2012 USTF Maintenance Fees

It is time to renew your USTF memberships.  The fees are due to the USTF Headquarters by the end of March, and the cutoff date has passed.  If you have already paid, thank you, if not I need your money ASAP.  For all current members (Green Stripes and above are required to be members) that received a USTF Membership card last year, your 2012 USTF Maintenance Fee is $50.00 (same as last year).  If you have recently joined the USTF (Oct 2011 or later) you do not need to pay the 2012 Maintenance Fee.  The USTF membership fee is included with your test fee to Green Stripe.  The USTF is offering a family discount again this year:  $50.00 for the first student, $35.00 for the second, $25.00 for the third, and all other family members are FREE.  Make your checks payable to AXE TKD.  Mr. Bushor will send one check for all memberships.

The USTF Headquarters has asked everyone to fill out a new membership form.  Mr. Bushor will fill out forms on all current members.  He tracks everyone’s USTF Membership Number (19-###), but he did not write down the latest group of new members.  Please let him know (email, phone, or in class) what your USTF Membership Number is (located on the front of your membership card). 

As mentioned earlier, all students Green Stripes and above must join the USTF to be able to test or participate in any USTF sponsored event (tournaments, instructor / referee / ho-sin-sul courses, etc.).  All students Green Stripes and above that are not currently members must join immediately.  The cost is $50.00 per student.  Sorry, there are no family discounts for new memberships.  If you are joining for the first time, you do not have to pay the maintenance fee until next January.

Please talk to Master Todd, Mr. Bushor, or Miss Bowing if you have any question about either the USTF Maintenance Fee or joining the USTF for the first time.

Axe TKD Tournament

The fifth annual Axe TKD tournament will be held in the Youth Center on Saturday, May 19th.  We hesitate to make anything mandatory, but students should consider this event strongly.  The success of the tournament depends on your participation.  All ranks from white belt through 4th degree are eligible to participate.  Black belts are required to participate in one tournament per year, and we encourage all students to participate in one each year.   It is the only local tournament where students can utilize the techniques they have learned in class. Registration is required before the tournament this year and there will be a late fee added to the registration on the day of the event.  The tournament will start at 10am.  The cost is $30 and includes all events.  Students can compete in patterns, sparring and breaking.  Breaking is for all ages from green stripe and above.  We also have team patterns competition.  For any students not comfortable with sparring yet, you can compete in patterns only.  Black belts will compete in all divisions.  Parents are encouraged to attend, watch and cheer our students on to victory.  There is no charge for spectators.  We will have more information on the web site soon.

Upcoming tentative dates for 2012

- March 10th 10:00 am – USTF Class C Referee Course, at Mr. Bushor’s house

- April 27th – Axe TKD demonstration, headed by Mr. Bushor

- April 28th & 29th – USTF Class C Instructor’s Course in Broomfield, Colorado.  Contact Master Todd

- Saturday, May 19th – 5th Annual AXE TKD tournament will be held at the Youth Center. 

- Thursday, May 31st – Promotion testing will be for all eligible and approved students.   

- Saturday, July 7th – USTF Advanced Ground Fighting Tactics Course in Kirksville, Missouri. 

- Saturday, August 18th – Promotion testing will be for all eligible and approved students.    

- September, Battle of the Belts.  This annual tournament will be in Kirksville, Missouri.   

- Sunday, October 21st – Senior Grand Master Sereff’s tournament will be held in Broomfield, Colorado. 

- Thursday, November 15th – Promotion testing will be for all eligible and approved students.   

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

Sparring by Kevin Bushor VI Dan

In Volume 5 of General Choi’s Encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do it says, “Sparring is the physical application of attack and defense techniques gained from pattern and fundamental exercises against actual moving opponents under various situations.  It is, therefore, not only indispensable to promote the fighting spirit and courage, to train the eyes, to read the opponents tactic as well as maneuvers, to forge, toughen or develop the attacking and blocking tools, to test his or her own skill and ability, to learn other movements hardly to be gained from pattern or fundamental exercise.

“In fact, nearly all students are anxious to move into this phase of instruction.  Not only does training become more interesting but for the first time the student begins to achieve a degree of satisfaction through actual application of these techniques.

“The danger lies in a student who has not built up a solid basic foundation, developing bad habits that are extremely difficult to lose when a student progresses.  Therefore, the instructor should encourage the beginner to learn the necessary patterns and fundamental movements before participating in class sparring, especially tournament.”

Sparring can be very stressful for some new students.  No one wants to get in the ring and look or feel foolish.  Some may feel they are going to get injured, or they may afraid to hurt someone else.  The General wisely started adding different levels of Sparring beginning at White Belt and adding new and harder types of Sparring through all level of Black Belt.  White Belts are taught very basic techniques (punch with forefist and Front Snap Kick) at their level and they are introduced to Sparring with 3-Step Sparring without a partner.  They learn to properly measure attacking and defense distances, how to use proper tools for attack and defense, and start learning correct vital spots to attack.  Yep, you learned all that at White Belt.  Then as you progress in rank you learn new fundamental movements and means to apply them in your new patterns.  As you progress, the number of attacks decrease, while the number of counter attacks increase as well as the difficulty of the attacks and defensive techniques.  Finally, you are free sparring against 2 or 3 opponents and the fear and anxiety of sparring is gone.

This is not something you learn overnight, but over the process of years.  But it all starts with learning and mastering your early Step Sparring formats.  As you learn new techniques in your pattern and in new fundamental movements, think about how you can use them in your Step Sparring.