On Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th August Master Jerzy Jedut & Mr Jaroslaw Suska were in Scotland at the invite of GMAC Taekwon-Do, to conduct a series of seminars. The weekends training consisted of 3 sessions, spilt into graded groups.

The first seminar started early for the younger children (aged 7-12), who were eager to meet and be taught by many times World & European Champion Mr Suska, and instructor to many Polish Champions Master Jedut. The session began with Master Jedut taking the young students through an exciting and engaging warm-up with the children being challenged to use all the imagination skills they had, as well as learning balance and co-ordination exercises. Mr Suska then led the youngsters through stretching and technical kicking exercises. The morning session finished with Mr Suska performed a small demonstration of his kicking and pattern expertise, leaving the children looking on with awe.

After a short lunch break over 60 coloured belts from 9th Kup to 1st Kup were eagerly awaiting their chance to train with the invited guests. Before the seminar commenced Mr McIlvaney presented the guest instructors with a small memento from Scotland in the form of a Whisky Hip-Flask and set of Engraved glasses, and a more well-known item of the Scottish national dress; The Kilt (although on this occasion it wasn’t quite the real thing – more a beach towel version). The seminar began at 1pm with fast paced warm-up kicking / punching drills alongside some fun exercises promoting strength and co-ordination. Master Jedut led the participants onto footwork for sparring and ring craft, building into kicking skills for sparring. The second part of the session was taught by Mr Suska, primarily focusing on refining techniques for kicking strength and balance. Multiple kicking was also covered and demonstrated by Mr Suska. The coloured belts finished with self-defence skills and a final performance from Mr Suska culminating in a Twimyo Bandae Dollyo Chagi knocking a bottle off one of the participant’s heads. The afternoon ran a little over the scheduled time, with a vast array of TKD skills being covered over the afternoon.

In the evening Mr & Mrs McIlvaney invited Master Jedut & Mr Suska along with Grand Master MacCallum 9th Degree and other guest to a traditional Scottish Fayre.

Sunday morning again began early, this time for 70 black belts from around Scotland and further afield. Again the session began with a fast paced warm-up incorporating pads for a variety of exercises geared towards improving core stability. The first half of the session was geared towards movement for sparring, incorporating attack and defence techniques. The second half of the session focused on dynamic kicking, and building harder technique into the various pad routines shown by Mr Suska.

The seminars were attended by 163 enthusiasts from Scotland, England, Austria and Poland.

We would like to extend our thanks both Master Jedut and Mr Suska for coming to Scotland to conduct these inspirational seminars, and we very much look forward to the next one!

Mrs Gillian McIlvaney
GMAC Taekwon-Do
www.gmacmartialarts.co.uk