Welcome to the TANI website - the governing body for Taekwondo in N.I.
New TANI Board 10/May 2008
The TANI Annual General Meeting saw some important changes. Long standing Chairman, Keith Farrell and Honorary Secretary, Bertie Nicholson stood down from these positions.
Bertie Nicholson was elected Chairman and John Stronge was a new face to the Board in the role of Hon. Secretary (pictured). Being a former manager of Belfast Zoo, John brings a strong business head to TANI.
CHAIRMAN Bertie Nicholson
VICE-CHAIRMAN Bob Kalin
HONORARY SECRETARY John Stronge
TANI CHILD PROTECTION Caroline Beck
& EQUITY OFFICER
FINANCE DIRECTOR Gerard Smyth
COACHING DIRECTOR Keith Farrell
NI POOMSAEE TEAM COACH (WTF) Glen Culbert
NI KYORUGI TEAM COACH (WTF) Bertie Nicholson
NI POOMSAE TEAM COACH (TAGB) Damian Rooney
NI KYORUGI TEAM COACH (TAGB) Damian Rooney
NI KYORUGI TEAM COACH (ITF) Leo Maguire
NI POOMSAE TEAM COACH (ITF) Leo Maguire
TANI DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Adam Askew
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Spanish Open 26/Apr 2008
The UTA were represented at the recent Spanish Open International Taekwondo Championships in Alicante, Spain 26th - 27th April 2008. It was a huge event with more than 1200 competitors altogether in the two day event all aiming for success at a major A-Class International Competition. The Spanish Open is ranked as one of the top eight major Taekwondo Championships in Europe with a number of National Teams in participation including Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, Canada, Australia, Hungary, Austria and Denmark as well as players selected for the Olympics for their country also in competition.
UTA(NI) had three players competing, Gareth Whyte in the sparring on day one and Master Glen Culbert and Christine Hawkins (Northern Ireland) in the Poomsae on day two. They were part of a larger UTA team which also included Lesley Jakubiak (Central) and Paul Sutherberry (Halton) in sparring and Chan Sau (Halton) in poomsae.
Picture. Gareth in action at the Spanish Open
Gareth was up first in a tough Senior Male -62kg category against a very talented Spanish fighter in the first round and put in an excellent performance. Gareth was 2 points ahead until the last seconds of round one when his opponent brought the scores even. Both players gave their all with both putting in some great fast kicking techniques until the end of the match. Gareth however was very unlucky and despite taking the match the distance was outpointed 5-4, with the Spaniard winning with a last minute turning kick. The Spanish player won his next match by a 7 point margin and went on to take the bronze medal.
Day two saw the commencement of the Poomsae Competition and Christine was the first NI player up in her first European Poomsae event. She gave a strong performance of Taebaek against some great opposition which on the day was not quite enough to put her through to the final. Only 8 went through to the final and she finished 9th so it was a close thing but she will be going away with some good experience. Master Glen was the final UTA Poomsae competitor competing in the 2nd Senior Male (31-40) division. It was also in a very tough category of 30 players which included a number of experienced European competitors including medallists from the recent European Championships. Despite Master Glen putting in a good performance of Chil Jang (Taeguk 7) he was very unlucky to only just miss out on the next round. He finished sixteenth overall and when the scores were tallied he was 0.1 points short of qualification for the semi-finals. Overall it was a great weekend and despite the results all players thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and will take away a lot of experience as well as a little bit of a tan. Scottish Coach Nikos said, "Competing at high level events is a vital part of the training process. The experience gained at this level of competition is what allows a player to come back again and eventually win. After that competition time is needed to ensure consistent performance."
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Registered Body Status! 10/Apr 2008
TANI has been given Registered Body status with Access NI which maintains our abilty to have personnel police checked for crimes against children.
Leading our child protection policy is Caroline Beck.
Caroline will be the Lead Signatory for TANI and will be reponsile for advising AccessNI of any changes in TANI's circumstances.
TANI takes the protection of children extremely serious and Caroline is more than suited to her role as TANI Child Protection and Equity Officer as she is studying for her PHd in Child Psychology.
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Meeting Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip! 19/Mar 2008
Taekwondo was represented at the Hillsborough Castle reception for Sport hosted by the Secretary of State with VIP guests in the form of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, no less!Both Keith Farrell (TANI Chairman) and Bertie Nicholson (Hon Secretary) were invited. It was'nt until the day before that we realised that we could possibly be meeting the Queen. Up until that point we thought we were just meeting the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Unfortunately therefore Keith had made other arrangements and was not able to attend, but Bertie had decided he wanted to go along to see the inside of Hillsborough Castle and meeting the Secretary of State had to be done to raise the profile of Taekwondo!
It was a very pleasant surprise to be offically told that the VIP guests would be the Queen and Prince Philip.
After waiting for sometime chatting with those around and eating the royal sandwiches I finally had the opportunity to give my finest Taekwondo bow and shake hands and speak briefly both with the Queen and Prince Philip.
Cross community work seemed to be the flavour for the guys in the line ahead of me so I basically advised the royals that Taekwondo was very much bringing all communities together but to have them fight! This raised a bemused smile!
It was great to attend because its not everyday you get to meet the world's most famous figure and the Monach!
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Professor Chang Ung Cup 9/March 2008
UKTC Taekwondo Northern Ireland squad have just returned from the Professor Chang Ung Cup held in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 9th 2008. They brought back 2 golds, 3 silvers and 4 bronze medals. The 6 squad members took part in sparring, patterns and special techniques along with over 200 other UKTC and UKTA students from Scotland, England, Ireland and the Netherlands.
More info at www.taekwondo-ni.co.uk
Pictured is the UKTC NI squad with coach Mr. Leo Maguire, Professor Chang Ung (president of ITF) and treasurer of ITF Mr. Kim Chol Gyu.
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Meeting the folks on the hill! 3/Mar 2008
It was a new experience for representatives of the Board of Directors of TANI meeting with up with politicians, up on the hill in Stormont on Monday 3rd March. It became possible when TANI Vice-Chairman, Professor Bob Kalin, organised the meeting between Professor Chang Ung and First Minister Rev Dr Ian Paisley and Minister for Sport, Mr. Edwin Poots. who unfortunately was detained elsewhere. Professor Chang Ung is a world figure both in his role as ITF President but also as an International Olympic Committee member. It was an excellent opportunity to press home to the politicians the great things that are happening with Taekwondo within N. Ireland. It was mentioned of course that with greater funding even more impressive achievements could be achieved!
Mar/2008 TANI Newsletter - Just For Kicks Mar 2008
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Child Protection and Coaching Children and Young People 1/Mar 2008
Unfortunately in this day and age it is sad to say that TANI needs to have all of its people who come into contact with children to be trained on good practice and child protection. A course was held on Saturday 1st March, in the Lagan Valley Leisureplex, Lisburn to cover this aspect of the TANI Club Instructor Qualification.
The excellent tutor from Sport NI, Mr. Patrick Power, spent three hours explaining how coaches can protect themselves and the young people (under 18 years) they are coaching by understanding and following good coaching practice. The course included learning about child abuse and how to handle situations if they had concerns.
Coaching Children and Young People was the second workshp of the day was aimed at discovering the needs and motivation of young players. Time was spent on learning how to deliver effective coaching sessions to meet the level of skill, developmental stage and motivation of each young player.
This event was grant supported by Sport Northern Ireland.
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Visit by Nikos Jakubiak, Scottish Squad Coach and Sports Scientist 16-17/Feb 2008
A tremendous weekend started off with a Taekwondo focused nutrition presentation. The importance of food and drink was fully explored. After lunch Nikos gave a enlighting presentation on the sports science behind Taekwondo training. This put in contect the practical sessions we had afterwards: S & C in the free weights room and core training in the training hall.
On Sunday we moved to Carryduff, Loughmoss Centre for two sessions of kyorugi. The first session was open to all students and instructors interested in kyorugi and included training drills, pad work, theory on technique, sparring tactics and demonstration with the electronic hogus. The second session was for experienced fighters who got to have fights using the new scoring system and new electronic hogus.
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This event was grant supported by Sport Northern Ireland.
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Master Paul Cutler in Nepal 9/Jan 2008
Master Paul Cutler (8th Dan, UKTA) had an amazing trip to Nepal just before Christmas. As Master Cutler explained:
"My trip to Nepal went extremely well, a truly fascinating place. The culture is so different, seeing it on TV is one thing but being part of it was really amazing.
I had an unbelievable reception; they had never been exposed to True (grass roots) Taekwon-Do previously. I appeared in the national newspapers and national television almost every day, being interviewed and demonstrating at various times during workshops and the main seminar. My display at the opening ceremony at the championships was unprecedented according Secretary General of the National Sports Council in his TV interview.
I also conducted classes to underprivileged children which had never been done before. These are clubs run by the community in areas that cannot afford to be involved in organised activities such as TKD and certainly cannot afford to attend a national seminar and championships.
The whole trip was great publicity for Northern Ireland and our relationship with Nepal, the Secretary General of the National Sports Council and Vice President of the Olympic Committee stated on national television their appreciation and support Northern Ireland was giving Nepal Taekwon-Do."
Jan/2008 TANI Newsletter - Just For Kicks Jan 2008
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