South Dublin Taekwondo

On September 21st 2013, 7 of SDTKD’s students arrived at the final hurdle of what had been a eventful road to black belt. In recent months the 7 pictured were selected by South Dublin to be hopefuls for their biggest grading to date. Preparations included enhanced group training, home training, a club Black Belt Examination, which had to be cleared before being permitted to advance to the National Preliminary Black Belt grading run by the Irish Taekwondo Union, the National Governing Body for taekwondo in Ireland.

All made it through to the final grading where Master Jy-Pyo Lim, a Korean 7th Dan oversaw the grading, leading the ITU panel.

SDTKD were delighted to hear the news that all has passed their grading, and remarks offered back to coaches had been excellent. ‘The 7 students selected have a great diversity of talents & taekwondo diiscipline traits’, noted club Coach Taaffe. ‘Both Jamie Gaffney & Sarah Carney are well revered for their sparring ability, and participate successfully in both poomsae & kyorugi [patterns & sparring], , exceptional remarks were complimented about the technical kicking ability of both Louise Lawless & Jamiliah Depakakibo [Phillippines], both of whom are also regular medalists in both Poomsae & Kyorugi, recent addition to club Anas Belmaati [Morocco] , who is a favorite in the club for his demonstration kicking, and originally from a well now Moroccan Demonstration Team Ittihad Tanger Andalous where he honed superb dynamic kicking ability & a flair for sparring, finally a mother & daughter duo of Pauline Martin & Lauren Martin were successful, a very special moment for the club, both who are focused on technical taekwondo & poomsae performance were successful. Both are original members of the club, and it was great to see Pauline come back from having a baby to resurrect her taekwondo career all the way to black belt. Pauline is now a major integral part of our team & has recently been appointed as ‘Female Team Manager.’

SDTKD club hosted its Annual Black Belt Presentation night for the successful bunch, comprising belt presentation, Club Demonstration Uniform presentation & a guard of honour from all members to welcome them into the training hall once kitted out in their new apparel.

SDTKD, which had juist turned 5 years old has now brought an unprecedented 19 students to black belt level, and in all the club holds 34 Kukkiwon Black Grading Certificates, many of whom are strongly committed to further delivering Olympic Style taekwondo training at the club to the local community and setting the bar high on the national stage.