Events Diary 2013

Unite Tae Kwon Do kicks off 2012 with two successful workshops...

Self Defence Workshops


On February 11th Unite TKD hosted two, well-attended self defence workshops for junior and adult students. The workshops were taught by Mr Terry Neill, a red belt in Tae Kwon Do, but also an accomplished 2nd Dan black belt Instructor in Ju Jitsu.
The workshops covered techniques transferable to the TKDSOE grading syllabus, including: take downs, sweeps, wrist locks, ground defence, throws and knife defence. Each workshop finished with a pressure test drill in which each student had to defend against the other students using techniques they had learnt and practised earlier.


Unite Instructors, Sarah and Kai Wilson, were really pleased with everyone that took part. Sarah said, “Everyone that attended came away with some effective techniques they can use in their training. It was brilliant to see even some of our newest white belt students dealing confidently with attackers in the pressurised end drill. Well done to them! A big thank you also to Mr Neill for sharing his passion for self defence.”


The club plans to hold further self defence workshops in the future.


Click HERE for a link to the video of this workshop.

Escrima workshops


On January 27th Unite hosted two weapons workshops taught by Master Russell Perks, Mr Matthew Ballard and Mr Cameron Lowe. In 2011 Master Perks gave Unite students an introduction to the stick and knife fighting art from the Philippines. The event was so successful that another workshop was sure to attract students eager to learn more. 38 students- adults and juniors- attended in total, including lots of new white belt students.
Students covered lots in the sessions; including coordination drills, single stick disarms, double stick and stick and knife drills. The juniors also got chance to hit Mr Ballard, which they all seemed to enjoy very much! Luckily for him he was wearing protective armour.


Unite Instructors Sarah and Kai Wilson are definitely looking to put on further weapons workshops in the coming months, as it adds something different to their students’ knowledge base, but also provides transferable skills that they can use in their Tae Kwon Do training.


A big thank you to Master Perks, Mr. Ballard and Mr. Lowe for a great weapons class.


Click HERE for a link to the video of the workshop.

Tae Kwon Do Club Kicks Its Way To Fundraising Success

Unite Tae Kwon Do, recently held a sponsored Kickathon to raise money for a charity that helps young people through difficult times.

The target was for each student to do 1,000 kicks in an hour; a target which they smashed! Unite Chief Instructors Kai and Sarah Wilson were really pleased by the amount of money their students managed to raise; a total of £1,241.10. This money was then doubled via The Big Give website as part of a Christmas Challenge.

Kai Wilson said, “We never expected to raise that much money, but we’re so pleased with how our students got behind the Kickathon. The event was a great success and everyone completed the kicks with a smile on their face. For a small club we have a big heart.” Sarah added, “It was great to see junior and adult students working together and having fun for a good cause.” 

The charity This Way Up exists to support young people who are struggling with life changing events such as the divorce or separation of their parents or the death of someone close. Their team of trained volunteers go into schools and work with young people through their small group course “Lost & Found” or 1:1 sessions. The money raised will go towards helping the charity acquire a building from which to run more courses, facilitate additional counselling and train volunteers from around the UK.

The Kickathon coincided with the celebration of Unite Tae Kwon Do’s first year anniversary. In the year since they opened the club has gone from strength to strength and now has a good number of students who train with them twice a week. The club is run by 3^rd Dan black belts Kai and Sarah Wilson and has classes for children and adults in Stourton and Kinver. If you would like to find out more about Unite please contact Kai and Sarah via the club website: www.unitetkd.co.uk.

UPDATE- My 100,000 technique challenge- nearly 4 months on

Wow, this challenge is more difficult than I imagined it would be! It’s still slow-going and I am currently on just under 30,000 punches. I’m persevering and trying to make time to punch when I can, but it’s definitely going to take me more than 6 months. And that’s OK... I will get there.

I spoke with a few people on the last Masterclass and they were finding it difficult too, so I guess I’m not the only one. I don’t want to be hard on myself for not being on target, so rather than feel bad I need to just remember how many I have already done- that’s quite an achievement in itself. I just worked it out and I’ve probably spent around 30 hours on the challenge so far. That’s actually a really long time!

November has also been a bit of a strange month; I have been for 2 lots of x-rays on my right wrist. I’m not getting pain from punching at all, but I injured my wrist/hand a few months back and it hasn’t been right since. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint!) I can’t put any weight on my wrist when it’s pushed back, i.e. to do press-ups, burpees, squats etc. I have been training around this, but I’m still waiting to find out exactly what’s wrong. It may be tendonitis, as nothing much showed up on the x-rays. It has made me a bit more cautious about punching, especially on the days where I’ve been getting pain. I have been doing lots of the punches into the air, which isn’t as satisfying as hitting a pad! But, like I said, punching doesn’t seem to cause the pain, so I am carrying on with the challenge.

I wonder what December will bring…

I will let you know how I’m getting on next month.

Sarah Wilson x

UPDATE: I realised I never did update the blog with how I got on with the challenge in the end! My final total was 35,500 between 7th August 2011- 8th January 2012. Not bad for 5 months, but nowhere near 100,000! 

Since that time I have continued training with Geoff Thompson after being invited to do his Black Belt Course. Over the course of my training with Geoff my punching has improved considerably after working with him and other amazing punchers on improving my technique. Still working hard and still loving it...

My 100,000 technique challenge- 2 months on

September was not a great month for my 100,000 technique challenge; after August and the luxury of my 6 week summer holiday, I had got accustomed to being able to use my time how I wanted and September came as quite a shock. While August had been the month of excuses, September became the month of how-on-earth-am-I-going-to-fit-all-this-in??!!

So, I’m back at work and finding it hard, but today I did manage to break the 20,000 punches milestone; I’m a fifth of the way there and I am back on track after a tough month.

This month I have learnt lots….

I learnt that sometimes I need to use my time better. We all have the same 24 hours and what we choose to do with those hours determines how successful we are. Geoff Thompson devotes a chapter to this in his book, “The Elephant and the Twig”. My working week is sometimes a bit manic; I have my day job, I teach Tae Kwon Do two nights a week and I try and get my own training in during the week as well. It’s pretty full-on and can be exhausting. So, I have been looking at the things in my life that I could reduce, get rid of or improve (long journey to work, spending too long on the internet on pointless things, getting the right amount of sleep…) After chatting to Geoff and Sharon, I have been thinking about how to be more creative with my 24 hours to ensure that I finish the challenge in roughly 6 months.

I’ve also learnt that sometimes I do need to slow down and listen to my body. There’s a nasty cold going round and I caught it last month. It knocked me off my feet, which is quite unusual for me. The whole time I was ill I felt guilty for not being able to work, teach or punch and after a couple of weeks of feeling run-down I was really missing exercise and training. I wasn’t a happy bunny. I realised that I am quite guilt-driven and feel bad if I don’t continue to keep ticking things off the big to-do list that I carry around in my head. That’s not to say I want to lead a life of sloth, but maybe I could be a little kinder to myself when I don’t manage to get it all done and when I don’t get it perfect all the time.

I spoke to Geoff and Sharon about having missed a couple of weeks (felt like I was back at school and confessing to not having done my homework- which I only ever had to do once I think!! I was a good girl, me.) They were really reassuring. It’s more the commitment to the challenge and the things you learn from doing it that are important, rather than how long it takes. Saying that, I do want to complete the challenge in as short a time as possible. Like they said, there’ll be more of a sense of achievement that way.

So, I’m not sure what this next month will bring. In the 3^rd Masterclass, which was last weekend, Geoff talked about the power of imagination. A good place to start October would be to imagine big things and then start making them happen, I guess…

I’ll let you know how I’m getting on next month!

Sarah Wilson x