ITF Australia Instructors Course

On the 19th and 20th of January 2019, ITF Australia held an Instructors course at Grand Master Daher's full time dojang based in Rydalmere, Sydney NSW

There were Instructors, Black Belt members and students in attendance from across Australia

The course was conducted by Grand Master Daher, assisted by Mr T. Mcintyre (V Degree) and Mr J. Abdallah (IV Degree).

The day started with an introduction to the course by GM Daher, explaining the content of the course and what we would be covering across the two days.

We were then taken through a brisk warm up by Mr Abdallah for about 20 minutes, which I think everyone would agree certainly raised the temperture for everybody on the mats. Mr Mcintyre then stepped in to take us through the umpire section of the course. He explained about gaining a passion for umpiring and the importance of supporting competitive events. Mr Mcintyre also explained that to be an effective Instructor and coach for competitive students, it is extremely important to know and keep up to date with the ITF competition rules.

We were then all asked as a group to show some centre referee hand signals that we knew. And then asked to demonstrate them to the group and tell everyone what they were for. This was an excellent exercise for everyone to go through and really helped everyone to clarify some misconceptions. We then seperated in to groups of threes and conducted centre referee procedures and signalling.

After a quick break, we came back together and formed up for GM Daher. We were asked to sit down and listen as GM Daher explained the concepts and teaching methods for the correct instruction of Taekwon-Do. We discussed the fundamentals of potential, transferring and connecting energy. We then formed up and went through the practical application of what we had just disscussed.

Over the next few hours and during the following day we went through many more practical exercises, patterns, self-defence and umpiring drills, finishing off on Sunday with a full on cardio and bag work session with Mr Abdallah.

Overall, the Instructors course was very informative and covered many practical and conceptual elements of ITF Taekwon-Do. I personally really enjoyed the course and would like to extend my thanks and gratitude to Grand Master Daher, Mr Mcintyre and Mr Abdallah. I would also like to thank everyone in attendance for being so welcoming and friendly.

I very much look forward the next ITF Australia event.