Way back at the end of February (Saturday, 26th) I had the opportunity to take part in a seminar with Grand Master Nardizzi at Westfield Academy in Watford. This seminar was kindly given for free my GM Nardizzi to all 4th Degree and higher International Instructors. We all got 3 hours of instruction and insight from our own Grand Master and founder of our governing body TaeKwon-Do Impact.
I started my TaeKwon-Do training in Scotland, when I was a University student in Dundee and after my first term I was pretty much hooked so I made the effort to find a club local to my home in Sutton to train at while I was back home during holiday periods. I found local schools run by GM Nardizzi (back then, around 1993 or 1994, he was a 5th Degree). I remember calling him from a phone box on the M6 (wait! what? no mobile phones?) and telling him I was a Yellow Tags and keen to train at his schools.
It became a thing that I trained at Croydon or Norwood during my holiday periods and then go back to Uni and train with my local club up there.
I have been back in England now for about 17 years, and each time I have seen GM Nardizzi I tried to make the time to talk to him about when I first encountered his training. I hadn't ever managed to until this year at this seminar.
After the seminar from GM Nardizzi I managed to talk with him while everyone was dispersing. I reminded him of the times I used to train at his classes, I remember competing for his club in the first TaeKwon-Do Impact tournament too. He said he remembered me back then, I am not sure I would remember myself though as I had long hair back then and looked very different.
The seminar was a great opportunity to remind myself that I have a lot to learn in TaeKwon-Do but that also I am not too bad at it either ;)
I met a few other people for the first time too, such as Master Mckenna, our president of ITF England.
I am looking forward to July 14th to 17th when I travel up to Newcastle for the next International Instructors Course (IIC) and have the chance to meet with these people again and hopefully have a long overdue catch up with some old from my Scotland days, if they still remember me. ;)
Thank you to ITF England and Grand Master Nardizzi for this seminar.
-------------------------------------------------- James Davis 5th Degree International Instructor & Examiner Banstead TaeKwon-Do m: 07850 438 898 e: james@bansteadtkd.co.uk w: www.bansteadtkd.co.uk
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