Congratulations to soccer star Cael “McLegs” McCabe on earning his first black stripe.

After demonstrating red belt level kicking techniques with legs made like rubber bamboo,

and Hwa-Rang,

he broke 2 boards with each leg using back kicks.

Finally, he sparred with his cousin Finn.

We hope Cael has a successful fall soccer season and look forward to his return to the black belt path in winter.

Kent made his first appearance at a promotion test in Oneonta. He demonstrated Dan-Gun and basic techniques along with step sparring before finally breaking a board with a rear leg side kick.

Congratulations to Phineas Brown Collins on earning his blue belt. Blue belt signifies “the plant reaching up to the sky”, indicative of Finn’s strength and power. His precise movements in Yul-Gok are indicative of his dedicated practice and we are proud of his growth and successes.

It was fortunate that Finn could spar with his cousin Cael who earned his first black stripe:

The smooth and graceful movements of Guaire are nicely complemented by the intense powerful force of Jake as they earn their green stripes.
Congratulations to both boys on their fine achievement.

Congratulations to Lori and Ben for earning their yellow belts.  They performed very well, especially in their ability to stay synchronized during Chon-Ji.

Neither has practiced martial arts before and have worked very hard to earn their rank.  We are very proud of their commitment and determination.

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 Tyler and Terri on earning their stripes. This was Tyler’s second stripe and Terri’s first. Joong Gun is one of the most important patterns to learn and also one of the most confusing to learn.

Unfortunately, the camera shot of Terri breaking her boards with a back kick was obscured. Below is Tyler breaking 2 boards with a back kick and a video of Terri doing Joong Gun and Tyler doing Toi-Gye.

Congratulations to Tom and Chris on earning their 2nd red stripe. At this point, they are approximately one year from earning their black belts. They have both trained very diligently and very sincerely and we are proud of their accomplishments.

Below are videos of their board breaks and Toi-Gye

Mr. Davis demonstrates Eui-Am and Choong-Jang. Unfortunately, I neglected to set the camera to record his excellent 4 board back kick break.

Congratulations to Finn. Without all that hair, he seems to be moving faster.

Finn demonstrates Won-Hyo:

Finn demonstrating basics:

I stumbled upon this page and thought the man in the pictures looked awfully familiar.
In fact, it is Grandmaster Kim demonstrating the pattern Hwa-Rang.  I’m sure the pictures are taken from one of the editions of General Choi’s Encyclopedia.

Give it a look and bookmark it!