The Dragon Tang Soo Do Championships came to Bradley Stoke Community School on Saturday 19th March, with around ten clubs taking part, including those from Bristol, Portishead and Bournemouth.
It was a successful event for members of Bradley Stoke Dragon Tang Soo Do Club, which saw three of its adult members and four juniors come away with trophies and medals.
Fighters are split into age, height and belt grades, with separate classes for males and females and they compete in the disciplines of sparring (fighting), forms (patterns) and weapons.
Additional categories include team forms, team sparring and a black belt challenge, the latter being restricted to black belts up to 3rd dan or blue belts (called cho dan bo, junior and senior) who are in training to become black belts.
Georgia Powell, 12, a student at Bradley Stoke Community School, entered as a cho dan bo grade, and was crowned the black belt challenge champion after defeating 23 opponents in a knock out style competition.
During the day, Georgia won gold in forms, gold in weapons, and bronze in sparring. She also picked up a silver for team sparring, in which she was joined by junior team members Natasha Statham, Zailan Johnson and Max Halliday. She also teamed up with Natasha and Zailan to win gold in the team form.
Zailan, 7, an orange tag belt, won gold in forms and sparring. His sister Lexi Johnson, 12, who is an orange belt and trains at the Winterbourne club as well as Bradley Stoke, also competed, scooping herself a gold in sparring, a gold in team sparring and a bronze in forms.
Max, 9, an orange belt, won silver in sparring, while Natasha, who is a cho dan bo, won silver in forms, silver in weapons and gold in sparring, earning her the crown of junior female grand champion.
The Bradley Stoke club’s adult members also had a successful day, with sabonim Shelley Butler, winning gold in forms and weapons, sabonim Alex Butler winning bronze in weapons and sabonim Martyn Batten winning gold in forms, silver in weapons and bronze in sparring.
Tang Soo Do is a traditional Korean martial art which teaches self-defence, fighting and weapons. It also guides people to live a healthy and harmonious life.
Members of the Bradley Stoke club train every Tuesday night at Baileys Court Primary School. It caters for people with a wide range of abilities and ages (5yo+). Whether you want to train for fitness and health, are safety conscious, or simply want to find a hobby to relieve stress, then this sport may be for you!
Photos: (Left) Georgia Powell. (Right) Zailan and Lexi Johnson.
• For more information, visit www.dtsd.co.uk
This article originally appeared in the April 2016 edition of the Bradley Stoke Journal news magazine, delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH, to 9,500 homes in Bradley Stoke, Little Stoke and Stoke Lodge. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.
Well done to all, a credit to yourselves and those who taught you.