Dear ITF Scotland Members, I hope this email finds you well and thriving in your respective clubs. As part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all our members, we are …
On Saturday 6 April, an umpire course was conducted by the ITF Scotland Umpire Committee.The course was a review of the most up-to-date rules for the World Championships and World Cupevents. Upon successful completion of …
Dear Grand Masters, Masters and Instructors, We are excited to extend an invitation to the ITF Scotland Umpire Course 2024, offering an invaluable opportunity for members of our Taekwon-Do community to enhance their skills and …
Dear Grand Masters, Masters and Instructors, With the 2024 National Championships just around the corner, the ITFS T&U Committee wish to advise that the following changes to age brackets will come in to force at …
Dear Grand Masters, Masters and Instructors, ITF Scotland Board of Directors welcome applications for the up coming available board positions for the next 4 year term 2024 – 2028: Secretary GeneralBoard Member (PVG)Board Member Those …
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 advice on Coronavirus / COVID-19. (updated 18th 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 18th 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:
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.
In light on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak within Scotland, ITF Scotland recognises that the situation is continually evolving, and we are monitoring the advice from the UK government.
Our advice to our membership as of 15th March 2020, is for instructors to keep 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.
Cleanliness and personal hygiene on hand washing and containing coughs and sneezes are particularly important. There is clear guidance on preventing spread on the UK government website noted below.
At this point the government advice does not extend to restricting activity of classes, or events. Therefore, we advise that instructors should continue with their classes as normal noting 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 may wish to omit ho sin sul training during the epidemic as this discipline involves the closest physical contact.
Should you be organising an event and have any concerns regarding coronavirus and whether the event should go ahead you should contact your local public health team at your local council. At this moment there is no directive from the UK government to cancel events. This decision has to be made by the event organizer based on risk and local circumstance.
UK Government Statement & Updates regarding coronavirus can be found here:
ITF Scotland Board of Directors would like to welcome the following instructors and schools who have affiliated to ITF Scotland as a new regional group Northern Taekwon-Do Academies (NTA):
Master Wallace Blackbelt Academy (Instructor: Master Gordon Wallace – VIII Degree)
Boydell Blackbelt Academies (Instructor: Mr. Mark Boydell – V Degree)
DC Taekwon-Do (Instructor: Mr. Dylan Craig – II Degree)
Alba Blackbelt Academies (Instructor: Miss. Sarah Angus – II Degree)
In light of the outbreak of COVID-19, the National Coaching Team have taken the decision to cancel the upcoming squad training sessions as a precautionary measure, with safety everyone’s number one priority.
As the 2020 European Championships have also been cancelled, we will look to re-schedule future trainings around any potential revised tournament date.
We trust everyone understands the decision being taken at this time.
The 2020 edition of the ITF Scotland National Championships were held over the weekend of 29th February – 1st March, at the Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility in Motherwell. As in previous years the two-day event started with the Pre-Junior competition for up to 13 years on Saturday, and Juniors, Seniors and Advanced Seniors, as well as competitors with Additional Support Need’s competing on Sunday.
This year’s championships once again saw an administrative collaboration between the National Association; ITF Scotland, and Allied Association; TKDSL. With Master Gordon Wallace 8thDegree and Mrs. Gillian McIlvaney 5thDegree administrating the event via Sportdata Event Technology (SET) software, alongside support during the championships from Mr. John McIlvaney 6th Degree, in arena management and Master Alexander Dunbar 8th Degree who was charged with overseeing the umpires throughout the course of the competition.
In advance of this year’s event, we held a national umpire course three weeks earlier, in preparation for the umpires to become familiar with the SET software. The course was the first step in continuously training and developing our National Umpires to the highest level, parallel with the ITF. This course has a great impact on the event, with all schools taking part putting forward umpires for the competition, allowing larger ring councils on the day, which in turn meant more hands-on experience for the umpires with the SET technology.
We also would like to acknowledge the participation as Jury Presidents of Master David McNairn VII and Master Heath Denholm VII.
Once again registrations were handled by Sportdata Event Technology (SET) to align ITF Scotland with mainstream ITF tournament administration. And for the first time as an organisation we had six (6) fully electronic rings set up, with an additional three (3) for special technique on day one of the competition. This allowed for a streamlined, professional and high-quality event to be delivered. This would not have been possible without the previous investment in both the technology, and the time given by the team of IT professionals who have continuously worked in the background over the past few years to evolve our national event to its current standard; Mr. Chris Forbes I Degree, Mr. Craig Rennie I Degree, both of whom were present over the course of the weekend to oversee the IT.
The competition itself drew 570 competitors from 42 schools across Scotland from both the NA and AA, including 4 schools from the north of England, and 2 schools from Wales also making the journey to take part.
Registration commenced on Friday evening with many competitors taking the opportunity to register early, allowing for any small corrections to categories to be made. On the morning of the competition the registration was completed for those who were unable to make it the previous evening.
Saturday started with an official welcome and opening from Mr. Adam Paterson IV Degree; Chairman of ITF Scotland. The umpires presented the first day’s participants with participation medals, before the tournament started at 09:30 with Patterns for under sevens and Special technique for the 11-13s and as each category passed all age groups and grades swapped events until all categories finished with sparring on schedule at 16:45.
On completion of the events, the organising team deconstructed and reformed the arena ready for Day Two, with four (4) full sized competition squares, two (2) special technique rings, and a power area.
Sunday started at 09:00 with Junior Patterns, Advanced Senior Power Test, Senior Special Technique and our brilliant Additional Support Needs Students. Our ASN’s were directed on the mat by Senior Umpire Mr John Munro V and Jury President Mr John McIlvaney VI. The ring council comprised of umpires who have experience are running their own ASN classes, for some of whom their students were taking part in the categories. We were also privileged to have a guest of honour in Mr. Dave Rhoney, a board member from Disability Sport Scotland, there to oversee the ASN events and present medals to the winners of these categories. Mr. Rhoney was encouraged by the courage and perseverance of the competitors and commented on the standard of the event, that pathway of inclusion for these athletes was of the highest level.
First Honourable Grand Master Thomas MacCallum IX Degree was also present, as guest of honour throughout Sunday’s competition.
The morning passed with all Patterns, and most of the Power and Special Technique completed, before a lunch break and the rings being readied for Sparring competition. Throughout the afternoon a fantastic spectacle of high energy sparring was given, especially from the Junior Black divisions which were very well represented, with all contenders clearly there to win. This year our national championships was a ranking event for all black belt divisions, and as such we included four new “open weight” sparring events, for 14-17 M & F, and 18+ M & F respectively, in order to provide extra mat time for these competitors in preparation for the up-coming European Championships in April. The 2020 ITF Scotland Championships closed just before 5pm with some spectacular sparring in each of these categories.
ITF Scotland and TKDSL would like to thank all competitors, coaches, umpires and supporters for a memorable championship in such a highly competitive manner but with such good sportsmanship, courtesy and friendship among everyone.
Additionally, we would like to thank our photographer for the event, Mr. Bill Irvine for giving up his time over the course of the weekend. And express our thanks to both Ms Malgorzata Rogaczewska (Polish Taekwon-Do Association) and Mr. Grzegorz Ozimek (Top Ten Sport Poland) in helping us with replacement medals for the event at such short notice.
