February 5, 2011
The TAO annual promotion test for 3rd Dan and above took place on Saturday January 22nd, right after day 1 of the Annual Technical Conference. The grading was conducted by the TAO Promotion Committee Cheif examiner Master Vincent Affatigato assisted by Vice-President (USA) Mr. Lee Benson and Technical Director Mr. Mike Morningstar.  The examination began with a physical test of 10 min. of skipping, 80 push-ups, 80 sit-ups and 20 berpies which took 20 minutes for everyone to complete. The actual test is divided into 5 catagories: patterns and fundamental movements, self-defence, sparring (which included 3, 2, & 1-step & model sparring), breaking and theory (a written test was completed by all candidates). After 6 1/2 hours, a few bruises and good amount of broken boards, all candidates were successful. Congratulations to Kathy Albright, Frank Albright, Brandon Negron, Jeff Butt and Leone Frame and their promotion to 3rd Dan, Roland Klassen, Wendy Cools-Lartigue, Tawanda Beale and Savandara Leang on their promotion to 4th Dan and Mr. Fran Ott, Mr. Rick Winsor and Mr. Sean Sutton on their promotion to 5th Dan.
