And that's that.

So, a couple of posts later and here we are. The end is in sight. We leave for Korea tomorrow morning. We head for London, then London to Dubai (I'm looking forward to being on the big A380!) and then Dubai to Seoul in South Korea. It's a long bloomin' flight, something like 18 hours and this blog would rather be on Terra firma at all times!

The last year has been a whirl wind. It flew by. The preparations for this grading have been like no other to date. I've been juggling a lot of things in the last couple of months. Obviously our competitors who will be fighting in Korea have taken up most of my time with some intense training, I've been busy in work and also working on the ITF Ireland publicity committee for some weeks now too. But all in all I've handled the pressure OK, Donna may tell you different!

As everyone will know at the start of this blog I was destined to grade under Aidan Walsh. One of the Taekwon-Do pioneers in Ireland and the fifth Taekwon-Do black belt having graded in 1973. That idea took a bit of a nose dive, not due to anything with with Mr Walsh of course. In fact he helped me a great deal with preparations with my thesis.

The best move of the last year for me was rejoining ITF Ireland as an independent school affiliated to the ITF and so Red Star Sport Taekwon-Do was born.
Rejoining gave me this wonderful opportunity to grade in South Korea, the home of Taekwon-Do. I'm still reeling about that bit!

So in all I guess I'm happy with my preparations. I recapped all the patterns today and all the step sparring, 3, 2 and 1 step. The self defence will be a doddle, thank Lee Morrison for that :)
The patterns are good I think, if I can keep the nerves at bay on the day they should roll off the tongue.

My thesis is done. I could have written forever about the history of Taekwon-Do in Ireland but I hadn't got forever so I limited it to 20 pages and stopped at 1984 when the big split happened. I have the urge to continue writing however. I've been in touch with the masters of the RITA and they think it would be a good idea to continue with that piece of work, and I think I will. The information I have is priceless. I have a very special thanks to pay to both Master Robert Howard junior and Senior Master Howard VIII for all their help in my preparations and study for the thesis, I could not have concluded it without their help. I hope to see them again soon to continue the project.

I would also like to thank Aidan Walsh for some tit bits he gave me while we were spending time together training. I hope to revisit our conversations again soon.

In training, I really kept a watch on myself for this grading. Thanks to Jim Faulkner who trained along with me while he prepared for his fifth degree test, they were useful sessions on a Sunday.

Thanks to John Malone who gave me his 15 volume encyclopedia to study for the test, they came in very useful.
The theory is going ok. I hate memorising stuff, it reminds me of school! But the theory of power, training secrets, composition of Taekwon-Do, definition of Taekwon-Do and the moral culture are all well and truly on the disc, I just hope it comes off the disc in the right order!

My fitness levels are good. I don't think I have been in better shape ever, although my ma says i'm too skinny - ma's wha? (as we'd say in Dublin)

My biggest thanks for helping me prepare though goes to a non Taekwon-Doist. Physio Orlagh Sampson who pin pointed the problem in my creaky hips, it wasn't my flexibility, obviously as I could do two near perfect front splits, but my tight hip flexors and not so strong core. Her strength and conditioning home work have really helped my kicks...


See!
So a big thanks to her for her advice and professionalism.

Other people I have to thank would be of course by Master Dalton for spending time with me on some of the finer points of the patterns, Néídín for persevering with my step sparring faux pas, and of course the boss, Donna who had to put up with my crankiness as I prepared. I nearly had to do real self defence once or twice there :D

The World Championships

As for the Worlds, I have it in my head what I'd like to achieve with the guys but in my head is where it will stay to keep pressure off them. I am certain though that win, lose or draw they will perform well and for the first time on such a large stage a good performance is all I'm asking for. Although I have a hunch they will do a bit more than just perform well, just like my grading, it's in the lap of the gods.

I have to say that the amount of effort and training they put in has been commendable. They are gelling very well as a team and they are very confident, but not at all cocky, this is important. Both Adam and Alvy had to make a weight lower than there normal fighting weights and in fairness to them they got stuck in, they stuck to their diet plans that I put together (thanks to a few years working in the sports nutrition industry!) and their training and now Alvy is a lean 71kg's - down from a lean 76kg's! and Adam is 64kg's down from 68kg's. Both were carrying hardly any waste to start with so fair play to them!

Neidin is down to 68kgs and Donna is heading for 60kg's down from 68 which is a real jump! The cross trainer twice a day and a diet of fish and veg is the secret!

Erika and Lauren, lucky them they didn't have to make weight at all but both dropped weight due to training so every one is super fit.

In conclusion I would like to thank all of you (I think there are more than 7 people who read this!) for sticking along and sending me emails and texts wishing us all the best, you guys are true friends. So sin sin.

I'm going to try and twitter some reports from Korea if I can when we're over there so keep an eye on our website www.redstar-tkd.com or our twitter page www.twitter.com/redstarTKD

It's over to you an Badb Catha, the ancient Irish Goddess of War, death and rebirth. Bring me fortune.



:-D