to all but black belts should ensure they can attend.

- Saturday, August 18th.  Promotion testing for all eligible and approved students.    Mr. Bushor will review all attendance, and we will then review all students to ensure they are ready to test.  We will be making final decisions on who is testing by mid July.

- September, Battle of the Belts.  This annual tournament will be in Kirksville, Missouri.  We typically go there on Friday and return Saturday night.  The date for this tournament has not been scheduled. 

- Sunday, October 21st.  Senior Grand Master Sereff’s tournament in Broomfield, Colorado.  Open to all ranks and ages.  We typically leave for this tournament on a Saturday and return Monday.  More information when available. 

- Thursday, November 15th.   Promotion testing for all eligible and approved students.   Mr. Bushor will review all attendance and we will then review all students to ensure they are ready to test.  We will be making final decisions on who is testing by mid October.

- Thursday, December 20th.  Annual Axe TKD Holiday Party.   We are then closed the next week for the holidays. 

Tuition

The Youth Center is taking an aggressive role with all youth programs.  All students are required to be up to date on their tuition and payments are due at the first of the month.  The Youth Center is going to begin notifying students that are late that they can't continue to participate in class until they have paid.    

General Choi Books  (by Master Todd)

Thank you for the present of the General Choi Autobiography and Moral Culture set.  I am enjoying reading them and learning more about the founder of Taekwon-Do.  Sadly, many students in Taekwon-Do never had the opportunity to meet or train with Gen. Choi Hong Hi.  Fortunately, I was able to train with him at two International Instructors Courses, once serving as his escort along with four other black belts.  

So a quick lesson for all of you:  Gen. Choi Hong Hi, without a doubt, developed, named and created Taekwon-Do.  It is not spelled taekwondo, TaeKwon-Do or TaekwonDo.  He spelled it Taekwon-Do and we will do the same.    He developed Taekwon-Do to include the terminology, patterns and all the components of Taekwon-Do.  If you read his autobiography or articles written by him, they are all matter of a fact.  If he proclaimed something, it was.  That is also the way he taught.  There was room for questions, but rarely.  About 99% of questions you could think to ask were already explained in his encyclopedia. Did you know there was a 15 volume encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do?  Therefore, if you asked the general a question you needed to be an astute student of Taekwon-Do; you better have studied before asking him a redundant question.

Some of you may know someone who took Taekwon-Do somewhere else or see other so called Taekwon-Do schools.  They are really just using the name that has come to identify a Korean martial art.  However, there is really only ONE Taekwon-Do, the martial art developed by Gen. Choi Hong Hi.   I heard him explain this analogy once.  Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a very popular restaurant chain worldwide.  You can travel anywhere and the KFC tastes the same, it's prepared the same, same ingredients, etc.  You can cook chicken at home but it doesn’t taste the same, you can get close but not the same.  You can buy chicken elsewhere and it's close but not KFC.  The same for our Taekwon-Do-all the other organizations profess to teach Taekwon-Do are close but they are NOT the same.    Be proud you are studying the original Taekwon-Do and that is why we put “The Original Taekwon-Do” on our Axe Taekwon-Do patch! 

Authorized Patches  (Master Todd)

On your dobok there are three main patches: the Axe Patch, the ITF Patch and the USTF Patch.

Axe Patch- Mr. Kevin Bushor, 6th Dan explained in the December newsletter the origins of the Axe name and the design of the Axe Patch. Please refer to http://axetkd.com/Dec2011News.html for further information. Every authorized USTF school is entitled to create and wear a school patch.

ITF Patch- Students in Axe TKD wear three patches, the ITF patch, USTF patch and Axe TKD patch.   We are all members of the USTF and Axe TKD is our school patch.  We continue to wear the ITF patch to honor the founder of Taekwon-Do, Gen. Choi Hong Hi.  However, we are no longer associated with the ITF.  Gen. Choi founded the ITF in 1966 to cover Taekwon-Do worldwide.   In 1972, Gen. Choi moved the ITF headquarters from Korea to Canada.  In 1973 in response to Gen. Choi moving the ITF from Korea, the Korean government formed the World Taekwondo Federation, with their own patterns, terminology and techniques.  In 1985 the ITF relocated to Vienna, Austria.  Almost every “brand” of Taekwon-Do that you will run across came from either the ITF or the WTF.  However, the real Taekwon-Do is from the ITF. 

Unfortunately, when Gen. Choi passed away in 2002, there was much controversy about who would assume the role of President of the ITF.  We recently had an election in the USTF to elect our next president, but the ITF was set up to appoint their next president.  The appointment was to be made by Gen. Choi.  Depending on who you believe, allegedly several people claim to have been appointed.  The ITF broke into several factions, with ITF-Vienna stating they were the “real” headquarters, Gen. Choi’s son, Choi, Jung Hwa stating he was in charge and opening a headquarters in Canada and a ITF headquarters opening in North Korea.  Due to this political mess, our president, Sr. Grand Master Sereff, resigned from the ITF.  When he resigned, all students of the USTF reassigned with him or left the USTF.  So, while we are no longer members of the ITF we wear the patch to honor the legacy of the founder of Taekwon-Do, Gen. Choi Hong Hi.

USTF Patch- The USTF is our organization.  It was established in 1973.  We were the National Governing Body for Taekwon-Do in the United States under the ITF.  We are now the legacy of the founder Gen. Choi Hong Hi as we continue teaching the original art of Taekwon-Do as he developed it.  We have USTF Directors in almost every state and a membership of over 5000. All courses within the USTF are approved by Sr. Grand Master Sereff.  Recently Sr. Master Martin, 8th Degree Black Belt was elected to be the next president of the USTF.

Books That Further Your Knowledge

We have USTF books that students can purchase.  The Patterns Workout Book or “blue book” lists every pattern to include the number of moves, pattern meaning and diagram.  Each pattern is broken down step by step.  This is a great training aid when you or your student is away from class and trying to practice his/her patterns.  We also have the Gup Syllabus book or “white book” which lists all the testing requirements for white belt through 1st degree black belt.  The “black book” is the Dan Syllabus which lists all testing requirements from 1st degree through 7th degree black belt.  There is a Step Sparring handbook or “yellow book” that explains in detail all the different sparring formats from white belt through black belt ranks.  Finally, the Tournament Rules book or “red book” can be purchased anytime, but it is included in the fee when students attend the referee course.  So many books!   What do students really need?  Until yellow belt probably nothing.  At yellow belt students should purchase the Gup Syllabus and Patterns Workout Book.  Green belt would be a good time to purchase the Step Sparring book.  These are only suggestions.  You can purchase at any time.  Black belts, however, should have all books.