The United ITF Open Vic Champs, recently held in Caroline Springs, and hosted by Thoroughbred Taekwon-Do, was a huge success.
It featured participants of all ages and levels from across Victoria, South Australia, Canberra and Queensland.
Events included Sparring and Patterns, in both ITF and WT, as well as Team patterns, Self Defense and Creative Breaking.
The event was organized by United ITF President, Master Michael Muleta and overseen by National Tournament Director, Justin Chin.
To promote inclusiveness we also incorporated a junior development event with our friends from several WT schools, who were using it as preparation for the upcoming Arnold Classic Taekwondo World Championships.
Thank you to everyone who came along, particularly those who travelled far and wide, to make the event such a success. We appreciate the very positive feedback on our efforts to keep the tournament format fresh, engaging and innovative.
A big thank you to our referees and judges who worked with the utmost professionalism and efficiency. Last but not least, appreciation for our first aid providers and additional volunteers.
Elvis at the Australian Masters Games Taekwondo too
LOOK WHO ELSE IS COMING TO THE MASTERS GAMES – Elvis, Thank You Very Much !
Game on for The Ultimate ELVIS Tribute, Mark Anthony
One of the world’s most accomplished Elvis tribute artists, Mark Anthony, is set to light up the stage at the 17th Australian Masters in Adelaide this October.
Anthony and his live band, which has been noted for performing Presley’s hits with the same passion as the original recordings, will be in the building, at the Games Village at the Adelaide Convention Centre, on Friday 11 October to entertain the 8000+ masters participants.
“I am really looking forward to performing for the Masters Games event, and showing the athletes some great homegrown entertainment. Giving them the chance to let their hair down and enjoy an evening of festivities. They all work hard to perform at their peak, they deserve to be entertained in the fullest and have an amazing event,” said Anthony.
Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley on rhythm acoustic guitar was accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley’s classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades. Presley’s first RCA single, “Heartbreak Hotel“, was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, he became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, made him enormously popular—and controversial.
In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He held few concerts however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. Years of prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.
Shortly after we pack up the mats, the closing ceremony kicks off with an amazing Billy Joel show……..OK, maybe not the real Billy, but the next best thing. It’s almost worth the trip to Adelaide just to see the show. Fresh off a huge national tour, Celebrating the Music of Billy Joel with Anthony Mara will be performing on the final night of the Games closing the 2019 event in style.
The full live band consists of the finest musicians around, plus state of the art sound and lighting, in a powerful show that has all the classic hits such as: “Piano Man”, “New York State Of Mind”, “Honesty”, “It’s Still Rock’n’roll To Me”, “Uptown Girl”, “We Didn’t Start The Fire”, “River Of Dreams” plus many more.
William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer and pianist. Commonly nicknamed the “Piano Man” after his signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since the 70s, having released twelve studio albums from 1971 to 1993. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time[3] as well as the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States,[4] with over 150 million records sold worldwide. His 1985 compilation album, Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2, is one of the best-selling albums in the US.[5]
Joel was born in 1949 in The Bronx, New York, and grew up on Long Island, New York, both places that influenced his music. Growing up, he took piano lessons at the insistence of his mother. After dropping out of high school to pursue a musical career, Joel took part in two short-lived bands, The Hassles and Attila, before signing a record deal with Family Productions and kicking off a solo career in 1971 with his first release, Cold Spring Harbor. In 1972, Joel caught the attention of Columbia Records after a live radio performance of the song “Captain Jack” became popular in Philadelphia, prompting him to sign a new record deal with the company and release his second album, Piano Man; the album’s title track went on to become Joel’s first hit song. After releasing two more albums, Streetlife Serenade and Turnstiles, Joel released his critical and commercial breakthrough album, The Stranger, in 1977. This album became Columbia’s best-selling release, selling over 10 million copies and spawning several hit singles, including “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)“, “Just the Way You Are“, “Vienna“, “Only the Good Die Young“, and “She’s Always a Woman“; another song on this album, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant“, is Joel’s favorite of his own songs.[6]
Across the 20 years of his solo career, Joel produced 33 Top 40 hits in the US, all of which he wrote himself,[7] and three of which managed to peak at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Joel has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards, winning five of them, including Album of the Year for 52nd Street. Joel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999),[8] and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006). In 2001, Joel received the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[9] In 2013, Joel received the Kennedy Center Honors, for influencing American culture through the arts. Since the advent of his solo career, Joel has held a successful touring career, holding live performances across the globe in which he sings several of his written songs. In 1987, he became one of the very first artists to hold a rock and roll tour in the Soviet Union following the country’s alleviation of the ban on rock and roll music. Despite largely retiring from writing and releasing pop music following the release of River of Dreams, he continues to tour. He frequently performs at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. Joel has been in several relationships, including marriages to Elizabeth Weber Small, model Christie Brinkley, and Katie Lee. Since 2015, he has been married to Alexis Roderick, his 4th spouse.
(From wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Joel)
The 2019 Arnold Classic Taekwondo Championships, or affectionately known as the Arnolds, was a huge success. The event was held as part of the Arnolds Sports Festival Australia in Melbourne on March 16th.
With over 200 participants, we were not only the largest martial arts event of the festival, but also the largest sport.
Congratulations to event organizer, Master Michael Muleta, on once again co-ordinating a large and diverse group of people, from across multiple organizations, to work co-operatively to pull off a great event.
Participants came from far and wide, with ITF, WT and independent schools travelling from across Australia and New Zealand to take part.
Events included both ITF and WT sparring, ITF Patterns, WT Poomse, Self Defense Demos and Team Demos.
We also featured for the first time, the inclusion of a Special Needs category.
The ‘Arnolds has now become an annual ‘must attend’ for many Taekwondo schools’ events calendars, with many already asking about the 2020 event.
The highlight, of course, was when the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, came to say hello to all the competitors and watch some spectacular martial arts action.
We welcome a new thoroughbred Black Belt and some advanced degrees. Thoroughbred Taekwon-do conducted it’s annual Black Belt examinations yesterday in Melton, Victoria.
It was a very historic day for the club with it most senior internal Black Belt promotion since its formation in 1994.
Thoroughbred Taekwon-Do Balwyn instructor Justin Chin was promoted to 6th Degree Black Belt after a vigorous testing regime. The test included all black belt patterns, various types of sparring, self defense, breaking and theory.
The promotion makes Justin the most senior Thoroughbred Taekwon-Do Black Belt outright, under the school’s founder and director, Master Michael Muleta.
Justin has be a wonderful leader of the school, setting a great example of loyalty and selfless contribution for close to 20 years.
Also promoted was his younger brother, and branch assistant, Corey Chin. Corey was promoted to 5th Degree Black Belt.
It sets up a very unique family combination of 3 Thoroughbred Taekwon-Do Black belts, Justin 6th Degree, Jeremy 5th Degree and now Corey 5th Degree. Master Muleta fondly refers to them as the Chin Dynasty.
Just as significant is that the brothers have spent close to 20 years in the same school. This is certainly a rare quality in today’s organization hopping culture.
Anna Blake was promoted to 2nd Degree Black Belt along with John Vos promoted to 1st Degree.
We welcome John to the Thoroughbred Taekwon-Do Black Belt club.
Lindy Joy Crouch is Australia’s new Golden Girl of ITF Taekwon-Do. She won 2 Gold medals at the International Taekwon-Do Federation’s Special Needs World Championships in Argentina.
Lindy was Australia’s first down syndrome athlete to compete at the ITF World Championships, in the first fully fledged ITF Special Needs international event.
She won Gold in the Adult individual yellow belt patterns, and also in the Mixed abilities event. Lindy teamed up with Joshua Zdybel to perform self defense against weapon attacks and an unarmed assailant.
It was an incredible performance in front of a massive, and parochial, Argentinian crowd in Buenos Aires’ huge Tecnopolis complex. The event included 5 days of competition, with typical running times from 10am – 6pm.
Lindy was part of a 15 strong Australian squad, which also included 2 Special Needs athletes. The other, Master Lee Hermansson, of Broken Hill, took out a Silver medal in the patterns.
Lindy’s training regime
She trains twice weekly at Geelong Taekwon-Do, under the guidance of 5th Degree instructor Phillip Zdybel. Mr Zdybel also acted as Head Coach of the National team, as well as competing himself.
He describes Lindy as a ‘very spirited young lady who show a lot of determination along the way and put in the extra work attending regular pool sessions’ in addition to regular training.
Despite her special needs, Lindy trains in the regular class and does all the same drills and conditioning as the black belts. This was evident in her performance in Argentina.
President, Master Michael Muleta, said it was a fantastic result for Lindy and the Australian Team. He also noted how the Taekwon-Do special needs section had grown since it’s inception in 2016.
So much so, that the National Organization now has a Special Needs Committee to further develop the program domestically.
We would like to thank the State Government of Victoria and Barwon Sport Academy.
Lindy now has her eyes firmly set on the 2020 ITF World Championships in Russia, where she hopes to return as a high colour belt.
Each performed admirably across Patterns, Self Defense, Breaking, various forms of Sparring and Theory, earning well deserved promotion.
Gradings do form an important part of Taekwon-Do training, and play a role in maintaining and elevating standards as well as keeping students motivated to maintain focus, consistency in training and to strive for improvement.
Taekwondo was a huge success the Arnold Sports Festival Australia from March 16th – 18th, 2018.
Over 180 participants from across Australia and New Zealand took part in the seminars and championships over the 3 days.
Among those who attended included former Olympians, past and current World Champions, Taekwondo Hall of Famers and many Masters. A high quality collection of people under the one roof, along with all he future budding stars and first timers.
Seminars
Friday kicked off with Sparring seminars in ITF and WTF styles of Taekwondo, followed by Taekwondo for Self Defense, then an ITF Patterns session.
Masters Rua Kaiou, Noel Keating, Neil Cliff and Phill Zdybel conducted the sessions which were enjoyed by all who took part.
Day 1
Day 1 of the Taekwondo championships on Saturday featured ITF Sparring and Patterns for both individuals and teams.
Participants came from:
New Zealand,
Perth,
Broome,
Ballina,
Hobart,
Sydney,
Adelaide,
Mildura,
Gippsland,
Mount Gambier and
Geelong,
metropolitan Melbourne.
The day ran like clockwork with some high quality performances and top level officiating. It all made for some very exciting contests and fair results.
Day 2
Day 2 was exciting with the Sunday including a visit from Arnold Schwarzenegger and his official entourage. They enjoyed a demonstration of all the martial arts on show including Taekwondo. Arnold was very impressed, he gave an inspiring speech to all participants at the end of the demo.
The competition component kicked off after Arnold’s visit and featured WTF Sparring, Poomsae and Teams Poomsae, along with Self Defense.
There were some very good performances from the large contingent of predominantly children who took part.
Thank you to all competitors who took part and those who came along and helped out as seminar instructors, officials and volunteers.
Special thanks to Master Noel Keating and Master Neil cliff for assisting with the running of the Saturday Championships. Thanks also to Master Murat Eryurek who assisted with the co-ordination of the Sunday events. Thank you also for the hard work of Kathryn Marmara-Stewart for her assistance over the 3 days.
Thank you also to event Sponsor Global Fitness Institute in donating medals, logistics and admin support.-
– Master Michael Muleta, Arnold Sports Festival Taekwondo Organizer
After a whirlwind tour of Australia that took in Melbourne and Sydney, President Choi and ITF Staff entourage flew across to New Zealand to help promote the ITF Special Needs program in Hawkes Bay.
The flight from Australia arrived at Wellington airport close to midnight and the touring party of Grandmaster Choi Jung Hwa (ITF President), Grandmaster Kim Jong Chan (ITF Pioneer), Grandmaster Trevor Nicholls (ITF Secretary General), Master Michael Muleta (Australian INO President) and Chris Jung (ITF Public Relations) cleared their way through customs and headed to the hotel for a nap.
In the morning the ITF Officials were greeted by NZITF Special Needs Instructor Ben Evans and Andy Meyer (Rotary Club). At this point GM Nicholls departed back for the UK and the group carried on with the NZ leg of the Australasian Tour.
The morning commenced with a visit to Wellington’s Parliament House for a meet and greet with Federal Minister, the Hon. Lawrence Yule for Tukituki. Both the Korean and Australian Flag flew alongside the New Zealand flag at the steps of parliament.
We carried on for a 4 hour drive up the East coast of New Zealand’s North Island headed for the seaside region of Hawkes Bay, with a few scenic stops along the way.
Upon arriving in Napier, the ITF Team settled in for the night to rest up for a very busy day 2 planned schedule, starting with a Special Needs promotional talk at the Hawkes Bay Rotary club breakfast.
After a warm welcome by the Rotary Club MC, Ben Evans gave an introduction of the ITF visiting party. President Choi Spoke first of the origins of Taekwon-Do and the importance of Do. This was followed by Grandmaster JC Kim giving the attendees an historical appreciation for Taekwon-Do. Master Muleta then spoke about the importance of the Special Needs initiatives, and the future direction of the movement on a global scale, and formally recognized the efforts of NZITF in this area.
The speeches were well received and guests were able to mingle after breakfast and chat about Taekwon-Do and the significant and important contribution and support given by Hawkes Bay Rotary club.
After breakfast the ITF party headed out to the Hohepa community farm, where special needs students develop life skills and confidence building activities from farming, agriculture, arts and crafts. cheese making among other things. Many of the special needs population at Hohepa are also involved in the Taekwon-Do program.
In the afternoon, President Choi Officially opened the Special Needs dojang donated by the Napier council and supported with funding from Hastings District Masonic Trust, with welcoming speeches, songs, Taekwon-do demonstrations and the ceremonial cutting of the ribbon.
From there the team headed off to Irongate school, the venue for that evenings Seminar. The students welcomed the ITF representatives with a very impressive and passionate Haka, the traditional Maori warrior chant.
The evening seminar was a huge success attracting over 100 participants integrating Special needs students with mainstream students. It also attracted local television and newspaper coverage.
President Choi was assisted by Master Muleta, as they ran students through a series of fundamentals, drills and tuls for over 2 hours. The session was high energy and lots of enthusiastic students added to the atmosphere.
The following day involved more meeting with local politicians and some well earned r&r for those who had been on the road for over 3 weeks of the Asia Pacific Tour.
We thank the ITF President, Grandmasters, Masters and ITF Staff for their support and also acknowledge the fine work being done in the area of special needs by Ben Evans of NZITF.
We are excited to announce that the Grandmaster Choi Jung Hwa, the Son of legendary Founder of Taekwon-Do Choi Hong Hi returns to Australia in January, 2018.
As part of an Asia-Pacific tour, Grandmaster Choi Jung Hwa will conduct an International Instructor course, incorporating a Masterclass, in Melbourne on January 27th – 28th, 2018
The IIC course is open to all persons 1st Gup and above, whilst the Masterclass is open to all ranks.
It is the first seminar conducted by Grandmaster Choi Jung Hwa since his last visit to Melbourne in 2013, and his 7th seminar visit.
All Taekwon-Do practitioners are welcome to participate.
The United ITF Open Vic Champs, recently held in Caroline Springs, and hosted by Thoroughbred Taekwon-Do, was a huge success.
of Anytime Fitness Caroline Springs.
Also promoted was his younger brother, and branch assistant, Corey Chin. Corey was promoted to 5th Degree Black Belt.
Anna Blake was promoted to 2nd Degree Black Belt along with John Vos promoted to 1st Degree.
on-Do
