The World Kuk Sool Association is celebrating its 60th Anniversary of founding this year and the annual Scottish tournament took place in Motherwell at the end of May.
First up was National Testing which saw those who are in their testing period for their next rank demonstrate what they have learned and push themselves to their limits. The good weather ensured that testing was even more of a challenge and all those taking part were able to show their knowledge and etiquette even during the heat wave. It was clear that everyone left their best effort on the mats and our school was very well represented.
We then had the black belt tournament which saw most of our Glasgow black belts competing and scoring high in the medal count. Highlights included 4 of our 1st degree black belts winning every medal on offer: a Gold, Silver, Bronze and Copper for Breaking. Saturday is always a busy day at tournament with some of our black belts judging, our coloured belts participating in competition and the rest of the school helping out with the organisation and welcoming participants and spectators. All of our students who competed did themselves proud and whether they took home medals or the experience of competition, all Glasgow students were an asset to our school.
The Masters Demonstration and promotion ceremony is always highly anticipated and this year was extra special as we welcomed the Korean Kids Demonstration Team. These martial artists trained exceptionally hard to prepare and treated us to a display of Korean drumming, archery, traditional weapons and techniques. Their precision and enthusiasm was inspirational and we all now have something to aim for with our own training.
Kuk Sool Won Glasgow was also honoured to have had ten black belts taking part in the Master’s Exhibition which was an amazing opportunity to take part in the 60th Anniversary Celebrations.
The promotions took place in front of our Grandmaster, Kuk Sa Nim and we are very pleased to announce the promotion of one of our instructors to second degree black belt. KSN Ruaridh joined us from Inverness a few years ago and is renowned for his flexibility, acrobatics and his attitude and enthusiasm for training. Everyone at Kuk Sool Won Glasgow is looking forward to seeing KSN Ruaridh continue to challenge himself and us.
JKN Louise came along to class at the suggestion of her partner JKN Chris and was hooked from day one. She overcame nerves and was able to celebrate reaching her goal with her Kuk Sool Won family.
We’d also like to say a massive congratulations to JKN Gav . JKN Gav has overcome injury and his determination and drive to improve has shown and we are very proud of him.
We were also able to witness two of our newer students promote to first degree black belt. JKN Peter and JKN Iain are brothers who trained together under KSN Aaden in Rutherglen and just recently started training with KSW Glasgow. We were happy to guide their training in their last steps towards black belt and it was a pleasure to see them promote together.
To round off a fantastic weekend, we were delighted to hear that JKN Chris won five gold medals and one silver which also saw him presented with the title of Grand Champion for men’s first degree black belts. JKN Chris has come back from a serious knee injury this year and his determination, focus and passion is an inspiration to many in the school.
We are now back to normal training and focusing on building up to the next WKSA event which will be the WKSA UK Championships in Liverpool in November.