Warrior Martial Arts

On Saturday December 11th 2011, Master Clive Harrison (7th Dan) presented a seminar for members and friends of Warrior Tae Kwon Do at Clonakilty Community Hall.

Despite freezing temperatures and dangerous road conditions in the West Cork area, the event was very well attended, with some students travelling from as far afield as Ballydehob, Blarney & Fermoy.

The day began with students of all grades and ages on the floor, going through a very lively and enjoyable warm-up. As well as standard exercises such as running & star jumps, the students were challenged with a number of interesting and original ideas. Following the warm-up, the class progressed onto practising a number of the early colour belt patterns, before gathering around Master Harrison to take part in a very engaging and informative session of questions and answers.

The discussion, concerning the application and correct execution of a wide range of Tae Kwon Do techniques, was accompanied by hands-on demonstrations by Master Harrison and some of the attending Black Belts. As well as intriguing and educating all of the students watching, the younger ones took great pleasure in seeing Master Harrison demonstrate a number of very effective (and painful) techniques on their instructors! Every technique was explained in clear and precise detail and a variety of alternative applications to certain techniques were also presented, which proved to be eye-opening for even the higher grades present on the day. Not being a very shy bunch, a number of students kept the teacher on his toes, firing countless questions at him. Clearly undaunted by the bombardment, Master Harrison answered each question thoroughly, with  a level of good humour and humility which has since earned him a number of new fans in this part of Ireland.

With the class still in full swing, we realised that we were almost out of time for the first session of the day, so the class was belatedly wrapped up. Master Harrison obligingly stood in for photographs with the students, signed their licence books and autographed a number of copies of his DVD, which was available to students on the day.

Once these formalities were taken care of, the Black Stripes & Black Belts returned to the floor for a second session to go through the more advanced patterns. A number of these students used this as an opportunity to get in some last minute practice before their Black Belt exams, which would be held under Master Harrison’s scrutiny on the following morning (a full report of which will be added to WarriorTKD.com soon).

Our thanks go to Master Harrison for a very enjoyable day and to all of the students who, in dreadful weather conditions, travelled from clubs around the county to attend the event.

Photos from the seminar can be seen in the Master Clive Harrison Seminar – December 2010 album.

Black Belt Exam – December 2010

A Warrior Tae Kwon Do team, comprised of 4 junior students and 5 adults, travelled to Killarney at the end of August for the WOMAA World Martial Arts Championships.

The event, which was run by an American organisation, attracted a large entry, with competitors travelling from the USA, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, The UK, Australia and from all over Ireland. After the opening ceremony on Friday evening, the competition began and two members of the Warrior team were due in the ring.

First up was Michael Carmody, an adult colour belt student from Clonakilty Tae Kwon Do club, who powered his way to the final in sparring and, after a great battle, secured a Gold medal by TKO (Technical Knockout). This was an amazing achievement as the event was Michael’s first international competition.

Next to enter the ring was reigning World Champ Aoife Sheehan. Aoife, who had been out of training for the summer due to a broken bone in her foot, put on a great display but finally had to settle for second place in continuous sparring. This was still a great result, especially considering the fact that she had been having had trouble with her foot throughout the early rounds.

After a very late finish on Friday night, the students were back in the arena for 9am on Saturday morning. The first Warrior to claim a medal on the Saturday was Aishling O’Driscoll who took Gold in her continuous sparring section. This was no mean feat in itself but Aishling was not done yet, going on to take Silver in point sparring and Bronze in patterns. Claire Wilcox, Clonakilty, took Silver in her pattterns section, while team-mate Aoife Sheehan took to the ring once more to claim another Silver medal, this time in the point sparring discipline.

Dwayne Crowley added even more silverware to his collection, taking Silver in sparring and a Gold in the Black Belt patterns division. Seán Ó Broin and his younger sister Aoife, both of Ballineen Tae Kwon Do club, also performed brilliantly with Aoife taking Gold in both patterns and sparring, while Seán took Silver in his patterns section.

Noel Murray, from Dunmanway Tae Kwon Do club, was the first of the Warriors up on Sunday and ended up taking Gold in both patterns and sparring in his Adult Colour Belt categories. Michael Carmody, already holding the Gold for continuous sparring in his weight division followed Noel’s performance by returning to combat to take home a Silver medal for point sparring.

Unfortunately for Jonathan Hurley of Innishannon Tae Kwon Do club, he did not make the medals this time; the 8 hour wait to be called to compete seemed to have taken its toll on the 12 year old fighter and he found it hard to get into the swing of things. Jonathan’s performance was, however, a brave one and all of the team were present to give their encouragement to this promising young competitor.

The final tally of medals for Warrior Tae Kwon Do was an outstanding 7 Gold, 7 Silver and 1 Bronze. Well done to all who competed and a big thank you to all of the friends and family members who waited so patiently at the event and gave such great support to the team.

Warrior Tae Kwon Do are celebrating yet another success today, in what is normally considered the “off-season” for tae kwon do in Ireland, with 2nd Degree Black Belt Dwayne Crowley being awarded the Celtic Ross West Cork Sports Star Award.

The award, which is presented on a monthly basis in the Celtic Ross Hotel, Rosscarbery, is awarded to local sports-people in recognition of significant achievements in their field. Dwayne’s nomination came following his recent success at the ICKKF Allstyles World Martial Arts Championships; which took place in Torres Novas, Portugal earlier this year.

Following speeches by both Con Downing, editor of the Souther Star newspaper and Paudie Palmer, GAA correspondent for c103 radio, Dwayne was called upon to accept his award. With a group of friends, family and team-mates looking on, Dwayne stepped forward to receive his prize, which came in the form of a detailed bronze sculpture based on the ancient Gaelic legend of The Children of Lir.  Although his acceptance speech was a brief one, the  few words that he said as he held the beautifully crafted trophy clearly conveyed the modesty and sincerity for which he is known.

Although the trophy cabinet at the Crowley household must be almost overflowing at this stage, Dwayne refuses to rest on his laurels; he is currently engaged in an intensive training regime in preparation for the WOMAA International Championships which will take place in Killarney, Co. Kerry in August, where he plans to add another World title to his collection.

Master Gary Stringer of Stringer Ju Ka Do returned to West Cork for his third visit to Warrior Tae Kwon Do on Sunday April 25th and delivered another excellent Self Defence seminar. The students in attendance had the opportunity to study defensive techniques against strikes, chokes and grabs in standing and grappling positions as well as receiving an introduction to defences against knife attacks. Once again, Master Stringer both educated and entertained all in attendance, giving clear and detailed instruction in all aspects while also having a good laugh with the students.

To see photos of the Gary Stringer Self Defence Seminar April 2010, click this link.

Gary Stringer Seminar April 2010 Photos

ICKKF All Styles World Championships 2010 Photos.

From ICKKF All Styles World Championships 2010

Warrior Tae Kwon Do’s recent winning streak shows no signs of faltering, with a series of landmark wins in Portugal this weekend. Seeking a fresh challenge for some of our top senior competitors, a team of 4, consisting of Green Belt Mark Tanner, Black Belts Dwayne Crowley and Aoife Sheehan and coach Barry O’Mahony, travelled to Torres Novas, Portugal to represent Ireland at the All Styles World Championships, hosted by the International Chinese Kempo Karate Federation.

The tournament, featuring styles as diverse as Kempo, Wado Ryu, Kung Fu, Ju Jitsu, Aikido, Tang Soo Do and Kajukembo, and competitors travelling from as far afield as Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, commenced on Friday March 26th with the Junior World Championships. The Irish team, being composed entirely of senior competitors were able to use this day to take care of registrations and weigh-ins, while also taking in some of the Junior events from the stands of the enormous Palácio dos Desportos. Following an evening meal, they retired early to their accommodation at the local Police Academy barracks, in anticipation of an early start and a long day on Saturday.

Following Saturday morning’s opening ceremony, it wasn’t long before the day’s events got underway. Beginning with the forms (patterns) sections, competitors had the option of competing in hard-style (tae kwon do, kempo, shotokan, wado ryu, etc), soft style (tai chi, kung fu, aikido, etc) and weapons forms. Unfortunately none of the Irish members took prizes in the hard style forms section which were dominated by the Chinese Kempo groups, although Mark Tanner did manage to progress as far as the final 4 of his sections after 3 very impressive performances of Won-Hyo tul.

Mark was again thrust into Saturday’s action with the elimination rounds of the Continuous Sparring category for his grade. As well as having to contend with the various fighting styles of his opponents, Mark was up against far longer fight times than those of most tae kwon do competitions. With the clock stopped in time with each stoppage of the fight by the centre referee, the 2-minute time limit for rounds often stretched to 4 or 5 minutes. Each fight consisted of 2 rounds with a 1 minute break in between, forcing Mark to battle it out for almost 10 minutes per fight in the punishing Portuguese heat. Exhaustion, however, seems to be a concept totally alien to Tanner, as he soldiered on through the 3 elimination rounds to qualify for Sundays finals.

Unfortunately a technical glitch with the computerised organisation system brought the tournament to a total standstill for about an hour on Saturday afternoon. Due to the massive range of events taking place including Point, Conintuous Semi-Contact, Full Contact, Knockdown & Low-Kick Sparring and the huge variety in forms sections, this small error had a substantial knock-on effect. To put events back on track, the Black Belt sparring categories were postponed, to  be held the following day, so that the forms and self-defence categories could be finished up. This meant that the Irish team had the inconvenience of being at the arena until nearly 10pm on the Saturday and were quite tired as a result. Luckily the organisers, coaches and competitors at the event were some of the friendliest and most courteous people we have ever met at a martial arts event, and morale remained high in the Irish camp.

Rising at 6.30 on Sunday, our team set off once more for the stadium. This time everything ran very smoothly and the fights were coming up hard and fast. Mark’s point sparring section was first up and, although he got off to a slow start, with the points being even after Round 1, he soon settled into the style of fighting favoured by the judges and convincingly saw off his opponent before time was called. Unfortunately, Tanner’s luck ran out when it came to the final and he narrowly missed out on first place after a very brave display.

With a Silver medal already guaranteed for the Warriors thanks to Mark, the pressure was now on Dwayne Crowley to match his team-mate’s performance; and match it he did. Crowley’s display in the point sparring section was one of the finest of his sparring career to date. With fast kicking and intelligent use of the ring area, Dwayne stormed through his opposition to take a well-deserved Gold.

The continuous sparring did not go entirely in Dwayne’s favour, with his semi-final resulting in a defeat but all was not lost, because, having scored considerably more points in his semi final than scored by the other 3rd place candidate, he was awarded the Bronze medal.

Mark returned to the ring for the finals of his continuous sparring section and battled fearlessly through his semi-final, taking some heavy hits and sustaining a painful injury when his opponent’s elbow accidentally connected with the exposed area of his ankle between his shin-pad and foot-pad. The pain, however, did nothing to kill Tanner’s passion for battle and he secured himself a place in the final.

The final was, sadly, not to go Mark’s way. Although he fought passionately and cleverly, his opponent used his greater reach to secure victory with some well-placed kicks. The end result meant that Tanner took a second Silver for his sparring and finally got to rest up after a gruelling weekend.

Aoife Sheehan was the last of the Irish contingent to take to the floor for the weekend, being crowned World Champion in point sparring and, for her second time, taking a World Championship Gold for continuous sparring. The energy and precision in her sparring took her opponents by surprise, especially when her Portuguese opponent in the continuous sparring final walked directly into a perfect head-height turning kick towards the end of the fight.

Following the final events of the weekend, the tournament organisers provided dinner for all of the teams, followed by a party at the venue. The friendly atmosphere was still evident after the tournament as all of the teams mixed and enjoyed each others company, with email addresses and phone numbers being exchanged left, right and centre in hope of future meetings and continued friendships.

A sizeable crowd were assembled at Cork airport on Monday night to welcome home the tired but delighted team and congratulate them on their outstanding success.

Click here to see photographs from the ICKKF All Styles World Championships 2010.

Note that this video is to be used for reference only. Patterns should be learnt first from your instructor, not from books or videos.

See Movements in Text