August 2015

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. 

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.