April Testing and Celebration

Kyle Spielvogel, Ben Lofgren, Gina Chung

Hendrickson flying sidekick, Peterson holding

Despite an April snow storm and slippery road conditions, more than 70 taekwondo students successfully tested for new belt levels at the Stevens Point YMCA recently.  The family and friends attending in support saw improving skills, perseverance and some exciting sparring and board breaking.

Lauren Shimulunas earned her third dan black belt  with  advanced kick combinations, sparring and performance of the taebek form.  She used a back spinning hook kick for her speed break.Peter Clark advanced to second dan black belt following his  demonstration of the keumgang form, advanced kick combinations and sparring.  He broke two six-inch boards with a spinning sidekick.

Shelby Finnessy and John Paul Bunn moved up to full black belt status in testing which included sparring, advanced kick combinations, demonstration of koryo and four taeguk forms, and an oral examination on taekwondo tenets, history and symbolism.  Finnessy snapped her board with a working step back-spinning sidekick.  Bunn broke a board with an axe kick.

Stephanie Tank, Erik Hendrickson, John Weigand and Elizabeth Oakland all achieved deputy black belt status in rigorous testing, which included sparring, 50 kick combinations and demonstration of five taeguk forms.  Tank used an inside crescent back-spinning hook kick to break her board.  Hendrickson wowed the audience with a flying sidekick over five people, smashing the board on the first attempt. Nine-year-old Weigand cracked his board with a back spinning sidekick.  Eight-year-old Oakland became the third member of her family to achieve black belt status, joining father Tom and brother Jacob, as she broke a board with a back spinning sidekick.

Trophies for excellence in testing were awarded to three of the 65 color belts testing.  New green belt Kyle Spielvogel won first place, green belt Ben Lofgren earned second place and high blue belt Gina Chung took the third trophy.

The testing was judged by Grandmaster Dwight Stevens, assisted by senior masters Mark Henkel and Bill Dragolovich.  Martial artists attending came from Waupaca Taekwondo, and Stevens Taekwondo Academy schools at the YMCA, Port Edwards, Wausau, Stevens Point and the UW-Stevens Point taekwondo program.

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Also in April, more than sixty black belts, family members and friends gathered in Plover for a special birthday celebration for Grandmaster Dwight Stevens.  

Senior Master Mark Henkel spoke for all those attending, noting that the remarkably large number of high ranking black belts who have stayed in association with Dr. Stevens indicate the very high regard they have for Stevens.  Stevens has taught taekwondo in Stevens Point for more than 30 years, training thousands of students and awarding more than 850 black belts over that time.
“He cares about his students,” said Henkel.  “He teaches them to get up when they are knocked down and keep on going.”

Schedule reminder:

YMCA class meets through 23 with no classes the week following Memorial Day (May 28 & 30)

The next session begins June 4.

June testing date is June 9 at 1 p.m.