Here’s a short video on Winners. Enjoy!

Master Jonathan Field

ISKA World Champion

3 Time USBA/WBA World Champion

www.cobourgtaekwondo.ca

Here’s a quick video I just made up on Failure. Check it out. Should be more videos like this to come.

Master Jonathan Field

ISKA World Champion

3 Time USBA/WBA World Champion

www.cobourgtaekwondo.ca

Just wanted to share a few videos of some kids in Taekwondo really trying their best.

http://video.ca.msn.com/?mkt=en-ca&vid=b061e0b4-f7d3-4d02-a8d9-977ec13cc0e3&from=sharepermalink&src=v5:share:sharepermalink:

Looks like they are having fun, right?! That’s one of the main reasons why you should be training. Enjoy it!!!

Master Jonathan Field

www.cobourgtaekwondo.ca

The following is the holiday schedule here at Cobourg Tae Kwon Do.

Just wanted to post this blog about what went on last night here at Cobourg Tae Kwon Do. Two of our junior Black Belts, Liam Andrews and Mikaela Lavoy really inspired the junior colour belts and enhanced everyone’s pattern/form performances. During the first junior colour belt class Mikaela and Liam had to performance their patterns in front of the rest of the class while the rest of the class did the patterns with them as per usual but this time the colour belts were instructed to try and out perform the black belts. Well they tried for nine patterns going full out throwing hard powerful kicks, punching, and blocks but they just couldn’t quite match Liam and Mikaela. Every time the colour belts performed better the black belts would take it to a whole new level. They kept their energy level and performance level extremely high.

Now you would think going full out and harder each pattern they would soon get tired right? Well not exactly. Mikaela and Liam did the same thing during the second junior colour belt. They performed even better. They truly inspired the two classes too reach for new levels of personal self excellence. Watch out for these two black belts as they can be future world champions if they want to. Great job Liam and Miakela. ANd great job to all the awesome colour belts that were in class.  Everyone did a fantastic job and should be very proud of themselves.

Master Jonathan Field

ISKA World CHampion

www.cobourgtaekwondo.ca

Just thought I would post a few videos I recently posted to youtube.

First video is a demo reel we did for Canada’s Got Talent when we auditioned back in September. We didn’t make the cut but it was a good learning experience.

Second video is of some breaking stuff we have done over the past few years.

Hope you enjoyed!

Master Jonathan Field

2011 ISKA World Champion

Here’s some more pictures from our seminar with Shidoshi J. Courtland Elliott II. These are pictures from the self defense portion and the teaching portion.

Master Jonathan Field

www.cobourgtaekwondo.ca

That’s a long time for me. Well I guess I will just write about a bunch of stuff that has been going on around here since September 17th.

Old students have come back from summer vacation, new students of all ages have signed up for classes. We have a black belt that has come back from 14 years ago. A few of us have audition for a television show. Team Wolverine will be getting ready soon for the 2012 US OPEN and ISKA World Championships. We just had the 2012 Black Belt grading meeting. We got basic black, 1st degrees, 2nd degrees, and a 3rd degree grading in June 2012. 2012 looks to be a good year.

Last months Life skill word was courage. Courage is acting upon or doing something spite your fears. Who do you improve your courage and get rid of your fears? Simple do the things that you are afraid of doing over and over again until they no longer are you fears. It takes a lot of practice and courage to do so but it’s well worth it. You will feel pretty afterwards. An example of courage is public speaking when you are afraid of it. Best thing is to actually speak in small groups and build your confidence up so you can speak in front of larger crowds. Or if you are afraid of heights then you go to high up places that are safe and get use to being up high until you no longer fear it. Courage does not mean you will do just about anything. Doing dangerous things does not necessarily mean you are brave.

This month’s word is Loyalty. I’ll cover that in a upcoming blog.

Also last weekend we had Shidoshi J. Courtland Elliott II, a real ninja come down to our dojang. He taught us on Saturday sword cutting techniques in which we sliced a bunch of juice and milk cartons hanging from a string.  Sunday we did a teaching seminar followed by some cool ninja style self defense.

Hope you enjoyed today’s blog. Will be back soon with another one.

Master Jonathan Field

Today’s blog is about the hierarchy of Instructors and Black Belts in Taekwondo. I had an adult Taekwondo student out of general curiosity and for their own personal knowledge ask me what the hierarchy of the instructors’ spot in the class line up, and how it worked. I also realize that most people are wondering the same thing.So here it is.

At our dojang the head instructor of that particular class stands at the front of the class facing the students. The students line up from highest rank to lowest rank in front of the instructor starting at the instructor’s left side moving down the ranks to the instructors’s right. So for example if there was 10 students in class with 3 red belts, 3 blue belts, 3 yellow belts and 1 white belt the order would go like this.  Front Line: Red, Red, Red, Blue, Blue  Black Line: Blue, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, White   Now if their was a second instructor helping teach class then that instructor would stand to the left of the front line in the assistant/instructor spot. If there was a third instructor in class helping teach then they would line up behind the second instructor and to the left of the back line. So the line of command for that class would be the main structor is first in command, the second instructor is second in command, and the third instructor is third in command. Also at my school only the black belts are only allowed to stand in these spots.

As far as the ranks goes for Black Belts the highest rank in that school most commonly the owner of the dojang is first command. They are in charge of overseeing all Black Belts and Colour Belts. I am gonna use my dojang for example. I hold a 5th Dan Black Belt but so does Master Joyce. I out rank her because I own the school granted she has been in Taekwondo a few years longer and is of older age than I. If I didn’t won Cobourg Tae Kwon Do then she would out rank me. Now we have two 4th Dan Masters here at our dojang too. Master Gayle would out rank Master Richard as she has held 4th Dan longer and is currently training for her 5th Dan grading in May 2012. Next we got some 2nd degree black belts here as well. Sir Jeff would out rank Sir Reilly, Sir Brodie, or Sir Ismael as he is an adult 2nd degree black belt versus a junior second degree black belt. Now for our 1st degreess,Sir Ryan, Sir Luke or Sir Liam would out rank Ma’am Mikaela and Sir Liam because they are older. We also got several black belts and the adults out rank the juniors. We got several more black belts and higher ranks but these are just a few examples. Way too many to list here at this time.

So in a nutshell a 5th degree outranks a 4th degree, a 3rd degree outranks a 2nd degree, a 2nd degree outranks a 1st degree, a 1st degree outranks a black belt,  and a black belt outranks a colour belt. Adult black belts will outrank the junior black belts.

Another thing to take in consideration as well as what you call them. Different schools have slightly different ways of doing this. The two I have seen are that you call the Black Belts and Instructors Sir or Ma’am, or Mr. and Ms. I have always be taught to cal the higher ranks Sir or Ma’am. So Jacob for example who is a black belt here would be called Sir or Sir Jacob or Mikaela who is a 1st degree would be called Ma’am or Ma’am Mikaela. Master Joyce or Master Gayle would be called Master or Ma’am with or without their names mentioned after. Master Richard and myself would be referred to Master Richard, Master Jonathan, Master, or Sir.

Some more on what to call the instructors. Master or master of the school is known as Kwan Jan Nim in Korean. An instructor is Sa Buhm Nim in Korean. A more personal name for a instructor in Korean is Soo Buhm Nim. Also as far as competition teams goes the more experience instructors, black belts, and students are higher up the line of command. And Black Belts are called upon in class more to lead exercises and demonstrate new techniques as they are the ones that show be able to do it properly and give an positive example for everyone else to follow.

Okay now this all seems like everyone is just trying to climb the ranks to be the one in charge and have more respect granted to them. This is quite the opposite. Higher ranks just lets everyone else know that that person has more knowledge and can help teach lower ranks. Also regardless of rank at my school everyone is referred to Sir or Ma’am to show mutual respect because at the end of the day we are all still basically human, We all brush our teeth the same. We all have feelings. We all feel love and pain.

I hope this gives everyone a good idea of the whole ranking system and line of command. If you got any questions let me know.

Master Jonthan Field

Below you will find two videos of Team Wolverine from the 2011 US OPEN and ISKA World Martial Arts Championships. There’s a lot of footage that didn’t convert over or we didn’t have. I may remake this video again if I can get more footage to import properly. Hope you enjoy.

Master Jonathan Field

www.cobourgtaekwondo.ca