29th April 2008
Eskrima's Grandmaster Drops By Broome
by Tony Familari
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(Grandmaster Vince Palumbo with Tony, Broome's instructor)
The Broome TKD students see Eskrima as a supplement to their TKD training which also helps sharpen up the weapons aspects of our TKD.
Grandmaster Vince Palumbo (GMV) started off the seminar by showing great respect to TKD, using the TKD terminology to address the seminar, and later on after the seminar I found out that GMV trains every day with TKD patterns, he loves them and when he gets started on the importance he finds in our patterns you are in for a several hours of him expressing the great depth of wisdom, sheer joy and magic he finds in our art.
(The Broome Brown Belt Eskrima squad with GMV in the middle and Tony on the right)
Some 20 students were put through their paces by GMV, two points about Eskrima came out very clearly. 1)This is a thinking persons martial art. The left and right sides of the brain are stimulated as you need to coordinate the weapons, for example right hand twirl going up - yeah that's easy, now try at the same time left hand twirl going down then swap - hey I have doing this Eskrima for more than 12 years and that move still gives me grief. 2)GMV Eskrima is Cacoy Doce Pares and make no mistake these guys are some very serious stick fighters, hence the style is 100% focused on combat, there are no drills or techniques that are not sparring orientated.
As you would expect training with a 9th Dan the students' progress over the 3 days was rapid. The place was on fire with Eskrima fever.
GMV gave the Broome mob a great privilege and honour - Kulata Sparring - full contact with the Olisi (rattan sticks)- and it gets better, no one wears any body armour, the only concession made is wearing the Eskrima headgear. Students had to be mad or dig very deep to enter the ring with a full contact fighter who holds 12 world championship titles in stick fighting. GMV sparred all students non stop over 20 1-minute rounds. The older students where shown no mercy while with our young ones GMV stood still with his weapons above his head while they laid into him. GMV thank god chose to use a very light pair of Olisi fighting sticks, the bad news was these broke just as it was my turn and he could only find a heavier pair of sticks - as I said this style of Eskrima are serious stick fighters the red welts that come from the Olisi stick lashing the unprotected body - these guys call them the 'Badges of honour' - to his credit GMV received the most badges - while to an outsider it seems crazy, rest assured GMV knows how to strike avoiding the vital areas, he chose to go for the plump fat areas. The students now have no fear of the weapon and will take that into sparring with the full body armour. I can't wait to see that!
We all learnt a new word (while we sat around comparing our badges of honour) which we are looking forward to taking into our TKD training - OOSA - THE FILIPINO WORD FOR ONE - WE ARE INDOMITABLE AS ONE!!!
21st April 2008
Spending A Week With Swasie Turner MBE
by Jessica Silla
(WA Police Commisioner Karl O'Callaghan with Jessica)
Swasie is an ex Merseyside Cop who lost a leg as a result of an attempted murder. He was ran down by a motor bike, but after 14 operations his leg had to be amputated. Sadly 7 months later he lost his wife Marge to cancer. He now devotes his life to doing "Wheelchair Pushs" around the world for charity, and so far he has raised over half a million pounds and been awarded the MBE. He has done the yomp across the Falklands, Death Valley USA, post 9/11 in New York, climbed lighthouses, and now in Australia completing the journey from Augusta in the South-West to Perth, averaging about 40 kms per day. The funds went to Childrens Charity CANTEEN and the WA Police LEGACY Fund.
I met the team in Dunsborough, and like most people my first impression was “that has to be the biggest moustache I have ever seen”. That was a hard day, I had presumed it would be a walk from town to town but I soon realised what I had gotten myself into. Dusborough to Busselton was a steady jog from 9 o'clock until 4 that evening. Although it was hard it was a real eye opener to the fitness of a 67 year old and of course to the generosity of people, we had cars stopping and donating $20, $50 and even $100 bills.
Swasie has quite an interesting character and is very skilled at talking people into donating money, so on the forth day I wasn’t surprised when he wanted to go into the local shopping centre to raise funds, only he went through the underground parking entrance while I was driving the police land cruiser and somehow forgot about the massive aerial on the front of the car, so as I go to follow him through I hear a grinding noise and low and behold the aerial is bending I had no choice but to back out only by this time there was already a stream of cars behind me and in front. I was struck with my P plates up in a massive marked police car. Luckily they saw the funny side as I jumped all the curbs to get out of it.
As the days wore on I met many great people and worked up a nice tan walking with Swasie.
The final stretch was amazing the ex-royal marines where lined up with there green boras, canteen reps and police legacy welcomed us in and the police band pipe played a glorious tune. Swasie was given a heroes welcome at Police Headquarters.
I was so privileged to be apart of this inspiring journey.
Augusta-Margaret River March 29th
Margaret River to Dunsborough March 30th.
Dunsborough-Busselton March 31st.
Busselton-Bunbury April 1st.
Bunbury to Harvey April 2nd.
Harvey-Waroona-Pinjarra April 3rd.
Pinjarra-Mandurah April 4th.
Mandurah-Rockingham April 5th.
Rockingham-Fremantle April 6th.
Fremantle-Perth (Stirling Highway-Matilda Bay-Mounts Bay Road & Riverside Drive to Police HQ April 7th.
The donation total is still being counted however the estimate is upwards of $10,000.
Central Grading
Well done to all that went for their gradings at Beechboro, once again the white belts were the stand outs, more practice and drill work need to be done by the other belts.
(Some of the members after the gradings)
16th April 2008
Rockingham Grading Spectacular
Members from our Rockingham branch went for their first grading of the year on the 11th of April. Red, blue and yellow belts showed their stuff as they went for their various levels and all performed well but the stand out were the white belts, whose standard was excellent, particularly amongst the adults.
Instructors Sharon Jones and Chris Edwards are doing a fantastic job in teaching and preparing the students for their grading. The branch is developing and growing far beyond expectations and members from our other centres should try to get along to one of the classes that are run by Sharon and Chris.
(Mr Rawlins, Sharon, Chris and black belts from Rockingham branch with the white belts who went for grading)
15th April 2008
(Justin with the Senior Champions Trophy)
Wow!! what a great result for our club and Australia at the recent Chungdokwan and Singapore Open Taekwondo Championships, which were held on the 21st-22nd of March in Singapore.
We took a Team of dedicated and hungry, group of old and new fighters to get some exposure to international competition and the results were astonishing, considering that there were 16 other countries, with the number of competitors much greater than ours. However at the end of the 2 days off competition, we once again walk away proud with our heads held high. Winning the Senior Team Trophy as overall Champions and coming runner up in the Junior Team Trophy were big achievements considering we only sent a team of 12 fighters, while the other countries had 20 to 30++ fighters.
(Both juniors and seniors with trophies)
(Seniors Jess, Sinead, Brett, Chantelle and Emily with the overall Champion trophy)
(Our Juniors, Jacob, Tiaana, Emily, Freda, Paul, T-Rex, Garrick, Chantelle, and Mustaafa)
It was a fantastic effort by our club to fly the Australian flag at this International Event, the sparring was exciting with some great performances by our fighters, especially Tyrell Blinman, who fought in the Boys Black Belt Bantam Weight against 3 black belt opponents and won (by the way for those that aren't aware Tyrell is only a blue belt). Freda Otago also a blue belt fought in the Girls Black belt division, however was not able to win the gold, and had to settle for a silver.
We also had other fantastic performances by Chantelle Wallace and Emily O'Sullivan who fought in both the Junior Black Belt (14-17yrs) as well as the open Black Belt Division, winning a gold and a silver in both divisions.
Although the sparring was exciting and entertaining the competition dragged on a bit when we had to sit through 3 hours of poomsae, flying side kick and Boards and Tiles breaking before the sparring continued, but for some it was a great opportunity to catch up on the latest news, gossips and fashion from around the world.
(Mr Rawlins reading a magazine)
The Championships ended on a high note with a farewell dinner at a very posh country club, there was plenty of frivolity, food, karaoke, dancing and the traditional toasting ritual by our hosts,who made everybody stand raise their glasses, cheer for as long as your breath held out and then cling the glasses and drink down what ever was in your glass (only the adults indulged in this tradition). It certainly got the party started.
(A toast to a successful event)
(Everyone enjoying themselves)
Everyone looked their best for the night, especially our girls - who were not only sensational on the competition floor, but were also knocking them out at the party.
(The beautiful ladies)
Let's not forget our boys, our Team Manager and our Team Chaperone.
(Our wonderful boys and men)
(Jacqui, manager, and John, chaperone)
After all the formalities and speeches were over it was time to relax and enjoy the whole experience, lot's of new friend were made and everyone had a great night out.
(THE coaches and don't let their craziness fool you)
The next day we explored the sights of Singapore and enjoyed the wonderful food that was ever ready to be eaten, we also visited Zoo where Justin got to hold a ''TIGER''.
(Justin with a Tiger in his hand)
It was a great trip with extraordinary results, the Team extended their thanks to the Rawlins Fundraising committee for funding a lot of the cost of the trip and a big thank you to Jacqui Otago (Team Manager) for doing all the running around and organising this fantastic trip and to the coaches Haris, Justin and Mr Rawlins
Results: -
Gold Medalists
Jessica Jordan, Sinead Smyth, Brett Kendall, Emily O'Sullivan, Chantelle Wallace, Garrick Blinman, Tyrell Blinman. Mustaafaa Olomi, Tianna Di Cicco, Jacob White.
Silver Medalists
Chantelle Wallace (entered two divisions, senior & junior), Emily O'Sullivan (entered two divisions, senior & junior), Paul Otago, Freda Otago.
13th April 2008
Great Results From Melbourne
Congratulations to our juniors fighters who competed in the Junior World Selection Championships in Melbourne on the 5th April. Everyone that competed won either a gold, silver or a bronze medal.
Special Congratulations to Clare Francis and Garrick Blinman on being chosen to Represent Australia at the World Junior Championships in Turkey and to Mr Rawlins who was chosen as the Australian Team Coach.
Unfortunately all three will not be attending due to the cost and timing of the event.
2nd April 2008
Baby Boy!
Congratulations to Rihan (our Westfield branch instructor) and Joanna Hoglin on the birth of the first son Nadeem.
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