It was a heart-warming Valentine Day at the YMCA with many
family members gathered to encourage and support taekwondo students testing their
skills. Five students achieved new or
advanced black belt status.
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| Dr. Stevens with successful black belts |
Jill Konopacky advanced to fifth degree black belt after a
crisp demonstration of the sipjin form, and a triple board break, utilizing a
roundhouse kick, a back spinning side kick and a palm heel. Konopacky spoke on the Philosophy of
Taekwondo, emphasizing that students learn values of honor, respect and
obedience while studying “the right way to use the foot and fist.”
“Taekwondo grows leaders,” said Konopacky, who is now the
highest ranking black belt in her family, where a daughter, a brother , two
nephews and a niece have all attained black belt levels.
Twin teenage brothers Reece and Griffin Peeters showed
excellent skills in their performance of the keumgang form, advanced kick
combinations and in sparring
matches. Both smashed two-inch boards
with a working step back spinning side kick.
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| Tyce Xiong, Grant Hinker, Hridat Panchal |
Amanda Salm and Alex Frasch displayed convincing mastery of
their taekwondo skills to earn deputy black belt rank. The duo demonstrated five taegeuk forms,
multiple kick combinations an advanced sparring skills. Salm easily snapped a board with a spinning
hook kick and Frasch broke his board on the first attempt with a back spinning
sidekick.
From the color belt students, Grant Hinker, high yellow
belt, won the first place trophy, high yellow belt Hridat Panchal earned second
place and high green belt Tyce Xiong placed third.
Stevens Taekwondo Academy grandmaster Dwight Stevens was assisted at
the head table by senior masters Mark Henkel and Bill Dragolovich.
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Scheduling Reminder: Spring break for YMCA classes falls on March 22 and 24, with the final two weeks of the spring session following Easter.
