Promotion Testing-

On August 17^th, we had our latest promotion testing. I would like to say congratulations to everyone who  participated. Everyone did very well. A special congratulations goes out to our two newest Black Belts, Mr. Darell Kodad and Ms. Samantha Seaman.  Mr. Kodad’s three tile downward knife-hand break with his left hand was pretty impressive, and Ms. Seaman’s twin foot front snap kick was outstanding.

Tournaments- 

Wyoming - Senior Master Martin’s 14^th annual Wyoming Invitational was on  Saturday, September 14^th and we had 8 students attend.  We left Friday the 13^th at 5:30 am (yep that is in the morning) from the Youth Center parking lot and returned late Sunday evening. Everyone did great.

Missouri - On September 28^th down in Kirksville Missouri Sr. Master Stephenson will host the 25^th annual “Battle of the Belts” competition. For everyone that is coming along this year we plan on leaving that Friday night and returning Saturday after the competition is over. It is not too late to sign up.

Denver - On October 20th Sr. Grand Master Sereff will host this annual event. We will leave the Youth Center early Saturday morning and return late Monday evening. This is an 8 hour drive. We encourage everyone to attend whether you are competing, refereeing, or supporting Axe TKD students. They make an effort to come to our tournament so we should try and do the same for their tournament. Also, we can chaperone any student who wants to go, but as always, parents are welcomed to travel with us. 

By the Numbers- (by Mr. Bushor)

Master Todd and I started Axe Taekwon-Do almost 10 years ago (2004), and I started thinking about how many students we have had over the years.  Since 2004, we have had 391 students join our class, which is about 39 a year or a little more that 3 new students each month.  That is quite a few, and almost 400 students in 10 years is very good, but as of this morning, we have 70 active students in our class.  Of those 70 students, 19 are Black Belts which is 31.48% (this number does not include Master Todd, our instructor).  That got me to thinking back to when Mr. James Bushor and I joined Taekwon-Do back in 1992, my instructor said that only 1 out of every 10 new White Belts will ever become Black Belts.  I took that as a challenge and 20 years later, I can look back and see that I beat the odds just like Master Todd and the 18 other Black Belts in the class.  But being the nerd that I guess I am, I wanted to know more.  After some more number crunching, this is what I discovered.  Of the 391 students who joined our class, we have 49 Black Belts that are current or former students.  Of those 49 Black Belts, 12 students were already Black Belts when they joined, like me, Miss Bowing, Mr. Finan, Mr. James Bushor, etc.  That means that about 12.5% of our new White Belts have stayed on, trained hard, and beat the odds to become Black Belts.  This is better than the 1 in 10 chance that I had when I became a White Belt 20+ years ago.  Our two newest Black Belts have 1st Dan numbers that are over 11,000.  So let me take my nerd-i-ness one step further, of the more than 11,000 1st Dans, there are only about 64 Master Instructors which is about 0.58% (about 1 in every 200), and there are only 4 Grand Masters which is about .0036%.

  Some of you may be discouraged by the numbers, but that is not what I intended for you to take away from them.  I want you to think about what an exclusive group you will join when you finally complete your 4+ years of training and become a Black Belt.  It is a huge achievement and a worthy goal for you to strive to attain.  Not everyone will make it.  Many former students have left our class for a number of different reason, but we believe attaining your black is an achievable goal!   When I started in class my instructor was the only Black Belt in the class.  You have Master Todd and I in our school that are willing and able to help you achieve your goals.  As always, train hard, ask questions, and practice, practice, practice.