ISSUE 4 December 2015 VOLUME 9

A word from the

CHIEF INSTRUCTOR

Breaking striving for perfection

moderntkd.com

upcoming events

Wishing the entire IMT family a safe

and happy holiday season.

See you in the new year for

another fantastic 12 months of

training

I want to wish everyone undertaking the final grading of the year all the best—especially the group attempting their Black Belt examination. The gradings are meant to challenge you in your unique training circumstances regardless of your belt level. The Black Belt test is the most challenging, as it examines everything you have learned since joining the organ-isation. If you have done all the hard work leading up to the grading then you will do well. Being well-prepared is the key to success in achieving your goals: either in the club, at school or in your personal life. Remember also that alt-hough it‘s hard, try not to be too nerv-ous—because your instructor would not let you attempt a grading unless they felt you were ready. Knowing that they have confidence in you should help you gain confidence in yourself. Good luck out there to all of you. We have had a very big year with the club breaking new records in club num-bers, class attendance and tournament participants. In October we held our third round in the IMT tournament series with Banyo winning the perpetual trophy for the first (and possibly not their last) time. I want to congratulate Tony and his team of very committed class members for a great showing. They are a very close-knit group that started as training partners and became close friends—it really shows in their attitude and support for one another. See the article in this newsletter for all results and a review of the day. My thanks to all those involved in making this our most successful series to so far. Without the competitors, judges and fam-ily supporters, these events would not be

The Christmas decorations are going up, and the clubs are holding their final les-sons and break-up parties, so that means the year is drawing to an end—again. As always, I would like to welcome all of our new members and hope you are en-joying your training with the IMT, and I also want to wish everyone the best for the holiday season. Check with your in-structor for details about when classes start back in 2016 and be sure to mark it in your calendar so you can be there from the start of the year and make the most of the upcoming years training.

what they are and could never be run to the standards we are now achieving. Last weekend a small group of us trav-elled to Melbourne for the Australian titles with Australian Martial Arts Cham-pionships (AMAC) where we had great success in our respective divisions. Jo-seph, Jason, Brett and I took out 1st place in the Teams demonstration with the demo we showed at our own tournament. Brett won 1st in points contact, 1st in free-style sparring and 4th in patterns. Jason placed 2nd in points sparring and 2nd in points contact sparring. Joseph placed 2nd in freestyle sparring, 4th place in points sparring. Ebony Eayrs won 1st place in sword, 2nd in sumo and 4th in points spar-ring. And I managed to win 1st in veter-ans freestyle sparring and a 2nd in veter-ans‘ points sparring. So we came away with 13 places from just 5 competitors. Next year it‘s been suggested there will be a day-long AMAC tournament on the northside of Brisbane. This is obviously local for our clubs, so I want to ensure we embrace this opportunity and take the competition by storm. Imagine if we turned up with 40-50 of our skilled mem-bers and cleaned up the divisions! The AMAC is very well-run and friendly, with the majority of competitors there humble and honourable in their approach to the event. So please get involved next year, chat to those that have competed, come along and give it a go. You never know…you could also become an Aus-tralian champion. Earlier in November we held our final training camp for the year at the Log Cabin near the Natural Bridge in the Gold Coast hinterlands. It was our third

By Peter Cameron

5th Degree Black Belt

Chief Instructor

Founder of IMT in Australia

kallangur .............. 2

amac titles ............. 3

deception bay ........ 3

bribie ...................... 4

master the art ....... 4

black belts ............ 5

murrumba ............... 6

banyo ..................... 6

tournament............ 7

redcliffe ................ 8

ormeau ................... 8

Kallangur By Eliot Wilson

2nd Degree Black Belt

time there and it seems to have become a new favourite location. The training was great, with all those attending putting in a great effort to take home as much from the weekend as possible. There was some very challenging sessions and some very technical sessions as well. I enjoyed mix-ing it up by throwing a ‗Tabata‘ workout at everyone—it‘s a high-intensity aerobic torture session that I am regularly sub-jected to when I go to aerobic classes of a morning. This involves ‗just‘ 20 seconds of high intensity exercise followed by a 10 second break, then another 20 seconds on/10 seconds rest. You do this for 8 rounds before moving to the next 5 dif-ferent exercises, — it‘s all over in 30 minutes. Doesn‘t sound too hard, does it? However, it is such a different style of training that it pushed even the fittest black belts and students beyond their comfort zone. At the end of each day we climbed down to the creek at the bottom of the hill for a well-earned dip in the very refreshing water (much like an ice bath recovery session!). The feedback for the weekend was great, with everyone

really enjoying the atmosphere and social spirit. My thanks to all those that came and made it such a fun weekend.

Speaking of social, in October the IMT held its yearly social event, with the theme of Rock Gods and Pop Stars. Eve-ryone got into the spirit and got dressed up in their best star kit. We had a karaoke machine to help the night‘s entertainment with $1500 worth of prizes given away throughout the evening. We had Michael Jacksons aplenty, Elvis was in the build-ing, a visit from a Bee Gees member, Freddie Mercury, a Kiss member, the Spice Girls (a bit bigger that I remem-bered them), the Blues Brothers and many, many more that made for a really fun night. Thank you to everyone who came along.

This year I had planned to undertake my 6th Dan grading, but a broken toe two weeks from the planned date put an end to that. So, the new date is set for May 2016—I‘ll confirm exact details as it draws closer. This is actually one of the reasons I competed in AMAC this year—I wanted to test myself as a way of pre-paring for the promotion. At my ripe old age of 52, I feel that I still have a lot to

achieve in my martial arts journey. I still love teaching and seeing the club grow from strength to strength, but just as I push others to challenge themselves and move up in rank, I too have to do the same. As I mentioned earlier, we have had our most successful year in numbers. This is evident at our all rank sessions with the most recent attracting over 50 members to the park for a very hot and sweaty session. The club has grown be-cause of the incredibly high standard of our instructors, and I want to thank them all for believing in me, and my vision for the club. You guys and girls are my ex-tended family and best friends—I mean that. In closing for the year, I hope everyone stays safe and has a great Christmas break. Remember to eat sensibly and don‘t overdo things during your time off, as it will just be all the harder to recom-mence in the New Year. Try to keep some elements of your own training up, practice your patterns and be back at class the day it starts back. See you all next year—and never forget to train hard, kick high and keep striving for perfection.

A word from the CHIEF INSTRUCTOR

news me personally it has been a tough one, with my wife Mel needing a brain oper-ation back in August, the other instruc-tors stepped up and made sure not only my family was looked after but the classes were never disrupted and every student continued to get the most out of training. It‘s this camaraderie that is on display all year round that makes me happy and proud to be part of such a great club. So quickly our focus will turn to 2016 and another promising year for the Kallangur Club. We will resume train-ing on Monday 1st February, well rested and full of enthusiasm for another ac-tion packed year. Until then Train Hard

to the 7 students who have been / are going to be promoted to First degree Black Belt in 2015, Congratulations to Amielle, Brandon, Matthew, Craig, Zak, Kara and Daniel, 7 black belts in one year is a great achievement, not only for the students and their courage and motivation, but as a demonstration of the strength of our club in general, particularly when at 11 years old Daniel and Amielle now rank among the youngest ever with IMT to achieve the rank of Black Belt. Well done to all of you. I would also like to thank the many In-structors and Black Belts from Kallan-gur and the other IMT Clubs who helped with our classes this year, for

What another big year for IMT and the Kallangur Club, as always I‘m sur-prised how quickly the year has gone. Time Flies when you‘re having fun! Firstly I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas and New Year and hope any travels or holidays are fun and exciting. It‘s been another positive year for your club, with everyone improving in leaps and bounds, all the way from White belts through to Black belts and be-yond. Obviously a special mention goes

AMAC Australian Titles

By Jason Pascoe

2nd Degree Black Belt

Train Hard and Keep Your Hands Up Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Signing Out

Hello from Tae Kwon Do Deception Bay So the year is nearly at the end with one final grading to complete. The students have been practicing strong so they can do well in their next grading. Congratulations to the competitors who went down to Melbourne and competed in the AMAC Australian Titles, I hear it was a complete success taking out a number of first & second places.

It has been a good year with all students getting good results in the tournament, it gave Deception Bay a good overall stand-ing in the points. The camps have been fun and challenging and have been run well. To all the students who are grading in De-cember, show strong commitment in your training and it will shine through at you grading. I will see you at the grading.

Deception Bay buzz

Throughout 2015, various members of IMT have bee competing in the

AMAC tournament series. On the weekend of the 25th - 27th of No-

vember, 5 members of IMT travelled to Melbourne to compete in the

Australian Titles.

Chief Instructor Peter Cameron led the invasion of IMT competitors

Jason Parker, Brett Parker, Joseph Sandona and Ebony Eayrs, along

with their partners and support crew.

We all arrived on Friday, spending our first day exploring the city. It

was a long day. Literally. The sun doesn‘t go down until 8:30pm!

But we were there for on thing, to compete. So on Saturday when the

competition started, we were focused and ready to go. The first event

on Saturday was the teams demonstration event. If you attended our

own round 3 tournament, you would have seen the demonstration being

performed. It was a large division, with many clubs having multiple

entries. But the event was won by team IMT, with much cheering and

applause from the crowd, as well as many positive comments from the

officials. It was great to get the competition off to a winning start. The

Patterns events were held next on the Saturday. Brett came away with

a 4th place in a very lagre and competitive division. Freestyle Sparring

followed. with all finals to be held the following day at the showcase

event. All of our divisions were large in size, usually between 15 & 20

competitors. Peter made the final of the Veterans division, and Brett

and Joe were to make it an all IMT final in the Black Belt Division.

Ebony and Jason missed out on results, but we helped our state in the

State of Origin competition. Each state competes against each other in

Junior and Senior Patterns and Sparring.

That evening, we all hit the town for a lovely meal and to reflect on the

days proceedings. It was nice to spend some time together out of uni-

form and to help each other focus for the following day of competition.

Sunday, was the big day. Points Sparring, Points Contact Sparing,

Sword and Sumo and of course, all of the finals. We would all have to

be on our game to make it to the finals. Ebony was up against a lot of

skilled opponents and finished the day with a 4th place in points spar-

ring. She also got a 1st & 2nd in sword and sumo respectively. Peter

made it to the finals of veterans points sparring, Brett and Jason made

another all IMT final for the points contact, and Jason made the final of

the points sparring. It was an impressive effort. Meaning in all of the

Black Belt divisions, there was someone from IMT to contest a final. 2

out of the 5 Black belt finals would be all IMT finalists.

The finals were held at the showcase event. There were many eyes

upon us and we didn‘t disappoint. Peter finished 1st & 2nd in freestyle

and points, Brett won both of his finals against Jason and Joe, and Ja-

son also finished 2nd in the points sparring division. A very impressive

haul from everyone.

We also received many respectful comments from other competitors,

coaches, spectators and officials on our conduct and style of sparring.

All in all, it was great to represent IMT again at a notional level and we

hope more of you will be inspired to join us in the future.

By Lee Griffith

2nd Degree Black Belt

pride and accomplishment both on the training floor and in life in general. We are indeed a most unique organisation, the envy of many other martial arts or-ganisations. Much is owed to the strong leadership of Peter Cameron, Jason Parker, Brett Parker, the Sandona boys and all the other instructors. From all in the Bribie club (with or without belts), we wish each and every-one a great festive season and a new year full of great opportunities in TKD.

Well, where has this year gone? It seems the older you get, the faster time seems to fly…unless you‘re waiting for a certain event, that is. It‘s been a year to celebrate the successes and achieve-ments of IMT and all of its clubs – large and small. The Bribie club, cur-rently small as it is, celebrates the achievements and growth of its own young members. With all of our older club members having gone off to the Army, to university…to careers, we‘re left with our small pod of young ones who have remained steadfast in their quest to achieve their personal goals in Taekwondo. With such a very support-ive band of families behind us, we can‘t go wrong. Towards the end of January, we‘ll run an Open Night or two in order to open our very ardent footy Bribie-ites‘ eyes

to what our organisation offers. Whilst our small band do well at the tourna-ments, we simply can‘t rake the points to compete with the larger classes……FOR NOW!!! Whilst not the competi-tive type, I look forward to challenging these larger clubs for the big prize one day. So when the points are read out at the end of each year‘s rounds of tourna-ments, we look forward to some cheers from you……cheers for the underdogs (with sand between their toes). As the year draws to a close, I wish to offer my heartfelt thanks to all mem-bers and families of our little club and also to the incredibly supportive and wonderful instructors and Black Belts for their unwavering understanding and caring through some challenging times. Thank you to all. May you all look back at your year with a great sense of

Hi everyone, The end of the training year is almost upon us and Bracken Ridge has had an exciting year. In addition to the usual training, we moved from Bald Hills into the new hall in Bracken Ridge and saw many new students start their martial arts journey. For many of them, this weekend is their first grading. We wish them and all the other new and old students alike all the best as they push themselves to-wards reaching their next rank. For many students, the last grading of the

those feeling like they have more energy to burn, or just want to work off your Christmas food babies; try going for a run or doing some push-ups or any other type of fitness you find fun or challenging. Setting yourself a goal each week is an-other great way to motivate yourself over the holidays. To add in some extra fun, challenge your class mates. Remember it doesn‘t matter what activity you choose to do, every bit of training helps. We hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday and look forward to seeing you all when class resumes next year on Feb-ruary 1st for Bracken Ridge.

year signals the end of training until clas-ses resume next year. Everyone has trained hard throughout the year and has earned a well-deserved rest, especially your instructors. For those of you who wish to do a little extra training during the break, there are a number of easy things you can do at home. One of the best things you can do at home is to practice stretching. A few raising kicks will do wonders to improve your flexibility. A few raises on each leg should only take a minute out of your day and can be done nearly anywhere. If you have trained so hard during the year that you don‘t even want to stand up, no wor-ries! You can stretch on the floor whilst playing a board game, your favourite vid-eo game or even just watching TV. For

By Joseph Sandona

3rd Degree Black Belt

Mastering the art

Bribie bulletin

GET TO KNOW YOUR BLACK BELTS

Kathy Pascoe

How old were you when you started TKD?: 37…..I know, what was I thinking?! How long have you been doing TKD?: Just shy of 7 years What age did you attain the rank of black belt?: 40.5 Why did you start TKD?: My eldest son Jackson

started 2 months before me (with my husband too) as I thought it‘d be good for discipline & respect, and I enjoyed watching them practice at home. So I decided to join also for fitness, self defence & self confidence. Why are you still doing TKD?: Tae Kwon Do for me has become part of my life. It‘s a release after a hard day at work…..it‘s incidental exer-cise…..it builds self-confidence …..it‘s something our whole family can do together…..and it‘s learning something new every lesson, while at the same time, sharing my knowledge with others too. Have you ever had any “bumps” in your TKD journey?: Apart from numerous injuries and some major surgery, at my first senior rank grading, knowing it was very fitness oriented, I freaked out while waiting outside the hall. It hit me that, being older and bigger than the majority, I didn‘t think I was going to be able to make it through every part of the grading. I have always struggled with having faith in myself and believing in my abilities. If it wasn‘t for my instructor, Tony, telling me I wouldn‘t be there if he didn‘t think I could do it, and Lee, telling me to just break it down and just look ahead to one section at a time (along with a look that could kill if I didn‘t get my belt on and line up), I couldn‘t have made it through. Sometimes it can be really hard to see in myself what others see in me. Which part of TKD did you struggle with the most along the way & why?: I have struggled with set sparring the most. I‘m not sure why, I just do. I try to work on it as much as I can, because that‘s the only way I‘ll overcome my issue with it. What do you enjoy most about TKD?: There‘s nothing I don‘t love about Tae Kwon Do (yes, even the fitness). I love the satisfaction of feeling shat-tered at the end of a hard class. I do also really love self-defense. Over the last couple of years, I have also gained a love for teaching and sharing the knowledge I have gained so far. What is your occupation?: I‘m a Service Officer for Dept of Human Ser-vices

Apart from TKD, what do you like to do in your spare time?: I‘m not exactly sure what ―spare time‖ is, but when we do get the odd occasion to

switch off, my family is always number 1. We love to go on road trips, and

over the last 2 years having covered most of NSW, VIC, TAS, and touching on SA. Next year we are planning on heading up to northern QLD. While

away on our trips, we normally try and squeeze in some snow skiing too.

Not to mention our love of travelling internationally too. In a nutshell, I guess, we just love to travel!!

What other sports have you done in your life?: While growing up I was always either swimming, playing netball, or playing softball. Tell us one thing we probably don’t know about you: Hmmm…..which one to tell? I used to compete in the woodchop arena at local shows around Queensland, and the Brisbane Ekka (and also once at the Royal Adelaide Show) doing crosscut sawing with my husband Shaun. We were once asked to represent Queensland to compete in NZ, but we were unable to as we were going to live in the UK for a year. By the time we came back from the UK, we decided to have children, and we missed our opportunity. I don‘t regret it though, as I wouldn‘t exchange being a mum for anything! Anything else you’d like to share? Never give up. No matter how hard things seem at times, you have to keep going, and keep believing in yourself.

Max Barron

How old were you when you started TKD?: 6 years old (2005)

How long have you been doing TKD?: 10 years

What age did you attain the rank of black belt?: 12 (2011)

Why did you start TKD?: Originally my dad and brother started when I was the

age of 4/5 so I was too young to start training, however I could not wait till I was old enough to start TKD

Why are you still doing TKD?: Just the group of friends between the whole club its like one big family. I cannot imag-ine my life without TKD

Have you ever had any “bumps” in your TKD journey?: Not that I can think of.

Which part of TKD did you struggle with the most along the way & why?: Probably when I was a black tip the time it took me to even be ready for my black belt was a long time. Just being told I wasn't ready hurt but eventually I believe it made me a better black belt.

What do you enjoy most about TKD?: Just the satisfaction of being an assistant instructor seeing the people that turn up on their first night turn into better martial artists.

What is your occupation?: I am a student currently in grade 11

Apart from TKD, what do you like to do in your spare time?: I like to play with my dog a lot and just general hanging out with friends.

What other sports have you done in your life?: I started swimming when I was younger at the same time as TKD

Tell us one thing we probably don’t know about you: I can‘t actually think of anything!

Anything else you’d like to share?: I like to joke around a bit saying that i was the one to start the trend of the younger modern day black belts but now that I am getting older and turning into a grumpy old man (Like John) it seems that the title has been passed down :)

Continuing in this issue of IMT‘s Breaking Ground Newsletter, is a new section called ―Get to know your Black Belts‖. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was completely scared and intimidated by the black belts, and at times to the point of being afraid to approach them. I‘m sure I wasn‘t the first to feel this way, and I won‘t be the last. So I thought it might be a good idea for all the black belts to put down on paper a few key points about themselves, to show that black belts are just like everyone else......that they all started at the bottom, I'm sure had some type of struggles along the way, and they also have a life outside TKD. The same questions have been asked of all black belts, and I‘ve been entertained and inspired by their responses. As you will see, all of the black belts took up TKD at varying ages, all have different strengths and weaknesses, but they all have a love for it that runs deeper than just a sport. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy getting to know your black belts a little better….. Kathy Pascoe 1st Degree Black Belt

Hi all and welcome to the new article for Mur-rumba. Thanks to all the students that sent in ideas – they were all very good. Congratulations to Vanessa who came up with the new name for the article. Not sure if it refers to the Instructor as being a maniac or the students…. As 2015 draws to a close, on reflection it has been a very up and down year. Personally it has been a very frustrating year of being unable to train at 100%. However after treatments the ankle is at about 80% and is improving. Unfor-tunately we also closed Burpengary which was a difficult decision. On the plus side I have been able to focus on the Murrumba club. We had a display at 2 fetes recently which have given us an influx of stu-

Murrumba students in wishing her the best of luck. Best of luck to all students from other clubs attempting their Black Belt. Many other students will be attending Saturday including four of our new students will be at-tempting their first grading – best of luck to Ben, Tyla, Josh and Charlotte. Hopefully this grading will be the first of many. With school holidays about to start I am sure all you kids will have heaps of time every day to practice your patterns and become perfect over the holidays. Murrumba class will be having their breakup on Thursday 10 December 2015 and will restart on 19 January 2016. Max and I would like to wish all students and parents a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Stay safe and will see you on the training floor in 2016.

dents. It is good to see all the new faces. Big thanks to all those students that helped with both displays, both were very hot days. The grading this Saturday will be a big day for Vanessa who will be attempting her 1st degree Black Belt. Vanessa was originally a Kallangur student who started on 2009 as a 15 year old. She took a break for a number of years and started back a few years ago deter-mined to achieve her Black Belt. Having known her so many years, I have seen her grow into a strong confident young wom-an. I am sure you will join me and all the

By John Barron

2nd Degree Black Belt

Maniacs Murrumba

By Tony Robinson

2nd Degree Black Belt

Wow what a good year we at Banyo have had. I‘m not just talking about winning the ―champion Club‖ title, although I must say that was a really sweet moment for us all. I am talking about how our little club has grown in both numbers and also as a real ―team‖. It gives me a real sense of pride to see all the young ones looking up to the seniors and asking for their help. On the other side of the coin, the senior mem-bers making sure everyone can get to class (offering lifts) and asking after others if they have missed a couple of les-sons and making sure everything is all right. We also held an exciting first round of the tournament series and were able to raise sufficient funds to pur-chase a whole heap of new equip-ment. We also won the club championship. Sure we have lost a couple of students, which I always tend to take personally, but I know we are just a part of everyone‘s extremely busy lives and this is sometimes unavoidable. We wish all those that have left us all the best for the future and hope to see them again.

worked her butt off and tried to implement every bit of advice she has been given since the very first day she walked in the door. With all hard work comes dividends. This is your day Zhane to reap them. Good luck. The whole class is behind you. Also we won the club championship. The sleeping giant has awoken. With the number of students we now have at black tip level, 2016 is looking to be an even better year for our club. With a bit of luck on grading day, next year will see us have potentially 8-10 students eligible to grade for black belt at some stage of the year. We also will hopefully have students doing Dan promotions next year. Bring it on. With my tiny little mind now running out of things to write about, it is time to wish all of you a merry Christmas and a happy and safe new year. Keep training hard. See you all in 2016.

But the big thing that puts a smile on my face is seeing all the students, whether they be young or old, grow as martial artists and as people. As an instructor, to look at the students today as compared to the day they walked into our class and see how they have grown in confidence, skills and fitness and the friendships they have made is some-thing that fills myself and my extremely dedicated assistants with a huge amount of pride. While talking about my assistants, I would just like

to thank them so much for all their help over the course of the year. The team loves them and I am at a loss to describe my gratitude. Did I mention we won the club championship. With this the last grading for the year, we have quite a few students looking for promotion. As well as quite a number of juniors, we also

have a few of our senior grades attempting really taxing gradings in the afternoon. We wish you well guys. We also have Zhane Fisher attempting her BLACK BELT examination at the end of the day. I couldn‘t be any more proud of Zhane. She has

“While talking about my as-sistants, I would just like to thank them so much for all their help over the course of the year. The team loves them and I am at a loss to describe my gratitude”

Banyo breakers

Tournament Round 3

In the middle of October, IMT held the all important 3rd and final round of our tournament series at the Murrumba Downs club. It was in this final round that all of the end of year grand champions would be decided, as well as the winner of the club trophy for 2015.

As always, there was great anticipation before each division started, as there was so many talented competitors, it was going to be an excellent display of Tae Kwon Do by every competitor.

All of the Patterns divisions were held first. Most of the divisions had more than 10 competitors, meaning to reach the final 3 would be quite an achievement. Angelean Blakey won the 10-7 Junior divi-sion, with the win sealing her the Grand Champion trophy. It was very close in the 10-5 Senior division, with only 6 points the dif-ference between 4th and 1st place by the time the division was complete. But finishing in 1st place was Jack Boswell. Well done to everyone who competed in this division, it was so close the entire year. Tristan French, Martin Husak and Blair Hornick all finished 3rd in this round, but after very consistent results throughout the year, they had all done enough to secure the Grand Champion tro-

phy for patterns in their respective divisions.

The junior and senior Black Belt divisions were won by Amielle Humphies and Jacinta Forbes. Jacinta went on to win the Grand Champion trophy over close rival Jacinta Manly. Amielle just missed out winning the Grand Champion to her own rival in Anthony Sgualdino, as both had been involved in several tie breakers throughout the year. Very inspiring divisions for everyone to witness.

After the patterns divisions were complete, the teams events started. There were only 3 teams this round, we would like to see some more next year, especially from the clubs who haven‘t had any teams for a while. For a bit of inspiration, the Chief Instructor along with Jason, Brett and Joe, showed the students and crowd the demonstration they have been performing at the AMAC tournaments. We hope to have inspired everyone to give it a go and get involved next year. After the demos, it was time for a quick lunch break with lovely burgers, drinks and sweets provided by the Murrumba class. It was all delicious!

After the break, we got underway with the Black Belt sparring divisions. These were a bit smaller than usual, but the standard as always was very high. The junior black belt division final between classmates Nick and Anthony was very close. But it was Antho-ny who won the final and the Grand Champion over Nick by a mere 3 points. Michael Loeken won the senior male division, but the win was not enough to catch Eliot Wilson for Grand Champion.

The Pee Wee division followed the black belts. It was a bit of a turnaround in intensity, but the division was still an excellent display of technique and enthusiasm. The final was between Haileigh Gleeson and Lachlan Smith. Both were able to get a result, with Haileigh winning the final and Lachlan winning the Grand Champion. With the tournament numbers growing so much over the last few years, there have been more and more divisions created to keep it all as fair as possible. All up now we have 15 sparring divi-sions, which means we have a lot of Grand Champions.

Much like the patterns, the quality of the sparring in each division was outstanding. It was exciting to watch each bout, with the re-sults so close each time. Cherrylean Blakey joined her sister on the winners podium, winning the 10-7 sparring and taking our Grand Champion. Ebony Earys, Sam Mowat, Zhane Fisher and Aaron Van Garderan all won their division in each round this year, so all were crowned Champions. It was much closer in other divisions however. Carter Pascoe took out Grand Champion over co-finalist Jayda White by only 4 points after winning their final. Gabby Spiller had done enough earlier in the year to win Grand Champion despite finishing in 2nd place against Mitchell Giesemann. Blaine Caslick, Devdan Ramaswarmy and Coban Parker made sure of their victories by winning in the final round to take home the major prize.

After the competition had finished, the only prize left to be decided was the club trophy for the club with the most 1st, 2nd and 3rd places throughout the tournament series. It was the Banyo club that took home the trophy this year, after leading the tally after every round. Congratulations to all of the students and instructors at the Banyo club, it was a deserving with for all of the hard work you

have done throughout the year.

We look forward to seeing you all again next year. We appreciate the support you have all shown the tournaments and we will hope to grow them even more in the years to come.

By Jason Parker

4th Degree Black Belt

Well, another training year has drawn to a close, but

before it finishes completely, I‘d like to have a look

back at the year that was 2015.

Early in the year we had an all rank and

a black belt training camp. I really love

camps, they offer so much to our stu-

dents and instructors. We don‘t refer to

them as the highlight of the training

year for nothing. If you missed any of

this years camps, make sure you get

along next year. You won‘t be disap-

pointed.

Following the camps, we kicked off the tournament

series, and right from round 1, it looked like the Banyo

club would be a strong showing. They continued to

Outside of the training environment, there has been a

great number of moments of support for our members

and their families. Thank you for supporting Melanie's

fundraising for the Leukemia Foundation, as well as

supporting her herself as she underwent he own major

operation. Thank you also for helping your instructor

if they have been sick or injured. We all find our-

selves less than 100% at some point, but if you‘re

operating at 50%, those around us pick up the slack to

keep things on track.

I look forward to another great year of training and I

hope you can continue the journey with us. Martial

Arts is something that can change your life. If you

stick to it and keep trying every day the benefits will

be worth it.

Have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year.

get good results throughout the rest of the rounds and

won their first club trophy. Redcliffe finished in 2nd

place this year, but we are always challenging and

performing well, so I look forward to next year to see

if we can win it back.

There has also been good attendances at the all rank

training sessions, so thank you to all students who

supported these. We put them on for your benefit and

it allows you to train with other

students and Instructors to advance

your training beyond your own

expectations.

The overall standard at the gradings

has been very pleasing to witness.

The Instructors from each club have

done a wonderful job of maintaining a high standard

for their students. Of course, they can only teach so

much, it is you who will learn and ally their lessons

and put in the strong performances at the gradings.

“The Instructors from

each club have done a

wonderful job of main-

taining a high standard

for their students

Redcliffe review

Ormeau By Troy Johnson

2nd Degree Black Belt report The Ormeau club will only be taking a very small break over the Christmas period and training will continue on the normal Mon-day and Wednesday nights with families being from 5.30pm-6.30pm and adults be-ing 6.30pm-8.00pm. We encourage and invite all students of IMT to train in our facilities if you wish to continue your train-ing over the holiday period! I would like to wish all students grading today the very best of luck and have one thing to say… ―GO HARD!‖ Special men-tion to Ormeau students grading, Warwick, Michael, Blayne, Zoe, Amber, Leam, Eliza-beth, and Lachlan! You will be fine today, shows us how you can smash through to your next belt! Good luck everyone! Merry Christmas and

a very happy new year to you all! We will see you in 2016 for a bright, training-filled

year!

been in Melbourne for the AMAC series. While I was waiting in the car I saw a man come walking out with his bag in one hand and a guitar in the other. This man was ob-viously waiting to be picked up at the end of what every journey he had just been on, so while he was waiting he took his guitar and started to practice. There is a lesson in this for every martial artist and that is never let a chance to practice go to waste, if you have some spare time you have time to practice. If you only train for the minimum you will only get minimum results. One of the things that I do personally is visualise. I will run through my patterns in my mind. I visualise which way I turn, visualise how I load a technique. You don‘t need a large amount of space to train however you do need a large amount of focus and motiva-tion to achieve your goals as this is your journey.

Welcome to the final report for the year from the Ormeau crew! Since our last article things have been pret-ty quiet down our end. However the class is loving being able to train in the new facili-ties. The endless resources to better our-selves including being able to mix training with gym has been fantastic. On top of this we have had the privilege of Chief Instruc-tor Peter Cameron taking our adult class and focusing heavily on helping our stu-dents to constantly improve. Thank you Pete for your continued time with us! On Sunday night I picked Peter and Mal-colm up from the airport after they had