11 Times World Champion Mr Roland Conar
Seminar Tralee - December 2004
The IUTF hosted a series of seminars with points sparring legend Mr Roland Conar, from Saturday 4th to Monday 6th December. Seminars were held in Kerry, Cork and Dublin. Mr Conar has competed in all disciplines; full contact, light contact, thai boxing but his forte is in the points sparring arena, having won 11 world titles with all the major world associations. The IUTF are keen to improve in this area of competition and so were delighted when Mr Conar agreed to conduct these seminars. Mr Conar focused a lot on footwork and distancing with simple and enjoyable exercises to improve in this area. Mr Conar also taught many of his favourite techniques and strategies that he has used during his career. Mr Conar finished this seminar by sparring with many of those in attendence and sharing his philosophies on teaching and training, particularly emphasising respect for ones training partners.
Irish Open Chamionships - Neptune Stadium
Saturday 13th/Sunday 14th November 2004
Report and results to be posted soon.
Mr Klaus Nonnemacher Seminar - Tralee Oct 2004
Mr Klaus Nonnemacher, WKA Vice-President and winner of World titles in full contact, light contact, semi contact and thai boxing was in Ireland to conduct a series of seminars for the IUTF. Mr Nonnemachers seminars have proved to be very popular in the past and the feedback from those in attendence was even more positive than ever this time. The IUTF prides itself on its policy of giving its members the opportunity to learn from all styles of martial arts. This has been a recipe for sucssess over the years, our competitors are able to make the transition from Taekwon-do tournaments to kickboxing and open tournaments without any problems. Mr Nonnemacher focused on full contact rules this time, using elbows, knees, clinches as well as punching and kicking drills. Mr Nonnemacher showed his versatility as a fighter recently when he travelled to South Korea with the Irish squad and won gold in the heavyweight division at the ITF World Championships, he also won a bronze with the team.
Pictured below are Gabbie (age 7) and Jessica (age 9) Naughton, Newcastle West TKD. Both won medals in patterns and sparring at the GTF youth championships in Cork on October 10th
ITF World Championships - October 2004, South Korea
ITF World Champions
Padraig o' Connor (Listowel TKD) Claire o' Sullivan (Cahirciveen TKD)
A contingent of 42 consisting of Senior coach Mr Dalton, Junior coach Mr Riordan, 4 teams - senior ladies and men, junior boys and girls travelled to South Korea for this once in a lifetime opportunity. To compete in the world Taekwon-do championships in the birthplace of this martial art is surely the dream of every Taekwon-do practitioner. A very eager squad met up at Dublin airport on the morning of Tuesday 12th and after a 13 hour flight and 9 hours lost with the time difference it was a weary bunch who finally touched down at Incheon airport, Seoul on Wednesday morning. The hospitality of the Korean people was superb during the whole trip. The group were met by delegate from ITF/Korea and transfered to the registration at the official hotel. Many were more nervous of the weigh in than actually facing the best fighters in the world on the mats, true to form all made it through without any problems followed by a stampede to the nearest restaurant.
The opening ceremony was to be held on Thursday evening and many took the opportunity to do a bit of shopping in the morning, some did more than their fair share (mentioning no names). Friday was individual events for juniors, the standard of the fighters was amazing and with 42 countries taking part it was going to be extremely difficult to get into the medal placings. The junior squad excelled themselves and acheived sucssess beyond expectations. Mr Riordan's students who placed in sparring were; Girls captain Claire o' sullivan (Cahirciveen) gold, Ruth mc Carthy (Cahirciveen) - bronze, Dara o' Shea (Newcastle West) - silver and Eoin Murphy (Cahirciveen - bronze. Saturday saw the team events being held, unfortunatly the girls lost out to England in the quarter finals of patterns and Argentina in quater finals of sparring. The boys made it through to semi's in sparring and lost a close encounter with England 2 to 1 with 2 draws to take a bronze medal, they also competed in special techniques and won bronze.
The senior events were held over the following 3 days. Sunday was another big day for Ireland with 2 gold medals for the men and 2 bronze for the ladies. Mr Riordan's student Padaraig o' Connor who was junior world champion in Argentina 2 years ago won 5 fights to emerge as senior light heavyweight world champion, he also fought on the mens team the following day who won bronze, their semi final opponents Holland went on to beat Italy in the final. They also won bronze in the power breaking. The ladies were bronze medal winners losing out to Japan in the semi final.
Before the long journey home Mr Riordan took the juniors for a well earned day out to the capital city, Seoul (more shopping for Sarah).180mph on the bullet train was an experience in itself. After 5 hard days at the venue they even managed the 887 steps to reach the Seoul tower. Overall this trip was a fantastic experience for everyone involved and was well worth the many months of hard training endured by all.
Mr Bhupinder Sahota Seminars
Saturday July 31st/Sunday August 1st 2004
Chief Instructor of Global Taekwon-do UK Mr Bhupinder Sahota 6th dan conducted a weekend of seminars for the IUTF. Saturday's seminar was held in Tralee and ran from 4pm to 8pm, Sunday's seminar was hosted by the Kanturk club and ran from 9am to 4pm. Mr Sahota is a foremost authority on ITF Taekwon-do and has acted as assistant to the late General Choi Hong Hi and ITF President Master Choi Jung Hwa at many international seminars. Mr Sahota was assisted by his son Mr Tajinder Sahota 4th dan, a silver medalist in patterns at the last ITF World Championships.
Saturdays seminar focused on patterns to Choong-Moo with much emphasis on correct sine wave and utilising the entire body to maximum effect during each movement. Sunday's seminar placed particular emphasis on preparing the squad who will be travelling to South Korea, Mr Sahota spent much of the day working on team patterns and special techniques.
Annual Summer Training Camp - July 2004
The annual summer training camp was held from Friday 16th to Monday 19th July at Woodlands camp site, Tralee. Training began each day at 7am and continued at various intervals throughout the day. Much time during these sessions was devoted to correct ITF technique, students were also put through their paces in team pattern, sparring, groundwork and special techniques for breaking, they also got to put these techniques into practice on the boards. It was not all hard work though, the group spent Saturday afternoon at watersports in Castlegregory, cinema that evening and a visit to the aqua dome followed by a barbecue on Sunday.
Connaght Open June 2004
Global Taekwon-do International
(GTI) Team Championships
June 2004
The IUTF Senior and Junior teams went to Worcester, England on the invitation of GTI Chairperson Mr Clive Harrison to compete at this event. The format of the tournament was team pattern performed by 3 of the team, sparring and one person selected from each team to perform a special breaking technique. 2 points were awarded in each section. As Mr Dalton was unable to make the trip on this occasion, youth team coach Mr Riordan acted as coach for the seniors. There were many fine displays, each member gave everything for their team. This was also the first international for many of the junior team, and they were keen to impress with selection for the team going to Korea in mind. Results were; Junior Girls - Gold, Junior Boys - Silver, Senior Ladies - silver, Senior Men - Gold.
Master Choi Jung Hwa Seminar
Terverun, Belgium - May 2004
A group of IUTF instructors including 4 of the executive commitee (Mr Dalton, Mr Riordan, Ms Dalton and Mr Fitzgibbon) attended this 3 day seminar under ITF President Master Choi Jung Hwa, 8th Dan. The Seminar began each day at 9am and ran until 5pm. Many countries were represented such as; Ireland, England, France, Holland, Czech Republic, Italy, Bulgaria, Russia, Germany and of couse Belgium. Master Choi placed great emphasis on the correct use of Sine Wave, explaining each technique in detail and ensuring all were comfortable with it before moving on to the next one. The atmosphere throughout the seminar was very positive and friendly. 4th Degrees and above were also invited to accompany Master Choi at a reception held in his honour by the mayor of Terverun, at the city hall. Master Choi was presented with the key to the city. Special thanks to Ms Barbara Siraut 4th Dan and all at ITF Belgium for their hospitality, and their tireless efforts to ensure the success of this seminar.
IUTF Instructors and Students should do their best to attend upcoming squad sessions and courses to ensure they are kept up to date with any changes and developments in technique.
Annual IUTF Dan Grading - April 2004
The annual IUTF dan grading was this year hosted by South West TKD Centre (Tralee). A total of 59 students took part in the grading, congratulations to all who were successful. Students from Mr Riordan's Schools who were promoted are as follows;
Promoted to 2nd degree: Mr Tony Lucey, John o' Connor, Micheal Barrett (Listowel), Dara o' Shea (Newcastle West).
Promoted to 1st degree: Mrs Carol Ashworth, Mr Niall Murphy, Ms Ruth Mc Carthy, Ms Sarah Mc Carthy (Cahirciveen), Ms Elaine Lenihan, Labhaoise Keane (Listowel) Jamie o' Keeffe, Aoibheann Yataki, Rachel Carmody, Ciara o' Shea (Newcastle West)
Special mention to John o' Connor and Dara o' Shea who achieved the joint highest score of the day along with Mr John Roche of South West TKD Centre.
4th & 5th Degree Black Belt Promotions - March 2004
Chief Instructor of Riordan's Taekwon-do School's Mr John Riordan was promoted to 5th Degree black belt - his most senior student Mr Ruairi Buckley was promoted to 4th Degree black belt, both by Master Trevor Nicholl's 7th Dan.
Master Nicholl's was in Ireland on the weekend of 28/29 February to conduct two seminars, one in Galway and one in Tralee. Following this was a grading examination for those testing for 4th Degree - Mr Ruairi Buckley (Listowel) Mrs Patricia Dalton, Mr David Swan, Ms Kathy Dunne (all Tralee), Mr Michael Flaherty (Wexford) and Mr Noel o' Brien (Kanturk) were all succsseful in this grading, "Congatulations to all". Mr Riordan was out of the country at this time and travelled to Master Nicholl's Institute in London the following week for his grading. All underwent a very comprehensive grading which included - Patterns, one-step sparring, semi-free sparring, free sparring (including 2 against 1) fundamental movements, self-defence and board breaking. A thesis was also presented by each person testing, a copy of these will be available to view on the main IUTF web-site very soon. Mr Riordan's and Mr Buckley's thesis can be read by clicking the link below.
IUTF Munster Open 2004
(Click the link below to open)