Classes will continue as normal in the Dojang.
Due to the tragic suicide of a young member (21 years old) of Carrigtwohill GAA, a meeting will be held in the main hall of the Community Centre next Monday night at 8PM for anyone who wishes to attend.
Classes will continue as normal in the Dojang.
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We have now launched a Google+ page for the club. This will help with our Google rankings and it will also give us another outlet to keep in touch with members and friends of the club.
There will be no information placed on the Google+ page which isn't available on either the blog or the Facebook page so if you don't have a Google+ account don't feel you have to start one. plus.google.com/+TkdirelandJHKim In honour of our guest, Grand Master Jae Hun Kim. We will be holding a free demonstration on Friday evening, the 27th of June.
The demonstration will start at 6:30pm sharp in the main hall and will last approximately 30 mins. We would like to see the hall as full as possible for this so please spread the word. Everyone is welcome!! Today we launched our new website. Its a brand new design which will be filled with information about our club and resources for our members. Mr Kim invited me to the world head quarters in Boston so that I could see first hand how his very successful school operates. I was met at Logan Airport by Mr David Hourigan from Switzerland who was there to work with me for the 4 days. I was a guest of Mr Kim in his family home where we sat and talked of our plans for the future of the school here in Ireland. All fundamental aspects of the school and its system were discussed in frank and open discussions.We had dinner and talked some more about the future of Europe and what we could do to help other schools who would like to achieve the same as what we had. There is an impressive aura about the school which hits you as soon as you are met by the admirable Mr.Smith, one of the most senior instructors in the school. The School has 3 dojangs, all used extensively throughout the day and evening. Classes start at 10 .00 am and end at 9.00 pm. I watched some of the morning classes and met students and instructors. From then,I was involved in the classes from 5 30 which emcompassed full range sparring techniques and at 6.30, which was the designated time for forms classes for all levels. Full range sparring classes began at 7.30. This is an exciting new type of class which aims to prepare the student for a real-life confrontation. An all level class was running from 8 to 9 for forms. I took a lunch break and was a guest of Mr Smith and Mr K M Hwang at a students bar and restaurant, owned by Angus O'Leary, a fellow Irishman. His Irish bar is a must visit for anyone going to the School. On Saturday morning, an early morning was the order of the day as it became clear that a new schedule for our school should be drawn up, with the purpose of increasing the number of classes over a seven day period to facilitate everybodys needs in what is a busy world. The mass availability of classes in Boston prompted me to add ten more classes to our ever expanding schedule. One of the things which struck me most about the school was how seamlessly people from all walks of life blended into school life. Doctors, bankers, graduates, shopowners all have found a place within the school. I have been training for 33 years and I have trained with many masters and instructors. I have to say that Mr Kim has the perfect balance. He operates a very successful school and he has very well trained and hard working instructors who work long and hard days. The students are at a very high level and some whom I met train as many as 6 days a week. Some of the senior people in terms of age not grade trained 3 classes in one day. Mr Kim’s extensive knowledge has come from being personally trained by Gen Choi himself at his home,and from the years of teaching in USA Korea, Singapore, China, Canada and soon Europe. Dear members, I returned from my trip to China and Korea yesterday evening. The trip was a lot more rewarding and exciting than I had imagined. I must start by telling you about Shanghai. We opened our first branch school in China one year ago. We picked Shanghai as the location for our first China branch, and I saw firsthand what a great city Shanghai is. Shanghai is a modern cosmopolitan city of 23 million people. If you count those who are not yet registered officially as Shanghai “residents”, the number grows to over 30 million. That’s about five times the population of Massachusetts in that one city, Shanghai. The number of students at our Shanghai school surpassed 220 at the end of our first year. This means we will end up with roughly 450 to 500 students within three years. It seems pretty clear that our high quality content and the international image gave our Shanghai school a great advantage in attracting students. And, there seems to be no other such school anywhere in that city. I think we have a huge potential in Shanghai. Just during the few days I spent there, I gave my approval for a second school in that city, and three other people approached me about opening additional branch schools in Shanghai. It seems everyone else recognizes our potential over there as well. What is even more baffling is to realize that Shanghai is only one city in a country that has many more such cities. Our potential in China is just tremendous. If I were a bit younger, I think I would be seriously tempted to move to China for a few years so I can supervise the expansion of our network in that huge country. Jin, Oh-Mee, Erika and Eric (Erika’s dad) came with me from the Boston area. Santos and his students came from Singapore, and David Horrigan traveled from Switzerland to join us in China. It was especially fortunate for us to have Jin there with us. I spoke in English during the one year ceremony and during my seminars, and Jin translated everything into Chinese for our Chinese students. Having Jin there with us was extremely helpful. I also visited Korea to conduct promotion tests and seminars for our students and to train school owners and instructors from our affiliate schools. We are trying to help these schools establish adult classes in their schools as part of our effort to bring adults back into Taekwondo in Korea. The Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA) and the Kukkiwon World Headquarters all expressed their appreciation for my efforts in this regard during my visit. They asked if I could conduct additional seminars for them in the future, and I said I could do so if the timing can be worked out. A news reporter did a story on our Korea school while I was there. He said our Korea branch has the most number of adult students in all of Korea, so it became a news story. It is a good accomplishment for our team in Korea (Seong-Hee, Jed, Instructor Choi and Instructor Sohn). I hope our example will motivate other schools to work even harder to establish successful adult programs in their schools. All of these trips are wonderful and exciting, but my trip to China was extra meaningful as I was able to see our potential in that country firsthand. I have a feeling we will be training a lot of instructors who can teach in Chinese very soon. I am happy to be back, and I look forward to seeing you in class. Sincerely, Jae H. Kim |
AuthorJ. H. Kim Ireland Archives
December 2022
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