The remaining National Squad Training Sessions dates for 2021 have been confirmed as follows:

• 26th September 2021 – Venue: Laurencekirk
• 10th October 2021 – Venue: Livingston
• 31st October 2021 – Venue: Laurencekirk
• 21st November 2021 – Venue: Livingston
• 28th November 2021 – Venue: Laurencekirk
• 16th January 2022 – Venue: Laurencekirk
• 30th January 2022 – Venue: Livingston

Bookings for these sessions can be made via the following link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/itf-scotland-34058603957

On Saturday 27th June, the third instalment of ITF Scotland’s Zoom sessions was lead by Mr. Ross Penman IV Degree. The focus of the session was Kicking Development.

After a warm up to loosen everyone during which Mr. Penman explained the importance of doing dynamic stretching for the warm-up compared to static stretching.

The session was once again split in to three distinct sections, with participants initially being led through a number of kicking development drills, with the focus being how to train your kicking by strengthening the muscles, flexibility and balance. That then led into concentrating on technical kicking for patterns. And the final section being dynamic kicking for sparring drills and pad work.

To round off the hour long session, all 50 plus participants were led through some static stretches focusing on hips, glutes and splits.

ITF Scotland would like to thank Mr. Penman for leading the weekend’s session.

Dear Masters and Instructors,

We are pleased to invite you to the next instalment of our ITF Scotland Online Seminar’s.  The next seminar will be led by Mr. Ross Penman IV Degree.

The session will run on Saturday 27th June 2020, from 13:00 hrs – 14:00 hrs and focus on Dynamic Kicking Techniques & Development.

Instructor’s have been sent the Login Information for the session via email.

Today saw the second of our Zoom Seminars take place. 106 participants from across Scotland tuned in via the online platform to take part in the Sparring Session ran by current World Champion, and four times European Champion Miss Katrina Carr III Degree.

Miss Carr began the session with a brief introduction of her, and her achievements in both her Taekwon-Do and academic career to date. The 45 minute session was broken in to 3 distinct parts, beginning with a warm-up to ensure everyone was prepared, leading the participants through two relatively short but dynamic warm-up circuits that she uses as part of her preparations in her regular training routine.

The second part of the session focused on sparring drills and techniques that can be used firstly in a defensive scenario, as well as in a more attacking scenario. Throughout these, Miss Carr built the drills from the initial basic technique, in to drills consisting of up to 7 techniques. During which she highlighted the importance of dynamic movement and positioning in each section part of the routine. Each participant was tasked with working though these for set time frames, allowing for further direction and advice from Miss Carr.

After the physical part of the session, there was an opportunity to pose some questions to Miss Carr, most of these were sent in prior to the session, allowing for an interview style format. From the questions, Miss Carr discussed her journey in Taekwon-Do since starting at aged 8, touching on her normal weekly training sessions with her own instructor and coach Mr. Boydell, as well as the beginnings of her competitive journey. She went on to discuss some of her preparation processes for both Pattern and Sparring events, and spoke about some of her standout moments as a National Team member, highlighting amongst others memorable moments of winning European & World Titles in her own career. It was also humbling to hear her speak highly of her fellow team members, and the standout moments they shared together as a team. To end we heard some words of encouragement from her to those embarking on their own competitive Taekwon-Do careers.

We’d like to thank Miss Carr for taking the time to run today’s session.

We are pleased to invite you to the next ITF Scotland Online Seminar.  

This seminar will be led by Multiple European & Current World Sparring Champion; Miss Katrina Carr III Degree.

Miss Carr is one of Scotland’s most successful competitors, having won 1 World Championships Title, 4 European Championships Titles and 1 World Cup Title.  She also has a number of Scottish, British and International titles to her name.  

The session will run on Saturday 13th June 2020, from 11:00 hrs – 12:00 hrs, this will be followed by a Question & Answer Session.  

• Should you or your students wish to pose any questions to Miss Carr on her TKD career etc. please submit these in advance by Friday 12th June to secretarygeneral@itfscotland.com.  This will allow for the questions to be ordered in to a suitable format.

The meeting information has been emailed to instructors. If you have not received please contact Mrs. McIlvaney on the above email address.

In the midst of the Covid pandemic ITFS hosted a national Master’s Seminar via the online meeting platform Zoom today, allowing practitioners to continue their training during “lockdown”.

The online event was the first of its kind hosted in Scotland, with over 90 participants from across the country logging in and taking part over three 45 minute sessions.

The first session was taught by Master Heath Denholm VII Degree, with the focus on coloured belt patterns, more specifically breaking down some of the more complicated movement combinations within the coloured belt patterns.

After a short break we moved on to the second session under the guidance of Master David McNairn VII Degree, who taught Kwang-Gae to the assembled participants, answering a number of questions posed by the students.

The final session of the afternoon was taught by Master Gordon Wallace VIII Degree. Choi-Yong was the focus of this session, and with a smaller number of participants, it allowed for in depth technical discussions, and corrections to all.

After the last session we ended with some insightful history of Taekwon-Do from each of the Masters.

We’d like to express our thanks to the Master’s who gave their time today, and to all the participants for taking part. We do hope to repeat the successful event in the near future, please look out for further information on online seminar’s coming soon.

ITF Scotland are hosting their first Online Zoom Masters Seminar on Saturday 6th June 2020.

The sessions will each be 45 minutes, as follows;

• 11:00 – 11:45 – Kup Grade Patterns with Master Heath Denholm VII
• 12:00 – 12:45 – Kwang-Gae with Master David McNairn VII
• 13:00 – 13:45 – Choi-Yong with Master Gordon Wallace VIII

These sessions are open to all. Full meeting details have been sent to instructors via email.

ITF Scotland advice on Coronavirus / COVID-19. (updated 18^th March 2020)

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak within Scotland continues to advance, ITF Scotland offer the following updated to instructors and members.

Our advice to our membership as of 18^th March 2020, is for instructors to continue keeping themselves fully up to date with all advice on how to halt the spread of the virus.  And be pro-active in use of these methods within their gyms, practicing the hygiene routines posted below and in our previous statement.

There remains no government directive to close gyms, clubs, and large-scale events, or restricting classes, that coupled with the education authorities continuing to open as normal, ITF Scotland believe it remains the decision of the instructor as to whether to run their respective classes or not.  We suggest taking all local authority advice on board when making any decision on running classes.

As such we advise that instructors continuing with their classes as normal note the following advice; 

• Facilities, surfaces and equipment should be cleaned regularly. Instruct students to ensure their own sparring equipment is also cleaned. 
• Instructors should be proactive and encourage hand washing before and after class. And encourage coughing and sneezing control (e.g. sneezing into elbow, not hands). 
• Any members displaying flu like symptoms should stop attending class for a minimum of 7 days and inform their instructor accordingly. 
• It is up to instructors as to whether they wish to restrict physical contact such as hand shaking. 
• Instructors are advised to practise social distancing within classes, limiting activities with partner contact where possible; such as omitting ho sin sul training during the epidemic as this discipline involves the closest physical contact. 

We are also aware a number of local authorities have now closed their public buildings and many of their community facilities, this in turn affects many Taekwon-Do clubs and instructors who are forced to close for a period of time.

We understand that this situation we are all experiencing in the UK and further afield is unprecedented, with advice changing daily.  Should a further directive be issued from the government we will update accordingly.

UK Government Statement & Updates regarding coronavirus can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response

Find out more about the virus and measure you should take to protect yourself here:

https://www.nhsinform.scot/coronavirus

ITF Scotland Board of Directors would like to welcome Master Heath Denholm – VII Degree and his school STA-Whitburn Martial Arts (WMA) who have affiliated to ITF Scotland as a new regional school.