Four members of the club attended the National Poomsae Seminar in Mansfield last Sunday. The day was divided into three sections, the first 2 hours for all grades, the second 2 hours for dan grades then finishing with a final hour for national squad members.
The first session started with Master Derek Sumner taking everyone through a light warm up and then we were then split into three groups. The cadets (14 and under), the kup grades and less confident dan grades, and the ‘rest’. All of our attendees (Master Gerry Reilly, Coleen Reilly, Sian Reilly and Amy Stock) fell in with being part of the ‘rest’. Our group started with GM Shin, who as a twice Poomsae World Champion and as a International Class 1 Referee, provides technical leadership to poomsae in Great Britain. GM Shin took us through a detailed review of basics including stances, kicking and hand techniques with a focus on correct preparation and execution highlighting key areas of mistakes seen in poomsae. This was then applied as we went through Taegeuk Sa Jang through to Taegeuk Pal Jang with care and attention. For the final part of the morning session, our group was handed over to Master Sumner, GB Cadet Coach and Chairman of the BT Poomsae Committee, who took us through a fascinating short session on specific stretching and conditioning to assist in Poomsae performance. Many of the drills will be coming back to the classes over the coming months! After two hours of hard work, we had a short 15 minutes break for lunch.
The second session was focused on Dan Grades only. This was split with Master Derek Sumner taking the cadets (14 and under), Grandmaster Shin taking the juniors and adults (under 30s) and Master Gemma Biescias taking the over 30s. Our attendees were therefore split between Grandmaster Shin and Master Biescias. Grandmaster Shin took his group through a detailed review of all the poomsae from Taegeuk Sa Jang up to Sipjin. This cover both practice and also demonstration of techniques and correct (and sometimes incorrect) form from squad members. Master Biescias, National Poomsae Coach, took the ‘veterans’ though the higher poomsae with the group covering most of the dan poomsae with an in depth review of specific difficult sets of movements.
This was an amazing and informative (and also physically exhausting) seminar, which not only was a great help to those of us who could attend but will allow us to bring a lot of new insight back into the club.