Acrobatic breaks and a distinguished black belt roster
highlighted Stevens Taekwondo Academy
testing at the YMCA recently. Grandmaster
Dwight Stevens noted that having five senior masters (sixth degree black belts
or above) assisting him in judging and administration of the testing was unique in the United States. The students performed well as five students
achieved new or higher black belt rank and color belt students all excelled.
Jeremy Kunst, mother-daughter duo Jill Miller and Lydia Miller and
nine-year-old Isaac Witte earned their second degree black belts in rigorous
testing which included advanced kick combinations, sparring and the challenging
keumgang form. Kunst broke a two-inch
board with a back spinning sidekick, while the Millers and Witte used the back
spinning side kick to crack two one-inch boards.
Macey Cevan entered
the black belt ranks as deputy with her demonstration of five taegeuk forms,
sparring and kick combinations. She
wowed the onlookers with a cartwheel to sidekick break of one board and a back
handspring turn to a switching axe kick to break a second board.
Grandmaster Stevens also awarded three trophies to color
belts work excellence in testing. High
yellow belt Malek Alkarsawi won first place, green belt Aven Durrent-Bobbie
earned second place and blue belt Alicia Rucker took home the third place
trophy.
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| Hero Vue and father Lang Vue |
Senior masters Mark Henkel, Bill
Dragolovich and Matthew Ford of Cincinnati assisted Grandmaster Stevens on the
judging panel.
A Stevens Taekwondo Academy student also placed in the 2015 Pan American Taekwondo Youth Open, held
recently in Chicago. Red belt Hero Vue
earned the third place medal for sparring in the 13 to 15 year-old
division. The event, sponsored by True
Score and TKD Competitions.com, drew more than 400 competitors from all over
the Midwest.
Black belts Contributing Rightly:
Kimberly Buehler, Jill Konopacky, Jill Miller and Lydia
Miller spent the first day of July doing an interactive taekwondo demo at Pacelli
High School. Dr. Stevens got very good
feedback and thanks for their work.
Kimberly Buehler and Karrie Lane spent part of their shared
birthday helping run the August testing.
Happy Birthday again---that’s really contributing rightly!
Scheduling Reminder:
The current session ends September 4.
**No YMCA classes September 8 & 10
First Fall session begins September 16.
Please remember to register before the first class.
