We have come to the end of our May Masters Seminar and Scottish Tournament. It has been another great start to the summer of Kuk Sool Won™

WKSA | Scottish Championship from Sean Campbell on Vimeo.

Master’s Seminar

First was the Glasgow area Masters Seminar. It’s always an honour to host Kuk Sa Nim and some of the highest level Masters in the world. We had a special treat with a lesson in pressure points from SSKJN Barry Harmon, a world renowned expert on the subject, and self defence techniques with SIKJN Alex. Special thanks to everyone who came along, we wouldn’t be able to host great events such as these without your continued support each year. I personally learned so much from this seminar and hope everyone there embraced the opportunity and made the most of it!

National Testing

After a few days rest, the Scottish Tournament all kicked off early on Friday morning with National Testing. This is where students of Kuk Sool Won™ all come together to grade for their next Black Belt rank in front of the Grandmaster. As KSW Glasgow were helping organise the tournament, we arrived bright and early at 7am (2 hours before it started) to ensure the hall was set up correctly and ready to go. This gave me two hours of going through the usual pre-testing nerves, followed by excitement, followed by nerves. We had our largest ever KSW Glasgow testing group at the Grading. It put an end to my nerves to see them all arrive on time and looking eager to go. It’s always great to see everyone I have been teaching pushing themselves and rising to the occasion at National Testing.

Tournament

We also had our largest ever competition team, with 16 students competing from Glasgow and 10 from Stirling. Glasgow managed to take home 94 points and Stirling 41 in total. We had a moment of excitement when Master Alex was announcing the top 5 school awards when he announced “in 5th place with ninety…”, followed by a bit of disappointment when he followed with “…nine points” and then excitement again when it was Paisley who managed to get a top 5 finish. Massive congratulations to SBN William and the Paisley students for a great result and everyone else who competed to make the tournament a great success with a very high standard throughout.

Promotions

The final event of the weekend, the Master’s Exhibition, kicked off with the new promotions. Massive congratulations to Craig who promoted to Jo Kyo Nim (1st Dahn Black Belt). JKN Craig began training at KSW Inverness with Master Ian Cameron and has trained with us for the last year whilst studying at University. He’s worked hard and come a long way in a year and was great to see him promote and receive his Black Belt.

We also want to say an extra special well done to Fiona who also received her Black Belt. JKN Fiona was one of the first students at our School and is the very first to make it all the way from White Belt to Black Belt at KSW Glasgow. She’s had to come through a lot in the past few years and has never given up or taken any time off. In true Fiona fashion she even managed to break her toe a few weeks before testing and still managed to complete her grading and even take part in demonstration after promotion.

And last but not least, we want to say a massive congratulations to Kyo Sa Nim (2nd Dahn Black Belt) Amy. She is the first student of mine to reach this rank. To reach KSN level you have to complete a minimum of four further years training after earning your Black Belt. KSN Amy hasn’t had the easiest of times in the past few years either but we are all very proud of her hard work and determination in order to achieve her KSN despite all that she’s been through.

All in all it’s been another great event and although we unfortunately weren’t at the European Championships in Norwich, we are looking forward to the rest of the summer and the next 6 months of training before the November UK Tournament in Liverpool. Hope to see you all there.

KSN Andrew

Video Credits:

Director/Camera: Fiona Kerr
Editor/Camera: Sean Campbell
Music: WABI SABI (Luke Palmer)