Wednesday, February 24, 2016

February 2016



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.

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.

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.