The first week of the Easter Holidays we ran a short TaeKwon-Do Easter Training Camp for Banstead TKD students from April 2nd to April 4th, making for 3 full days of training covering many aspects of ITF TaeKwon-Do.
Students came from our evening classes and from our after school clubs, and this year we held the training days in Tadworth at The Church of the Good Shepherd.
3 Full Days - 6 hours a day, what do you do?
That was a question one parent asked me, and they days worked following a time table like this:
Tuesday
09:00 - 09:45 Coordination Games / Warm up
10:00 - 10:45 Traditional Movements
11:00 - 11:45 Sparring Footwork Drills
12:00 - 12:30 Lunch
12:30 - 13:00 Patterns
13:15 - 14:00 Step Sparring / stretch warm down
Wednesday
09:30 - 10:15 Coordination Games / Warm up
10:30 - 11:15 Traditional Movements
11:30 - 12:15 Sparring Combat Drills
12:30 - 13:00 Lunch
13:00 - 13:45 Patterns
14:00 - 14:45 Step Sparring
15:00 - 15:30 Self Defence / stretch warm down
Thursday
09:30 - 10:15 Coordination Games / Warm up
10:30 - 11:15 Patterns
11:30 - 12:15 Patterns Competition
12:30 - 13:00 Lunch
13:00 - 13:45 Sparring Combat Drills
14:00 - 14:45 Free Sparring / Competition
15:00 - 15:30 Tournament Talk / Stretch Warm Down
Each section of the day was broken down into about 45 minutes and 15 minutes break / play time / snacks
Coordination Games and Warm Up
We try to do extra skill drills to improve students coordination and reaction times on Easter or Summer Camps, we don't always have time in normal classes for exercises like these:
Sparring Drills
Having the extra time of a camp really benefits students, it gives them extra time to practice drills and build more skill in a compressed time frame. It would be great for everyone's progression if we did TaeKwon-Do training 5 days a week ;)
Fundamental Movements and TaeKwon-Do Patterns
Much of the TaeKwon-Do syllabus involves moving through the structured learning system of fundamental moves to become progressively more skilled in the TaeKwon-Do principles and essentially more power and more accurate making maximum use of the body whatever the current size and strength of it is.
The fundamental movements all follow the same principles but become more complex the higher up the system we travel. We get more coordinated as we progress through TaeKwon-Do and more powerful.
Easter Camp Mini Competitions
During Easter and Summer camps we try to run mini competitions to give people the feeling of what it might be like in at a tournament, and to give more experienced students more practice at performing under a little more pressure than in a class.
To give students maximum attempts at competition we ran plenty of divisions, effectively lots of mini competitions, and if at any point in the draw a player loses they get put in to the bronze or 3rd place draw.
Draws were:
Patterns individual:
Yellow Tags (round robin)
Yellow / Green Small
Yellow / Green Tall
Yellow / Green overall
Red (round robin)
Patterns in Teams:
Baked Beans vs Non-Baked Beans - 5 members to a team
Patterns Overall
Everyone in the draw and when a student lost a round they take part in the Bronze / 3rd Place draw
Sparring
Small
Tall girls
Tall boys
Overall and a bronze draw
Everyone survived 3 days of Easter Camp
We had 10, photo shows 9, but everyone did survive.
First aid was only used a couple of times, ice packs for knocks and bruises.
Summer Camp 2025 date tbc soon.
Want to try TaeKwon-Do?
TaeKwon-Do is a martial art that has many facets and can be practiced by people from aged 4, right through primary and secondary school, into adulthood, and right through the adult ages too. There is always something positive that can come from training in TaeKwon-Do, whether that's the focus needed in a competitive fight focussed young adult or a mindful approach to midlife as children move away and you have more time available and seeking an interesting way to be fit physically and mentally.
Just contact us for more:
07850 438 898