eNews March 2019 Issue

Europe Tour - Good luck to all athletes

Good luck to all Athletes competing in Europe over the next few weeks. To keep up with results please go the Australian Taekwondo Facebook.

Pictured here Coaching Director Karim Dighou who has taken a team of 11 of Australia's categorised athletes on a European Tour to compete at the Dutch Open 9-10th March and Belgium Open 15-17 March.

Support staff Ali Khalil Assistant Coach and Anita Tippet Team Manager.

Athletes
Tamzin Christoffel - 49kg (OneTKD)
Carmen Marton - 57kg (MTC)
Reba Stewart +73kg (Halls)
Adrian Abela - 54kg (CWT)
Bailey Lewis - 58kg (CWT)
Safwan Khalil - 58kg (GMA)
Tomas Auger - 63kg (GMA)
Damon Cavey - 63kg (WhTKD)
Tom Afonczenko - 68kg (NMA)
Jack Marton - 74kg (MTC)
Arash Mozhdeh - 87kg (MOZTKD)

We will have a report on results in the next eNews.

Older Australians Grant Success

Australian Taekwondo is pleased to announce that we have been successful in our application for a highly competitive Sport Australia Better Aging Grant, which aims to increase levels of physical activities of Australians aged 65+ to improve their overall health and wellbeing.

The grant of $120,000 will be used for programs that fall under the “Ageless Taekwondo” initiative – including building and expanding nationally upon the “Ninja Nannies” concept developed by Fay Shacklock (read the rest of the article HERE)

Upcoming Competitions

In 2019 Australian Taekwondo has a busy schedule of national and international events and seminars.

World Cadet Selections – Brendale, Queensland

This event is for the selection of the Australian Team to contest the 2019 World Cadet Taekwondo Championships, which will be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in August 2019.

Online entries are now OPEN – closing date is the 25th March.
Please note for this event – weigh in will be conducted on 6 April between 8:00am and 10:00am.
  

2019 President's Cup (G2)
Oceania Para Championships (G4/G2)
Australian Open (G2)

This is the first time that Australia has hosted all three international events over the same weekend, and presents a great opportunity to see these high quality championships. The events will be hosted at the Carrara Indoor Leisure Centre, Gold Coast, Queensland between 27-29 June 2019.

The President's Cup will feature both poomsae and kyorugi events which are both G2 ranked and is expected to draw a large field of international and Australian competitors.

After many years the Australian Open returns and will feature both kyorugi and poomsae events. The kyorugi has been awarded a G2 ranking by World Taekwondo, and the points will be the last event to be counted into the July ranking for the Chiba Grand Prix.

For kyorugi athletes aspiring to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, the two G2 ranked events present a unique opportunity for these athletes to earn valuable ranking points.

Online Entries are now open via worldtkd.simplycompete.com

If you are interested in being part of these events as a volunteer, we will soon be releasing an Expression of Interest for volunteers, so stay tuned through our Facebook page.

The Australian National Championships

The Australian Nationals will be held on the Gold Coast from 6 to 8  September 2019, at the Carrara Indoor Leisure Centre.

The Outline for the event will be released soon so please keep your eye on your state calendar for your state's selection event. Alternatively where made availbale, these events are published on the Australian Taekwondo Calendar.

If you are interested in being part of this event as a volunteer, there will be an Expression of Interest intake being released soon.

Schools Program Update

Filming and editing has now been completed and we are onto finalising the online learning curriculum and resources components.

We would like to Paul Mitchell from United Taekwondo for volunteering his time and students for the filming. You can view this introduction to the videos here: Schools Program Introduction.

Schools Program Objectives

As has been reiterated earlier, the Australian Taekwondo National Schools Program has two main objectives:

1. To provide the vehicle for instructors already operating schools a program to accredit these and gain access to the Federal Sporting Schools Program.
2. To provide a framework and resources for Instructors new to the operating of a modified schools program.

Please note that the Australian Taekwondo National Schools Program provides a framework from which to operate in and is not prescriptive. Flexibility and adaptability are necessary when running these programs especially as many insrtructors are already running schools programs.

International Kyorugi and Poomsae Referee Courses

Australian Taekwondo is pleased to announce that International Referee (IR) courses and refresher courses, for both Poomsae and Kyorugi will be conducted on the Gold Coast from 1-4 July 2019.

These courses will be post the Australian Open competition.

This is a unique opportunity for Australian Referees to achieve international referee accreditations on home soil.

Further details will be released soon by World Taekwondo.

Kyorugi Referees for World Championship Cadet Selection Event

The National Kyorugi Referee Committee is now calling for Expressions of Interest (EoI) from suitably qualified Kyorugi Referees to officiate at the Selection Event for the World Cadet Championship which will be held at the South Pine Sports Complex, Brendale, Queensland on Saturday, 6 April 2019 from midday to 9pm.

Pertinent requirements are:

• Referees must be current members of AT and hold an AT referee accreditation.
• Preference will be given to referees with IR, S, 1st or 2nd Class accreditations.
• All referees are expected to attend the Briefing Session.
• Accommodation will provided for Saturday 6th April.
• Airport pickup and drop off will be provided.
• Reimbursement of 75% of airfares (based on average airfares for the period). Amount payable for each state is listed below:

ACT $392 NSW $224 Qld $0 SA $528 Tas $448. Vic $285 WA $548

Please register your EoI by email to referee@austkd.com.au advising the following information.

Name:
State:
Contact Number:
Current Refereeing Qualifications:
AT member number:
Any Dietary Requirements:
Any Travel Restrictions:

Please note that submission of an EoI does not guarantee acceptance to officiate.

Facebook Groups

We are currently working on the development of our facebook groups to ensure we are more targeted with our communication and the AT facebook page is used for general annoucements. 

The groups will also alert members when annoucements come up specific to their area of interest. The groups will be used for Australian based Taekwondo stakeholders with membership approved by AT. The links to the groups are below with the purpose of each group:

Schools Program Group - for instructors operating schools programs, new instructors and those wishing to bring a schools program to their school. Ask questions that can help develop your program and get access to experienced instructors to learn from.

Older Australians Group - for those wishing to become and accredited instructor or wishing to learn more about the program.

Para-Taekwondo Group  - for those with an interest in para-taekwondo at the elite and club level and developing their skills in this area.

Kyorugi Coaches and Officials Group - for current and potential instructors with updates on courses, the performance hub, high performance training, competitions and for officials with updates on courses, rule changes etc. We want to foster the group to be a place of discussion and learning.

Poomsae Coaches and Officials Group- or current and potential instructors with updates on courses, high performance training and for officials with updates on courses, rule changes etc. We want to foster the group to be a place of discussion and learning.