Congratulations to our new Black Belts!

After training long and hard Kristian Frye, John Buck and Priscilla McCabe have earned their first Dan.

Master Kelly, a friend of Mr. Mannion’s was supposed to attend and administer the test, but due to vehicular issues was sadly, unable to attend.

The black belt test was long and tested their strength. The test started at 3:30 pm yesterday with a 2 mile run that all three completed under 18 minutes. Afterwards, the three took a written exam to test their knowledge of Taekwon-Do. At the promotion test that evening, the three demonstrated four different three kick combinations followed by four different forms that the three had learned in their training. The four patterns that John, Priscilla and Kristian showed were Choong-Moo, Hwa-Rang, Joong-Gun, and Won-Hyo.

The three showed the outcome of their hard work, with strong and percise forms. After multiple rounds of free fighting amongst the participants, They each had to perform three different breaks, as can be seen in the embedded video(s).

The three performed excellently and we are very proud to welcome Mr. Buck, Mrs. McCabe and Mr. Frye as black belts.

John Buck, Priscilla McCabe, Ray Mannion, Kristian Frye

Oneonta Taekwon-Do School picture July 2010

John Buck, Priscilla McCabe, and Kristian Frye earned their black belts on July 22, 2010

Congratulations to Matt Goodrich on successfully earning his 1st degree black belt. Matt is now certified by Taekwon-Do International to be a black belt in good standing.

For his promotion test, Matt traveled to NYC with his family and fellow Oneonta Taekwon-Do schoolmate John Buck. He completed a written exam, an endurance test, and then gave a demonstration including 3 patterns, basic combinations, sparring, and 3 different board breaks.

In addition to the physical requirements, Taekwon-Do International requires proven examples of living up to the Tenets of Taekwon-Do.

Congratulations to Matt on this significant milestone. Please enjoy the video highlights below and offer Matt your congratulations next time you see him.

One of the most difficult patterns, Choong-Moo was originally a black belt pattern in ITF. Fred Schwed demonstrates at the August 2008 test.