Six 1st kup red belt students from Plymouth have returned from Bristol as 1st degree black belts in the Korean martial art of Tae Kwon Do and a 1st degree student has been promoted to 2nd degree. The students all train at Woolwell with the Tae Kwon Do association of Great Britain, the largest Tae Kwon Do association in the country.

The students have all been training hard under instructors David Snell, Jack Berryman and Guy Southard, attending classes at Woolwell, Eggbuckland and Plymstock to prepare for their grading examination by the TAGB grading panel. The grading panel is made up from the most senior members of the TAGB, all 8th degree black belts.

The students who were promoted to 1st degree were Adam Spencer (age 10), Braidy Workman (10), Tommy Workman (16), twins James and Joseph Snell (14) and Bethany Blamire. Dominic Douglas-Green was promoted to 2nd degree.

Mr Snell, who runs the Woolwell classes is incredibly proud of every one of his students. It takes at least 4 years of hard work to achieve black belt standard with the TAGB. Although my classes are quite relaxed and fun, Tae Kwon Do is such a technical martial art that the only way to master the techniques is to persevere and put in loads of effort.

My passion for Tae Kwon Do, together with the inspiration I get from the senior TAGB members and the dedication of my students, has allowed me to keep on training and teaching Tae Kwon Do with the TAGB for nearly 20 years.

For example, 8th degree black belt Master Dew is one of the grading panel members. As head of the South West, he has been grading examiner since 1983 and has carried out every grading I have done myself as a student, from when I started in 1989, to my last grading (to 3rd Dan) in 2006. He has also graded each and every one of my students on a regular basis, offering encouragement and advice, since I started teaching in 1995. Now that’s inspiring and it makes for a great standard of Tae Kwon Do as well!

I have always set very high standards for my students and will not let them grade unless I am confident that they are ready. I sometimes hold students back after they pre-grade, which has allowed my students to maintain a 100% pass rate at gradings. I hate the thought of my students failing because failing knocks confidence. I always say that they will be a black belt for a long time, so they should treasure the time as a coloured belt. To wait for the next belt a bit longer is not failure. My sons, James and Joseph understand this. They have now progressed to black belt and I’m delighted about that, but they had to wait a long time to do so, having both started over 6 years ago in 2002 when they were 8 years old.