Newsletter

Home events and pictures events survey for members If you read the newsletter on the website, remember to print the calendar from the events page or the calendar on the email announcing the newsletter. New—this newsletter should print well!

Text Box: The guests you bring will have the chance to win prizes and receive special offers for joining our classes on that day. Please check if your place of work would like to donate anything for a door prize. We would mention their name and put them in the program for free just because we think it makes a fun event. We will be practicing for these demonstrations in classes with a final rehearsal the evening before the test. The third aspect of our big day will be a kick-a-thon to raise money for St. Jude’s. More on this on the next page!

Text Box: In just a few weeks, we will have six members testing for black belt ranks. As you probably know, in order to qualify for this test, the candidates had to attend enough classes, tournaments, and demos and help teach enough lower rank classes. Furthermore, they had to show proficiency in what we teach at GMTKD (more things than most martial arts schools teach) and demonstrate behavior and attitude befitting a black belt. Daryl Cleveland will be testing for 2nd dan (senior degree). Joshua Cleveland, 16 will also test for 2nd degree. He is an A & B student who enjoys video games. Judah Cleveland 14, will test for 2nd poom (Junior Degree). She also plays violin and Irish fiddle, and likes to write stories. These Clevelands have been training with us for over 6 years. Soon, Zachariah Cleveland will test for 1st poom, and Lori and Annika for 2nd degrees. Kevin Kavanaugh, who first received his black belt in 1989, will test with us for

Text Box: Kukkiwon rank. Kevin has only been back in training for about a year, but he remembered and learned really fast. Also his previous school did WTF Taekwondo as we do. Jason Jones will test for first degree. He is also working on a degree in Mechanical Engineering, while working full time. Joseph Perea will test for first degree. He is also active in Mayfield Band and his JROTC chaplain. All of the above students plan to continue in classes, teaching, and working on their next degrees. On the testing day, the students will show creative form, traditional form, one steps, sparring, self defense and board breaking. Many other students will be asked to participate as partners and board holders. In conjunction with this event, we will have an open house with all students participating in demonstrations of what we teach. We are depending on each and every member of every rank and age, who is not out of town on this first day of Spring Break, to participate in the show and bring guests.

Text Box: Our Tentative Schedule For 3/20: We’ll give a door prize after each segment below, if we have enough. 1:00 Taekwondo and NTEC Demonstration 1:15 Other Demonstrations (Tai-Chi, Kickboxing, Self Defense?) 1:30 BB Test: Forms and 1 steps 2:00 Kick-a-thon 2:20 BB Test: Self Defense, Sparring & Board Breaking 3:00 Closing Ceremonies and Refreshments. Although it’s not a “pot luck meal” like graduations, you are welcome to bring some finger-food if you want.

For those of you working on completing

your requirements for black belt:

The black belt open house counts as a demo!

We have two tournaments in April!

We need assistant teaching help in all white and yellow/green belt classes but especially Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:00, 3:30 and 4:30. Remember you can get credit for helping in any class lower rank than your own.

Safety Tip from Front Site Firearms Training Institute—

The Color Code of Mental Awareness

This is the most important piece of self defense information there is! The Impact Class in Santa Fe told us of a study of criminals that showed that lack of awareness is the single most important thing they look for in a victim.-MS

White—a state of mind where you are distracted, preoccupied, or otherwise unaware of what is going on around you and therefore a good victim for a predator looking to rob, attack, or abduct someone.

Yellow—a state of mind where you are looking around and listening to your environment so you would notice anything unusual or any potentially dangerous places you approach, like a bush or other object you can’t see around.

Orange—your state of mind when you notice something unusual or potentially dangerous.

Red—your state of mind when you have decided it is dangerous and you must take action.

Black— is the color code for your state of mind when you have decided that the action you must take is to hurt someone else to make yourself or another safe.

Try to always be in the “yellow” state unless you see a reason to move higher on the scale.

Text Box: types of confrontations for preschoolers, elementary age kids, and middle school kids. I am assuming high school age would use the adult list. I would like to meet with teachers and especially counselors of elementary and middle schools about this. Know anyone? The other thing I am most excited about were the rape self defense techniques we learned. I now realize that since there are such a limited number of positions a rape would take place in, it is possible to teach a defense for each in a limited amount of time. I wonder why I

Text Box: For the last three Saturdays, I, Master Shoberg have attended a special self defense class in Santa Fe. March 6th will be the fourth and final class. I take this class not only for my own benefit, but also to learn things I can teach members of GMTKD. The class I am taking is especially for women, but most things apply to anyone. The most special thing about this class is that we almost always practice our strikes full force on a fully padded “mock assailant.” If you ever get a chance to

Text Box: take a class like this, do. One of the things I am most excited about is the verbal response training we had. I now realize that there are a few things adults should practice saying to be prepared to think of them quickly under stress. Examples include: “What’s going on?” (opener) “That’s inappropriate, stop it.” (for sexual gestures) “I’m going to make a scene—This man is assaulting me. He is wearing . . . “ In the near future I want to come up with a similar list of good responses to common

haven’t seen this information presented elsewhere.

I plan to start teaching rape self defense classes in the near future.

About last month’s health tip . . .

I think I over did it with the baking soda and overworked my lymph nodes and my thyroid. I really should have got those litmus test strips. I really meant to.

On the other hand, there have been quite a few times lately when everyone who lives in my house except me was sick and I either never caught it or recovered way faster than they did.

Text Box: burden of paying costly medical bills. Ryan Smith 6 yrs old patient of the month 2/10

Text Box: For the first time in years, charitable contributions to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have been down by almost 10 percent … while the number of children coming to St. Jude has grown. Since 1962, St. Jude has been a beacon of hope for children and families in their most desperate hours. And its reputation as one of the world’s premier pediatric cancer research centers is a testament to the quality of research and treatment

Text Box: conducted at St. Jude, as well as the compassion of millions of supporters and donors who help ensure that the beacon of hope continues to shine. Because of your support, the children who turn to St. Jude for hope and help receive the lifesaving treatment and care they so desperately need, regardless of the family’s ability to pay. This means that families who are already enduring the nightmare of having a child with cancer do not have to carry the additional

You should have received a pledge sheet already. But, if you need to, pick up another!

Ask your friends and family to donate money for the kicks you will do at the kick-a-thon

(or at another time if you will be out of town 3/20)

You can win some nice prizes and help out a really great cause! For more info about St. Jude CRH see www. stjude.org.

Text Box: Although we won’t send in applications until around May 10, we need an accurate list of who wants to attend this tournament (Sat. May 29th in City of Industry California) for fundraising purposes. Also you might want to get a hotel or airline tickets soon. In the past, fundraising has paid the entry fees and given each competitor about $200 in traveling money. We have $900 from previous fundraisers and will probably make another $1000 to $2000 with a brisket dinner April 10. For the brisket dinner, we will ask all members to sell tickets. Those attending the tournament and any other volunteers will cook and serve. We will also have a bake sale April 10. We want to be prepared to serve about 300 plates. Does anyone know how much brisket we need for that? I think I remember giving one

Text Box: ice-cream scoop for each plate. Also, will the side orders be bean, rice, salad and roll as before? or might we give a choice of beans and rice or potato salad? I think we will need 3 people to cook the brisket, and two for each of the side orders. We usually get the salad and rolls donated. Another question: Do we want to have another car wash in March or April? As always, we can do as much fundraising for local and big-time tournaments as members want to do. Let Master Shoberg know if you want to do fundraising for the April tournaments. Also remember several people have fundraising money left from last fall.

Text Box: International TKD Festival Update

Text Box: I’m definitely not an expert on martial arts weapons, but let me try to share what I think I know, since we are having weapons classes over spring break. People sometimes talk about “Karate Weapons” which is funny because Karate means “empty hand” or fighting without a weapon. But, the reason why many Karate schools teach nunchucks, sais, tonfas, sticks, and kamas is that these were everyday objects that the Japanese people learned to use as weapons after their government outlawed common people having access to weapons. They used these in self defense against the bad guys who somehow had weapons. Those who were allowed to have swords in Japan carried two swords, one long and one short of certain exact lengths. In ancient times Koreans used bows and arrows, various

Text Box: types of spears, and stone swords as weapons. When they did have metal swords, different people made them in different shapes and sizes. One guy had a 7 footer! My original instructor, Master Walker, only taught what he called “short stick” which is solar plexus height. Grand Master Choi, who I hope you get to meet when he travels here this summer, only trained in “natural weapons” of ropes, rocks, and various sizes of sticks. I learned the sword and stick information I will teach from GMs Walker and Choi. Learning sword techniques seems fun and historically educational. A stick is a good modern self defense weapon, easy to have at home or carry on a walk. I learned the nuchuck things from a video. Nunchucks are just fun, and cool looking.

Text Box: March 3-4, the WTF is holding a competition in Tijuana, Mexico. First through sixth place competitors qualify for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August. Obviously, there has been some controversy about whether Tijuana was a good choice for this and the Junior World Championships March 6-9, (with the recent violence). Jessie Bates (female, 16) who was born in Shiprock, NM is one of six US competitors for this Youth Olympic Games Qualifier. She now lives in California but considers Albuquerque her home town. As far as we know, she began Taekwondo in Alamogordo while her mother was stationed at Holloman. When she was a blue belt, they would drive to Las Cruces to

Text Box: practice with us (2000?) because they didn’t like how her instructor in there would punish her for kicking her partners hard. Soon after, her mother was stationed at Kirtland and they moved. The last time I remember her in Las Cruces, she was 13 and came to our tournament at Merscheidt. She always liked our tournaments because we would let her compete in more than one category (hers plus an older or higher rank or boys division). At that particular tournament, she was involved in a big scene. The opposing coach loudly protested that she kicked too hard to the head because her opponent (his son) had a small amount of blood inside his lip (he did have braces). She won.

Left: Jessie shortly after leaving Las Cruces

Below: Current pictures of her and her dad Chee Bates

Learn more about her at

http://usa-taekwondo. us/athletes/jessie-bates

Jessie’s dad taking an active role in her training and often coaching her contributed to her success.

Parents, take our free tournament coaching class March 26, 5:45 to 7 pm. Bring the kids.

	Classes	Teaching Credits	Demos	Tournaments
Daryl Cleveland	560	178	13	11
Joshua Cleveland	599	266	15	9
Judah Cleveland	584	238	14	10
Joseph Perea	530	242	11	21
Jason Jones	425	100	9	7