March 9, 2011
Mr. Winsor and the students of Cabot Taekwon-Do would like to congratulate Mr. DJ Clarke who successfully completed his testing on February 19, 2011 and has received promotion to 2nd Dan. Mr. Clarke was required to complete a physical and written exam in order to be eligible for this testing. The 2nd Dan testing consisted of a series of required exercises, patterns, self-defence, sparring, board breaking and theory. Mr. Clarke did very well in all aspects of the test.
February 21, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011, Chon ji Martial Arts Academy held a food drive for the local community food bank. The food drive was in conjunction with a colour belt and black belt grading. Traditionally Chon ji students only break plastic re-breakable boards, but for this exciting event, students were exposed to breaking wooden boards for the first time. For every wooden board they broke, students donated $5.00 worth of non-perishable food items to help local families in need. The local newspaper, The Hamilton Spectator was on hand to cover the story. A slide show of the black belt grading can be seen on the Hamilton Spectator website at;
www.thespec.com/photozone/484670–black-belt-test
30 students were promoted to various colour belt levels and following the colour belt test, black belt candidates endured another 2 hours of theory, sparring, self-defense, grappling and board breaking. Bram Alvey was promoted to 2nd Dan, Harry Liang 2nd Dan, and Nick Sterling to 2nd Dan. Also, Gabe Hodges & Spencer Kelch were promoted to 1st Dan.
Last month Chon ji held another food drive by offering a free month of classes in exchange for a non-perishable food donation. This event was also covered by the local media. The event was a great success! Chon ji takes great pride in our community involvement and in being a positive force of social awareness and change.
February 14, 2011
Lightning Family Martial Arts in Calgary, Alberta recently held their annual Club Championship where over 150 LFMA students attended and competed in their respective divisions. The tournament featured demonstrations from the Lightning Strikes Kinder Program and the Senior Leadership Team and ran all day with individual patterns and sparring divisions and team pattern Divisions. The Day ended with a Team Sparring Competition between two 5-man LFMA Junior Boys Black Belt Sparring Teams age 13 – 17 and two 3-Women Junior Girls Teams. The competition was exciting and everyone had a great time.
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.
January 30, 2011
On the weekend of January 22-23, one hundred red belt to 7th degree black belt participants from Pennsylvania, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Newfoundland, Alberta and accross Ontario decended on Oakville for our Annual Technical Conference. Technical Director Mr. Mike Morningstar and Senior Advisor Master Vincent Affatigato took everyone through all 24 patterns throughout the two days. Keeping true to the teachings of the founder of Taekwon-Do, General Choi Hong Hi, the students and instructors were drilled on correct sine wave and the proper application of techniques. By the end of the 10 hour training everyone was exausted but motivated in their efforts to keep Chang Hun Taekwon-Do alive in it’s purist form.
January 21, 2011,
A very productive Annual General Meeting of TAO was held on Friday January 21st at the Holiday Inn Oakville Center. The meeting was Charied by Mr. Roland Klassen, President of TAO and was attended by all the Board members. School instructors in attendance were from Arizona, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Calgary, Hamilton, Oakville, London, Woodstock, Ottawa,  and St. Johns. Not present were California and Albuquerque.
January 14, 2011
We would like to welcome 5th Dan Black Belt Mr. Chris Howes and the students of Lightning Taekwon-Do in Calgary, Alberta as the latest members of TAO.Â
Mr. Howes has had the privilege to train directly under the founder of Taekwon-Do General Choi, Hong Hi and has traveled as a direct assistant to Grandmaster Choi Jung Hwa . Mr. Howes has also been the Head Coach for Team Canada at both the 2004 World Championships in Daejon. South Korea and the 2006 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia.
Welcome Mr. Howes and the students of the Lightning Taekwon-Do. For more information please visit www.lightningtkd.com
January 5, 2011
The TAO “Annual Technical Conference & AGMâ€� is scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday January 21-23, 2011. This training is open to all Red Belts and Black Belts and will cover from Chon-Ji to Tong-Il.Â
There is no cost for this training.
The Annual General Meeting will be on the Friday evening at 7:00pm at the Holiday Inn Oakville Center. The Saturday portion of the training will take place in the Trafalgar Ball Room of the Holiday Inn Oakville Center and will begin at 8:30am and run through until 5:00pm. Sundays training will be at the Main Dojang of Morningstar Taekwon-Do in Oakville, just minutes from the Holiday Inn. Sundays training will be from 9:00am to Noon and will be for 3rd Dan and higher. Registration is officially closed as we have reached 100 prticipants!
December 18, 2010
Along with a new Dojang, Thames Valley Taekwon-Do recently promoted 2 students to 1st Degree Black Belt. What made this test unique is that Mr. & Mrs. Phipps moved to their new 2500 square foot location on the Friday evening before the test. The test was conducted by 5th Dan Mike Morningstar and began at 1:30pm and continued through until 5:00pm. Congratulations to all who were successful. Vist www.thamesvalleytkdandfitness.com
December 15, 2010
Thirty four Oakridge Taekwon-Do students recently attempted and were successful in their quest for new ranks. The test was conducted bt TAO Technical Director Mr. Mike Morningstar and assisted by Oakridge Taekwon-Do head instructor Mrs. Cathy Hadubiak. Congratulations on your promotions and good work promoting Taekwon-Do in the City of London.
