www.tani.com Taekwondo Association of Northern Ireland Taekwondo Korean martial arts training, competition, olympic sport.

Safeguarding Children 20/June 2010
TANI is committed to the safety of children and vulnerable adults. Under the guidance of the NSPCC, TANI advised that each club identify two people who would become Designated Officers within each club.

With keen interest, as shown by the large turnout, for this TANIs first meeting with the parents of Taekwondo children who will be directly inputting to the safe running of each club.

The one hour information session on dojang safety, code of conduct, and reporting procedures was presented by Dr Caroline Askew, not only a 3rd degree black belt with the TAGB, but also a professional child psychologist.





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New TANI Board 20/Jun 2010
A new TANI board for the forthcoming year was elected at the TANI Annual General Meeting. We wish them well in implementing the TANI 4 year plan which will make Taekwondo the most successful martial art within Northern Ireland.

TANI BOARD 2010/2011
CHAIRMAN	Mr Bertie Nicholson
HONORARY SECRETARY	Mr John Johnston
TANI CHILD PROTECTION and EQUITY OFFICER	Dr Caroline Askew
FINANCE DIRECTOR	Mr Gerard Smyth
DIRECTOR	Mr Paul McCartney
DIRECTOR	Ms Lisa Elliott
DIRECTOR	Mr Leo Maguire
DIRECTOR	Mr Adam Askew
DIRECTOR	Mr Keith Farrell

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New Coaching Qualifications 18/June 2010
TANI met with David Smyth of Sport NI to dicuss the next steps in have TANI an accreditated centre for coaching qualifications. TANI needs to put in place the tutors, assessors and verifiers as qualified by 1st4sport. These qualifiactions are:

Certificate in Tutoring in Sport
The 1st4sport Level 3 Certificate in Tutoring in Sport is designed to qualify TANIs educator workforce to tutor in total confidence, giving them everything they need to become a part of the education workforce.
The qualification provides learners with the knowledge required of how to plan, design, deliver, manage, facilitate and review learning sessions in sport. Those who qualify will be eligible, alongside their Taekwondo-specific and occupational competences, to deliver Taekwondo-specific, vocationally related qualifications.

Introduction to Assessment Practice in Sport
The 1st4sport Level 3 Introduction to Assessment Practice in Sport is designed to qualify TANIS educator workforce to assess in total confidence. The qualification develops knowledge of how to plan, conduct and evaluate assessments in sport whilst providing a chance to demonstrate competence through realistic simulations.

Certificate in Internal Verification Practice in Sport
The 1st4sport Level 3 Certificate in Internal Verification Practice in Sport is designed to qualify your educator workforce to internally verify in total confidence Designed for experienced assessors/sports professionals, this qualification provides an introduction to the processes and principles of the internal verification of sports-related vocational qualifications.

The TANI Board will interview and select its best canidates for these positions. If you are interested please advise the TANI Secretary.



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Taekwondo now a Commonweath Games Sport! 14/June 2010
The WTF sent four delegates (Mr Philippe Bouedo, Chairman, WTF Games Committee; Dr William Darlington, CTU Secretary-General; Mr Usman Dildar, UK Coordinator, WTF; Mr Anthony Ferguson, President, Caribbean Taekwondo Federation) to a meeting of the CGF Sport Committee in London, on Monday 7th June.

As a result, on 14th June, the WTF received word from Mr Mike Hooper, Chief Executive Officer of the CGF, that taekwondo is now a Category 2 Commonwealth Games sport! At the moment, only kyorugi has been accepted but the Commonwealth Taekwondo Championships, the World University Summer Games and the World University Taekwondo Championships all feature poomsae so the next step is to campaign for poomsae too.

Category 1 (compulsory) sports (Athletics, Swimming, Badminton, Boxing, Field Hockey, Lawn Bowls, Netball, Squash, Rugby Sevens and Weightlifting) are included in all Games.

Taekwondo skipped Category 3 (developing sport) and jumped straight to Category 2 (optional sports) to join Archery, Basketball, Cycling, Diving, Gymnastics, Judo, Shooting, Table Tennis, Tennis, Triathlon and Wrestling. Host cities can choose up to seven Category 2 sports for any Games



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New logo for NI Kyorugi Squad 20/May 2010
It was time for fighters from NI to come out of the shadows and start to display their presence when attending GB and European events. With this in mind the NI Kyorugi Squad decided to introduce a bold new logo which would be unique and eye catching, and have people asking about it. And this is the logo that Bernard Fitzsimons, graphic designer and -84kg fighter, came up with.... a modernised Red Hand of Ulster with Northern Ireland and Taekwondo in Korean characters on the front and exactley as it says on the tin on the back.

I think we all know the story of the two kings, way back in history, racing in their ships to be the first to touch land and claim Ulster as theirs. On seeing he was going to be beaten the trailing king cut off his hand and threw his blood-soaked hand onto the shore ahead of his rival and won, so great a prize was to be gained.

Logos can be a political mine field within Northern Ireland, but taking our lead from the NI Commonwealth Games Federation, Ulster Rugby and Tyrone Gaelic Football Team we felt a modernised and Taekwondo-ised logo would be supported. We all hope it brings the guys a bit of competiton luck!





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TANI talks with 1st4Sport and Sports Coach UK 14/May 2010
TANI Coaching held preliminary talks with representatives of 1st4Sport and Sports Coack UK with regards to TANI becoming an accreditated centre for issuing nationally recognised coaching qualifications. Hosted by David Smyth of Sport NI good progress was made in understanding our needs and the steps that would need to be taken. TANI is extremely excited by this prospect.





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TANI details on PIMS database April 2010
TANI completed its registering of clubs and club instrcutors on the Sport NI PIMS database. This is the first time Sport NI has moved its survey down to club and coach level. TANI welcomes this spotlight being shone on coahes as it is always a great incentive to impress and raise your game.













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High Performance Clinics - Sports Physcology Workshop 27/March 2010
It has been recognised since our attendance at the GB National Team Coaches workshop of the importance of mental training. We were particularly pleased to be introduced to Dr Alan MacPherson, Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Psychology, University of Edinburgh. Dr MacPherson is of particular benefit to us as he has worked with Taekwondoists at competitions in the past, thus allowing him to know exactly where we are coming from as a combat sport.

Dr MacPherson on realising our novice status in mental preparation focused the workshops on: 1. Profiling athletic performance 2. Setting meaningful performance focused goals It is important he suggested that coaches leave with techniques they have practiced to evaluate the performance of their athlete and to be able to set meaningful objectives. This way the athlete will grow confidence at all steps of his preparation. Emergency measures to deal with a fighters anxiety 5 minutes before a fight begins was a basically fire-fighting.

A big thanks goes to Sport NI for funding this event.



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Silver in Southern Italy 14/Mar 2010
The ITF European Championships were held this year at Barletta in Southern Italy between the 10th and 14th of March. The Northern Ireland National Team attended and made their presence felt. The team collected a number of medals for patterns, sparing and team events. The team comprised of Mr. Stephen Fitzsimons, Mr. John Mitchell, Mr. Michael Maxwell, Mr. Declan Murphy, Mr. Richard Fitzpatrick and Mr. Adrian Morton (Veteran).

The N.I. National Coach, Mr. Leo Maguire said that the team had worked hard to achieve their success and the medals were well deserved. The picture (left) shows the Northern Ireland team accepting their silver medals for their self-defence routine; Michael Maxwell also received the bronze medal for patterns in his category; while Adrian Morton took home two bronze medals for pattern and sparring in the veteran category. The other members of the team made it through to the quarter finals, which is quite an achievement in this international event.

The team are pictured (right) with 1st Grand Master Rhee Ki Ha and Master Peter Harkess (UKTC). The coach and team members would like to thank the students and members of the public who helped with fundraising for the championships. Pictures and videos of the team competing at Barletta can be viewed at the website www.taekwondoni.co.uk

NEWSLETTER
Just for Kicks Mar 2010







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High Performance Athlete Development 13th Open Challenge Cup, Belgium 7/March 2010
James Johnston went to Belgium to benchmark our standard and had a good performance. This was a huge competition for James with fighters from all over Europe. Quite a step up from GB competitions.

Getting a bye to the 1/4 finals James performed well but lost 19-14 after a good fight. His opponent, a Belgium fighter who was is ranked number 3 in Belgium in the -48kg category, went on to win gold.

Not over whelmed in this his first junior entry into a European competition, the outcome could have been the other way. James, initially disappointed, knew that he could have beaten his opponent particularly when the number of rounds where reduced to 2 instead of 3. Because of the language barrier Gareth Whyte, NI Squad Caoch, did not realise that the third round had been removed and the plan was to save the head shots to the 3rd round. This could have won the game when the other fighter was forced to switch tactics when James was catching him and that head shots would have been a good option.

Gareth reckoned the standard was good and James was definitely not out of his depth, he has never taken a head shot in any fight and most of the points against him are tactical errors and losing silly rule points, so definitely going in the right direction. James was more skilful than his opponent who was very confident pointing to his chin and waving the hands etc. to intimidate, but all good experience for James and confidence to the other junior NI fighters to expand into Europe.

A big thanks goes to Sport NI for funding this event.



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