The weekend of 11 & 12 June, in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire in Scotland witnessed the first RadiX seminar held in the UK by Sabum Robert Boer VI Degree from the Netherlands and Sabum Roy Rolstad V Degree from Norway.

It was decided to hold the course away from the hustle of Aberdeen city to the seaside town of Stonehaven which sits in a small fishing harbour bay under the shadow of Dunottar Castle. Both Sabums enjoyed the stunning castle views and of course, the Scottish summer breeze.

The course opened on Saturday morning with the traditional welcome and the course outline was prepared:
“The word Radix means “root” (of a plant) or “the smallest meaningful unit” (of a language). It refers to the goal of our project: to research the roots and the tactical treasures of the ITF Tul to recover and develop techniques that have meaningful self-defence application”

After some thought provoking discussion about the reasons why we choose to defend ourselves and how we must draw on the hidden reserve of our survival instincts, we did just that and initially explored the first principles of the returning hand “Dang Gi Son” and the most basic techniques we learn in Chon-Ji. I never seen so many people gripped by Chon-Ji!! The examples shown allowed for greater thought in how we teach fundamental movement to junior and very young students. The legend of Dan Gun followed and Sonkal Daebi Makgi transferred into a very successful entry form and the continuous motion techniques form excellent release and strike. The philosophy was very interesting as the shapes we make hundreds and hundreds of times should be put to good use in other ways as it makes perfect sense to utilise this muscle memory and not learn new actions for other applications.

After the applications in this area came the cycle of learning scenarios through fun exercises and importance of reflex actions, awareness and keeping your hands up.

Do-San followed, as did Won Hyo and beauty of this practice was that the fundamental movements we know so well, now allows the remembering of the various familiar techniques for restraint and counter-striking.

After a quick lunch of home-made soup, coffee and sandwiches, Joong Gun and Toi Gye followed which was very interesting and showed why the various types of movements in these patterns transfer so readily into wrist, head locks and take downs. The first day finished with a group photo and our heads were full of new ideas.

Day Two and the morning session was taken up with a theory section in how brain patterns function, increased heart rates through stress and the effects of this stress on physical performance. This stress and the ability to react positively with surprise and a little pain was put into practice with an exercise in face slapping. Needless to say the outcome of Master Wallace and Mr Boydell pairing up for this was fairly predictable! The afternoon followed with some recapping on previous applications and scenarios, then the blackbelts had a final session using the more advanced movements from Kwang Gae.

The day closed with the instructors of NTA having an evening meal at a local harbour side restaurant and before we said our farewells a couple of 10-year-old Aberlour malt whisky were savoured in true Scottish fashion.

To sum up, the instructors and students had a tremendous time taking part in a completely different format for our fundamental movements and it was refreshing to see so much energy from students practicing their pattern movements in a truly new light.

We look forward to our next one which we are planning for 2017. Thank you Sabums Robert and Roy.

On behalf of Northern Taekwon-Do Academies