USA TKD Elite Coahing Team

The Elite Sports Clinic

Today, I attended a clinic organized by Singapore Sports Council and conducted by the USA Elite Taekwondo Coaching Team. One of the speaker was USA most experience elite coach, Jean Lopez. There were two speakers in the clinic. The other speaker I could not managed to get his name.

Both of them shared their experiences with the local coaches at present. One key point they stressed on good coaching is to place the athletes at the first priority, and not the coaches; these include welfare, rewards and other relevant issues. They also mentioned that the athletes' well-being is one of the main responsibilities for the coaches. Coaches should not only look for attaining medals in championships on the expense of athlete's well-being. In the perspectives of 'Success', they agreed that athlete's success is not only confined at Medal prospect, there are other areas to look into too, such as their own fulfillment, enjoyment, etc.

Another point they strike me was: Enjoyment. If coaches could add in some training elements that would increase the degrees of enjoyment for the athlete during the training, then the drop out rate would be greatly reduced.

Finally, they also said that coaches shall keep up with the latest knowledge of Sports, these include: sports physiology, sport psychology, biomechanics, nutrition, etc.

The clinic was very fruitful and rewarding.

Elite Coach,Jean Lopez (Above)

Another Elite Coach (Which I did not manage to get his name, my apology)

New Management Committee 2008

THE NEW TEAM

KSK has successfully conducted its 2008 AGM on 30th July 2008, at Tanglin Community Club, 7.40pm.
The AGM procedures included President's Opening Speech, Secretary Annual Report and Treasurer's Annual Statement of Accounts for the year 2007.

The AGM also re-elected 2 key posts, that are Hon. Secretary and Hon. Treasurer; and elected 3 Committee members.

The New Line-up of the Management Committee for year 2008 to 2009 is as follows:
President: Leck Chye Chuah

Vice President: (Vacant)

Hon. Secretary: Chia Kwek Fah

Hon. Treasurer: Tey Song Liew

Committee Members:
Jackie Ng Siew Leng
Mark Abisheganaden
Roland Teo
Jason Chua Boon Teck
Ricky Ng Seng Joo
Lim Ming Fang
Lim Boon Keong

Hon. Legal Advisors:
Mr. Christopher Yap

The new MC would like to place their thanks to the following members for their service provided to the Club in the year of 2007; they are: Ice Bai, Judy Tan and Victor Tan.

A hand knife strike at slow motion

Very often, once I said I practice karate, people will show me the 'Chop chop' sign. This is the misconception of karate-do. I have been practicing this form of martial art for more than forty years, but I hardly use this 'Chop chop' movement on subject nor person. Reason is very simple, I take up the art to build my physical and mental 'Me'; not to use the art to hurt people or to 'Show off'.

But I do see lots of people using this technique on stage and reinforce the concept of 'Karate'.

Are the chopping movement really using the blade or edge of the palm while executing? I found this slow motion clip on YouTube. It may provide you the answer. Look extremely careful at the moment of the 'hand knife' contacting the slab. You should see how the edge of the palm turns and part of the wrist follows in to add the force to the slab. Amazing right? So is this a Hand Knife Technique?

Do I stop training when I get my Black Belt qualification?

After almost 45 years, I still remember the morning that I first worn my blackbelt for training, my instructor gave me this statement: You are a blackbelter now, but do remember, this is only the first step you really stepped into the door of Karatedo. There are nine more stages in karate-do, you need to go and achieve them accordingly. From now onwards, you need to seek your knowledge and understanding of the art.

Since then, I became my own coach, my own instructor. I do contact with the seniors and acquire knowledge from them; but the majority of knowledge and techniques were done through research and practices. Finally, this art became parts of my life. It becomes an heritage to me.

These days, when I see some blackbelters once they gotten the qualification, they became complacent, hang their belts and stopped training. These people only show the shallow understanding of this martial art. In fact, knowledge is alway in the form of evolving and developing, once you stopped at a point of time, and refuse to pursue, you would be left behind with all the outdated information. Embracing old and backdated knowledge may not do you any good. Such as the development of Sports Science, it has changed the way of exercising. It has also brought to light that some of the traditional training methods were indeed, causing harm to our body parts.

This leads to another fundamental question: Are we going to do sport and damage our body? As coaches or seniors in the session, we need to think hard on this question.

Should we stop training when we get our blackbelt qualification? Think again, friends.

The Survey Analysis

The Survey

Recently we made a survey by using questionnaires. Members present in the session responded actively in this survey. The results and analysis of this survey is listed below:
There are some Areas of Concern that we need to look into them.

First, the frequency of training. There are 40% of members indicated that they wish to have twice a week of training. We understand their concerns as their objectives in join the session are to improve their physical conditions as well as to learn and practice a martial art.

On the other hand, they also indicated that they would like to keep the $20 per month charges as it is. Our concern here is: Looking at the present inflation rate, is $20 per month charges enough to cover the coaches transports as well as the time and knowledge that they put into the session? In fact, our charge has not been change since 1996 until now. Therefore, we need everybody to give a thought in this issue.

In fact, we are in the process looking into resolving this problem. We will keep members inform in due course. (We are only referring Tanglin Trainees here!)

On another more happy note, we also noticed that members has rated the coach and the quality of training that they have obtained on the high scale. We appreciate the feedback from all members and promise to deliver better service in the future.

KSK own kata movie

KSK First Kata Movie

We upload this kata: Shiho Koshokun for people who are interested in it. This is only a reference, not the absolute movement. Please be reminded that we are not professional videographer, therefore, you may see the performance at certain angle that would distort the movement. Kindly acknowledge us if you are using this clip.

Kata Shiho koshokun

First session of Aikido for Karate blackbelts

First session of the Aikido cross-training for our members was successfully conducted on 6th July 2008. Blackbelters who attended the session reflected that was a good attempt for a karateka to experience other forms of martial art. All of them have given a thumb up for this session. We wish to express our gratitude and thanks to Roland Teo, who initiated this session and volunteered to conduct the session. We also wish to thank his friend, a skill female Aikido exponent to join us and co-coach for the session.

Rick Ng in Action

Two Aikido friends in demo

Learning a new skill

Development of Coach

In the current sport scene, coaches also need to upgrade themselves in terms of coaching knowledge and it related issues. KSK coaches are always being reminded to keep themselves with the latest knowledge in coaching, so that they could provide the best coaching environment and knowledge to the members.

Shihan Chia strongly believes that martial art is an ever evolving art. Therefore, keep an open mind and continuing acquire new knowledge is one of the main tasks in present coaching situation.
Recently, he attended another two day workshop run by Singapore Sport Council and Republic Poly on Communication Skill.