Club News

December 2010

Merry Christmas

NP Tae Kwon Academy would like to wish all of it's students and their families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year when it comes.  See you all back in January for what we hope to be another sucessful year.

Christmas Party - Postponed

Due to the poor weather conditions, the NP Tae Kwon Do Academy Christmas Party has been postponed.  This will now take place on Friday 14 January 2011 at the Function Room, Jokers Bar, Dunfermline.

November 2010

Black Belt League

The second Black Belt League took place at Bo'ness Recreation Centre on Saturday 20 November.  The league started with Black Belt confirmations for those who had not been able to attend the Black Belt seminar earlier in the year.  After passing her 2nd Degree earlier this year, Louise Purves confirmed to 2nd Degree and was prepared with her new belt in her bag ready for to wear at the competition!!  All of the NP Tae Kwon Do black belts did well in their various sections and Andrew Miller had to familiar faces join him in the 2nd Degree Patterns section with Louise Purves and Dougie Chalmers being promoted this year.  With one league to go, the Black Belts are waiting to find out how they are placed overall for the year.

Colour Belt Gradings

The final colour belt grading of the year managed to take place before all of the snow started allowing 80 colour belt students to sit their gradings.  The year finished on a high with all 80 students passing including 3 new adult white belts grading for the first time.  For some however, it was a long wait to find out their grading results with classes being cancelled due to poor weather conditions.

October 2010

Black Belt Grading 

The second black belt grading of the year was another busy one for NP Tae Kwon Do Academy.  The national gradings came first on Saturday 30 October with 4 Black Belt students sitting their national gradings.  The national gradings then took place on Sunday 31 October and after a very long day Dougie Chalmers and Fraser Barratt both along with a number of black belt candidates were happy to hear that they had successfully passed their gradings.

Congratulations to the following students

  • Nik Purves, promoted to 4th Degree, level 4
  • Andrew Miller, promoted to 2nd Degree, level 2
  • Dougie Chalmers, promoted to Probationery 2nd Degree
  • Paul Gowens, promoted to 1st Degree, Level 1
  • Lesley Mealing, promoted to 1st Degree, Level 1
  • Fraser Barratt, promoted to Probationery 1st Degree

Final Interclub Competition

The final interclub competition of the year took place at the Mariner Centre in Falkirk on Sunday 10 October.  It was an early start for the rainbows who were lined up and ready to go at 9am.  As the rainbow sections started there were numerous medals coming to the classes that make up NP Tae Kwon Do Academy including from those students competing from our new classes in Touch and Cowdenbeath.  After a Black Belt demonstration from members of the Scottish National teams it was the juniors turn to take to the floor.  Again there were a number of successes across all of the clubs which set a high standard for our adult competitors to live up to.  The adults didn't disappoint with Gold for patterns in Yellow Belt / Green Belt section and Blue Belt and above.  This was in addition to several other medals for our adult competitors.  With the colour belt competitions finished for the year, the colour belts are now waiting to find out if they have managed to achieve and overall award for the year which will be announced at the Christmas party in December.

September 2010

Black Belt Technical Seminar

This year's Black Belt Technical Seminar was a momentous occasion for UTF Scotland as it was the first event to held at 'The Dojang', Master Brown's full time hall in Armadale.  Mr Purves was joined by 2nd Degree Andrew Miller for the first day of the Technical Seminar.  After going through the technical aspects of some of the 2nd Degree patterns, Mr Miller left for the day leaving Mr Purves with the rest of the seniors across the association to cover 3rd and 4th Degree patterns.

Day 2 and Mr Purves and Mr Miller were back to the Dojang nice and early accompanied by 1st Degree students Dougie Chalmers, Paul Gowens and Lesley Mealing.  After spending the morning covering technical aspects of 1st Degree patterns the seminar went on to cover other technical areas including one step sparring.  The day then ended with the presentation of belt and black belts certificates for those new Black Belts who had confirmed on the day.

Club Grading

The third club grading took place on Thursday 2 September at Kelty Community Centre.  Once again the standard was high with examiners Mr Scott and Mr Purves commenting on the standard across all of the students.  As the grading also covered the Bannatynes adult class it was an opportunity for the juniors to watch Black Belt instructors Louise Purves and Dougie Chalmers sparring some of the adults going for higher graded belts, something they don't often get the opportunity to see.  We are happy to announce that all of the students were successful in achieving their new grade including the new white belts who were grading for the first time.  Now that hard work begins for those students with new patterns getting ready for the final colour belt competition of the year.

August 2010

New Classes Opening

NP Tae Kwon Do Academy continues it's expansion across Dunfermline and it's surrounding area with the launch to two new clubs.  A new club at Touch Commuity Centre, Dunfermline has been launched under the instruction of Black belt instructor, Lesley Mealing on a Friday evening.  The second will launch at the end of August on a Tuesday evening at Beath High School, Cowdenbeath under the instruction of Black belt instructor, Dougie Chalmers.  For more information on either of these classes, or any of our other classes in Dunfermline and Kelty, check out the 'About Us' section of the website.

July 2010

Korea Results 

NP Tae Kwon Do Academy students return successful from the recent ITF World Championships, held in South Korea. This was a particularly historic event as not only did the ITF run a joint tournament with the Olympic style WTF based in the South, but it was the first time that ITF Tae Kwon Do has ever been televised in South Korea.

The competition took place in the Olympic Arena over 5 days, with 50 countries represented at the event and with over 700 competitors it was always going to be tough to reach medal placings - some of the divisions having to be run over 3 or 4  "pools" of competitors!  A fantastic opening ceremony kicked off the event:  traditional Korean dancing, a Taekyon demonstration, outstanding breaking demonstration and Tae Kwon Do moves set to music all entertained the crowd, along with the customary speeches from the President of the WTF, the President of the ITF Grandmaster Choi Jung Hwa and the Mayor of the CheongJu Region.

First up to compete from NPTA was Paul Gowens. This was Paul's first international tournament. He enjoyed the experience of competing in the 1st Degree patterns but went out in the first round.

Following this were Louise Purves and Andrew Miller who represented Scotland in large 2nd Degree female and male groups but the judges votes weren't going Scotland's way.  For 1st degree patterns, Dougie Chalmers and Lesley Mealing won their way through the first round of the male and female patterns respectively, but couldn't progress further. Mr Purves had a considerable wait for his 4th degree pattern section and being in the 2nd pool of a very large division. Sadly it was over all too quickly with a close match against the US competitor. 

In the sparring Louise competed in the welter weight sparring division and unfortunately was defeated by the more experienced Spanish competitor in the early rounds. Next up was Lesley who was the only Scottish fighter in the middle weight sparring division and put up a great fight for her first international tournament as a black belt, fighting well and winning against the US.  However, she was defeated in the next round in a close fight against the English competitor.

In the senior sparring Paul had the thrill of being on the centre stage for his match and he enjoyed every minute of his first round fight against the 5th degree Russian but couldn't convert this to a 2nd round.  It was an unbelievably busy tournament which meant that there could sometimes be a considerable amount of waiting about until a competitors name was called to fight.  This perhaps took its toll on the male competitors, with only Andy fighting beyond the first round. 

 In the team sparring the Scotland team including Mr Purves, Andy Miller and Dougie Chalmers were the only team to take Argentina to 4 fights before defeat in the first round of the males team sparring, with each member putting up a good fight against their opponents. Argentina went on to win the World Championship title.  The male team also did well with a bronze in the special technique - the USA taking the title with a great jumping performance in what was a very tough section. 

In the male team power test Scotland were storming ahead but a break in the punch technique was enough to secure the US yet another team gold.  The men were tied for 2nd place and it went to 3 extensions before England missed the turning kick technique, Scotland taking a well-deserved silver.

Master Brown was also personally presented with a penant by the President Grandmaster Choi Jung Hwa, a great finish to a fantastic championships for Scotland.   The medal awards and closing ceremony completed what has turned out to be an outstanding performance by Scotland under the coaching of Master David Brown, out of the 19 competitors, the Scots amassed 22 medal placings between them all consisting of 13 individual medallists and 9 team placings.  with unprecented medal placings at a World Championship event.

May 2010

Colour Belt Grading

The second Colour Belt grading took place May, and again the grading had to be split over 2 nights!  The week started with the adults being put through their paces.  The rainbows and juniors then went on to grade later in the week taking the number of students being assessed to almost 60.  After what was a busy week for the instructors, examiners and students all of the students are now waiting to find out how they got on!

Interclub Tournament

The second Interclub Tournament of the year took place at the Mariner Centre, Falkirk on Sunday 16 May.  NP Tae Kwon Do Academy had a good turn out again with 26 students taking part across the rainbow, junior and adult categories winning almost 40 medals and trophies (at the last count!) Take a look at our photo gallery to see some of our winners.

March 2010

Imperial Scotland Scottish Championships

The Imperial Scotland Scottish Championships took place on Sunday 28 March in Dalkeith, Edinburgh.  Black Belt Students Andrew Miller, Louise Purves (2nd Degree) and Lesley Mealing (1st Degree) were part of the UTF Scotland group who attended the event.  It was a good day and an opportunity for the students to compete against some of the people that they will be competing with in Korea later this year.  Well done to everyone who took part and our medal winners; Andrew Miller - bronze under 76kg, Louise Purves - bronze 1st/2nd degree patterns, bronze under 65kg sparring.

ITF World Championships, South Korea

5 members of the NP Tae Kwon Do Academy will be traveling to South Korea this July as part of the Scotland Squad along with Chief Instructor, Mr Nik Purves.  Final team selections are still to be made however good luck to the following students who will be taking part.

  • Andrew Miller, 2nd Degree
  • Louise Purves, 2nd Degree
  • Dougie Chalmers, 1st Degree
  • Paul Gowens, 1st Degree
  • Lesley Mealing, 1st Degree

Black Belt Gradings

The weekend of 13/14 March was a busy weekend for the NP Tae Kwon Do Academy instructors and assistant instructors.  On Saturday 13 March, Mr Nik Purves and Mr Dougie Chalmers both sat a national grading.  They were then joined on Sunday 14 March by fellow instructor Mrs Louise Purves, black belt Mr Paul Gowens and black tag Fraser Barratt for the first Red Belt and above seminar of the year.  The seminar lasted a full morning covering technical aspects of colour belt patterns, 1 step sparring and self defence.  As always the seminar was enjoyed by all participants and they all came away from it feeling that they had learnt something new. 

Following on from the seminar, Mrs Louise Purves (the only 2nd Degree and above candidate) went on to sit her 2nd Degree under examiner Master Brown.  After a long afternoon for everyone Louise successfully passed her 2nd Degree along with a number of adults and juniors who successfully passed their black belt grading.  Assistant instructor Miss Lesley Mealing also confirmed to 1st Degree black belt.  Congratulations to

  • Mr Nik Purves, promoted to 4th Degree, level 3
  • Mrs Louise Purves, promoted to probationary 2nd Degree
  • Mr Dougie Chalmers, promoted to 1st Degree, level 3
  • Miss Lesley Mealing, confirmed to 1st Degree

February 2010

UTF Scotland Scottish Championships

The first UTF Scotland Scottish Championships took place at Grangemouth Sports Complex on Saturday 27 February.  The day was a great success with 47 of our colour belts and black belt taking part.  The day started nice and early with the rainbows starting of the day, followed by the colour belt juniors and adults.  After a quick break and change of clothes it was time for the black belts to begin their events.  After a long day of competing and officiating we took back a number of medals and trophies including a number of Scottish Champions including Chief Instructor, Mr Nik Purves taking 2 Scottish titles.  Watch out for a full list of all of our winners.

Black Belts

  • Nik Purves - Bronze 4th/5th Degree Patterns, Gold Male Heavyweight Sparring, Gold Male Power Destruction
  • Andrew Miller - Silver 2nd Degree Patterns, Bronze Male Power Destruction
  • Louise Purves - Silver 1st Degree Patterns
  • Dougie Chalmers - Gold 1st Degree Patterns
  • Lesley Mealing - Bronze Ladies Lightweight Sparring, Bronze Ladies Special Technique, Bronze Ladies Power Destruction

Bannatynes Colour Belts

  • Fionnbar Lennihan - Gold White/Yellow Belt Patterns
  • John Woodrow - Silver White/Yellow Belt Patterns
  • Iain Lyle - Gold Red Belt Heavyweight Sparring
  • Lee Wallace - Gold Green/Blue Belt Patterns, Silver Low Grade  
  • Female Sparring
  • Connor Tomlin - Gold Yellow/Green Belt Sparring, Gold Yellow/Green Belt Jumping
  • Nathan Woodrow - Gold Green Belt Patterns, Bronze Green Belt Sparring 
  • Scott McCusker - Bronze - Yellow/Green Belt Jumping

Bannatynes Juniors

  • Abigail Campbell - Gold Yellow Belt Sparring
  • Josh Prest - Silver Brown Belt Stances, Bronze Brown Belt Jumping 
  • Ewan Robinson - Gold Brown Belt Sparring
  • Kaitlan McIntyre - Bronze Yellow Belt Sparring
  • Rachel McIntyre - Gold Orange Belt Jumping

Kelty

  • Kieran Elder - Gold Purple Belt Stances, Bronze Purple Belt Jumping 
  • Kyle Anderson - Gold Brown Belt Stances, Bronze Brown Belt Jumping 
  • Brandon Yorke - Bronze Orange Belt Sparring
  • Morgan Dow - Gold Green Belt Sparring, Gold Green Belt Jumping
  • Dean Lockhart - Bronze Yellow Belt Sparring
  • Declan Morgan - Silver Yellow Belt Sparring
  • Craig Morgan - Bronze Green Belt Sparring, Gold Green Belt Jumping 
  • Lewis Hill - Gold Yellow Belt Patterns, Bronze Yellow Belt Sparring, Gold Yellow Belt Jumping 
  • Callum Giffen - Silver Yellow Belt Jumping

 

1st Colour Belt Grading of 2010

The first Colour Belt grading took place at the start of February.  Due to the large number of students going for their next belt the grading had to be split over 2 nights!  The week started with the adults being put through their paces including white belt students George Watters and Erika Anderson.  The rainbows and juniors then went on to grade later in the week taking the number of students being assessed to 70.  After what was a busy week for the instructors, examiners and students all 70 students passed their grading including 8 white belt candidate who were grading for the first time. Well done to everyone who took part.

1st Black Belt League of 2010

The first Black Belt League of 2010 took place on Saturday 6 February at Boness Recreation Centre.  Mr Purves along with 5 of his Black Belt students attended the event both competing and officiating throughout the day.  All 6 Black Belts did really well with Mr Purves making his mark on the heavy weight male sparring and power destruction and Black Belt instructors Dougie Chalmers and Louise Purves putting themselves in a good position to take the gold and silver in the 1st Degree patterns.  Andrew Miller, Kevin Whitelaw and Lesley Mealing also put on a strong performance in each of their respective categories throughout the day again putting themselves in a good position for the forthcoming Scottish Championships.

January 2010

Interclub Tournament

The first Interclub Tournament of 2010 took place at the Mariner Centre, Falkirk on Sunday 31 January.  NP Tae Kwon Do Academy achieved a personal best with 50 colour belts taking part across the rainbow, junior and adult categories winning an impressive 80 medals and trophies (at the last count!)  This was a great start to the year with a number of students taking part in their first ever competition including 3 of our new adults.  This was also the busiest Interclub to date with well over 250 competitors and really helps to get our colour belts ready for the Scottish Championships at the end of February.  Take a look at our photo gallery to see some of our winners.

Happy New Year

NP Tae Kwon Do Academy would like to wish all of it's members and their families a happy new year and look forward to another successful year.