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Master Ogbourne and Mr Black Seminars

On Saturday the 16th of June, Master Ogbourne (7th Dan) and Mr Black (6th Dan) conducted a seminar in Cuman Iosaf hall in Tralee. Mr Dalton introduced us to both gentlemen and told us Master Ogbourne was, no less than seven times world champion. The atmosphere was wonderfully relaxed and fun but at no time did we forget that they were 7th and 6th dans. The etiquette was excellent. The seminar was very informative and both gentlemen displayed a wonderful sense of humour with Master Ogbourne’s good natured ribbing of Mr Black who took it all in the spirit it was intended and laughed along with the rest of us. He started with colourbelt patterns and discussed openhanded techniques and their function and meaning. We then moved on to sparring drills aimed at improving speed and skill. We learned blocking techniques for use against both hand and foot techniques. Mr Black took over and introduced us to body combat. This turned out to be a wonderful aerobic workout using Taekwon-Do techniques all done to some great music. It is not too dissimilar to Taebo and was fantastic fun as well as a really good workout. Throughout the whole seminar both men stressed the importance of the Do part of Taekwon-Do. The explained how it’s not enough to practice the technical side but how we must live the art in order to be real Martial Artists. It is more than a sport it’s a way of life.

On the second day the seminar took place in Kanturk and took the form of a squad session with Master Ogbourne leading the team. After a good warm-up we worked on sparring techniques and focused mainly on the hands. Again the importance of the Do part was stressed and both men expressed their great admiration for Mr Dalton and how well he had trained us all, they complimented us on our sportsmanship and good etiquette. We learned some new ways to practice our sparring, the importance of not injuring our teammates and the use of good control when practicing sparring at club and squad level. Mr Black took over for the end and we practiced some more hand techniques. It was a week-end well spent and much information was gleaned. I cannot stress the importance of these events too much - there is so much information to be had at this kind of event and from some really senior Masters and Instructors. We are lucky that Mr Dalton puts so much effort into bringing these people over for us to learn from. I look forward to the next one and can’t wait to experience more of the same high quality instruction.