It’s important to keep up with your fitness and flexibility, so here’s a little workout for you to do at home! 💪 Be sure to send us a photo or video so we can see how you’re getting on with it!
Instructions: Please warm up first to avoid injury! You can do this by jogging on the spot, stretching and going through the list of exercises and doing maybe six of each (do more if you feel like you need to). 🔹 20 x press ups 🔹 20 x sit ups 🔹 20 x squat thrusts 🔹 40 x lunges (20 each leg) REPEAT 3 TIMES! Then have a good stretch, holding each one for at least 10 seconds.
Well done to everyone who did the grading last week! Here are your results! 👏 (Video heavily edited due to Chris getting constant giggles in front of the camera 🙄😅)
Grading Results: ⭐️ Tiger Level 1 (Orange Stripe): Alin, Heidi, Joseph T, Joseph Mc, Leo, Marion, Thomas, Zac ⭐️ 9th Kup (Yellow Stripe): Finn, Seryn ⭐️ 8th Kup (Yellow Belt): Robbie ⭐️ 7th Kup (Green Stripe): Athika, Eloise, Olly, Sam ⭐️ 6th Kup (Green Belt): Blake ⭐️ 5th Kup (Blue Stripe): Ríain ⭐️ 1st Kup (Black Stripe): Adam.
Due to the latest announcement regarding school closures to combat COVID-19, we will be suspending our classes until further notice. Final classes will take place on Wednesday 18th March.
We just
wanted to update you on what’s happening with the club in light of the coronavirus
(COVID-19) situation.
Currently, classes are still running;
although we are monitoring government and public health advice on a daily
basis. If there is any change in official advice that requires us to suspend
classes, then we will communicate this to you as soon as possible. If schools
are ordered to close, then our classes will be suspended.
If you have an underlying health condition, or if you’re close to someone who is considered high-risk, then please follow official guidance to look after yourself and others. If there are any students who prefer not to attend training during these uncertain times, this is entirely your personal choice, and we will completely understand and respect your decision.
If you are planning on attending classes, we ask that you take the following precautions:
Check our website and/or social media pages beforehand, just in case we have to make any last minute class cancellations based on the rapidly changing government advice.
If you have even mild symptoms, or if you’re in close contact with someone who may have symptoms of COVID-19, please protect your fellow students by staying home. Official guidance on symptoms and what to do can be found here.
Please wash your hands thoroughly before and after class, and even during the class if necessary. We have soap and water on site, and you’re welcome to bring hand sanitiser if you wish.
Please avoid unnecessary physical contact with one another (eg shaking hands).
We will be
making an effort to limit activities that require physical contact between
students (such as self defence drills) and to focus on other areas of training.
We will also be doing our best to keep equipment clean and to restrict sharing
of equipment such as focus pads and sparring gear.
We’re absolutely delighted with our club’s success at the 2020 City of Liverpool Sports & Physical Activity Awards! The awards were presented on 9th March in a ceremony held at Liverpool Hope University, hosted by the Liverpool Sports Forum.
We’re proud to announce that our club had not one but THREE winners! An amazing achievement considering the high quality of all the shortlisted nominees.
Huge congratulations to: ⭐ Connor Murphy – winner, Young Volunteer of the Year ⭐ Callum Edwards – winner, Young Athlete Sports Bursary ⭐ Chris Davies – winner, Coach of the Year.
Absolutely brilliant!!!
In order to give them the credit that they deserve, here are the full details of the nominations that we put forward. Well done, guys!
Connor Murphy – Young Volunteer of the Year
Connor is a 15-year-old
student and junior coach at North West Spirit Taekwondo Club. He volunteers his
free time several evenings per week and at weekends to help teach junior
students and beginners. He is enthusiastic about passing on his knowledge to
other students and helping them to achieve their own taekwondo goals. He has a
great rapport with students of all ages, and shows a huge amount of patience
with the young beginners, who can require a lot of one-on-one instruction. He
is firm but fair, and always friendly.
Since taking on the role of
junior coach, Connor’s confidence has grown noticeably. When he works in a
group with other junior coaches at the club, he can usually be heard taking
charge, coordinating the others and giving instructions to the students in a
clear, authoritative voice. This is a huge change from the shy boy who began
training with us years ago.
Connor also assists at the
club’s belt examinations: he helps students go through their techniques
beforehand; volunteers to be a sparring partner in the exam if needed; and also
helps with coordinating the administration side. This helps take the pressure
off everyone, from examiners to instructors to students, so is very much
appreciated.
As well as dedicating his
free time to volunteering at the club, Connor also likes to help coach the
club’s competitors at various tournaments across the country. He is a regular
competitor himself, so students respect his advice and encouragement. He also
helps with running the events, often volunteering to assist with timekeeping
and officiating.
Connor’s assistance in coaching at the club is a huge help to the instructors and students. When classes are busy, and especially when some of the senior instructors are on holiday, Connor’s help with coaching is absolutely essential to keeping things running smoothly. He has a hardworking attitude and is always good-humoured. He is a talented, patient coach who is able to work well with students of all ages. Connor’s commitment to volunteering is all the more remarkable as it has not impacted his dedication to his own taekwondo training. In fact, Connor has worked even harder in 2019, stepping up his training to become a serious competitor in the black belt division. In November, he trained hard for the World Taekwondo Championships in Scotland, earning a hard-fought silver medal in sparring as well as a gold medal in team sparring. Since then, he has set his sights high and started to attend national squad training, where he hopes to improve his fitness and fight skills, as well as having the chance to be selected for the England team.
Callum Edwards – nominated for Young Athlete of the Year; winner of £250 Sports Bursary
Callum is a dedicated, 15-year-old taekwondo student at
North West Spirit Taekwondo Club. He trains several times per week and always
puts 100% effort into every session. As a national squad member, he also
regularly travels around the country to train with the England team. He loves
all aspects of taekwondo, and his passion and determination have driven him to
excel.
Callum is among the top competitors nationally for his
category and in 2019, he took part in 8
tournaments and won 18 medals, 15 of which were gold. His tournament titles in
the last year include North West Champion, English Champion, British Champion,
UK Champion and World Champion.
His impressive sparring skills have become well-known on the
tournament circuit, and in January 2020 he was awarded two Black Belt
Competitor of the Year trophies by Global Taekwondo International, as he had
been ranked first in both patterns and sparring categories for their 2018-19
tournament season. At his club’s annual Student Awards ceremony, Callum has
received the award for Best Junior Male Competitor for the last eight years running.
In 2019, Callum trained hard
for the World Taekwondo Championships, held in Scotland in November. He was in
a division of skilled young fighters, but his determined and skilful sparring
made him stand out above them all, and he was awarded the World title. Despite
being exhausted, he went on to compete in the team sparring event, where he
pushed himself to battle through several more rounds, eventually earning yet
another gold medal.
Although he can be a fearsome opponent in the ring, Callum
is also known for his sportsmanship and self-control. He can be a fierce
fighter when he needs to be, but he can also be controlled and respectful when
he knows his opponent requires a gentler approach (such as when he’s against
less experienced or less confident fighters).
As well as being dedicated to his own training, Callum also
volunteers as a junior coach at his taekwondo club for several hours per week.
His fellow students (both young and old) look up to him, and he often helps to
teach the younger, more inexperienced students and helps them to gain
confidence in their techniques. He also gives up his time to volunteer at local
belt gradings and national tournaments to assist with running the events.
In June 2019, Callum took part in a sponsored taekwondo
charity event, the ‘100 Rounds of Sparring,’ where he and his teammates completed
100 back-to-back rounds of sparring to raise £625 for Alder Hey Children’s
Hospital.
Callum is a dedicated student, whose talent and attitude is much admired by his fellow students, coaches and the wider taekwondo community.
Chris Davies – Coach of the Year
Chris is the Chief Instructor
at Liverpool’s North West Spirit Taekwondo Club. The club turned 12 years old
in 2019, and enjoyed one its most successful years.
In 2019, Chris coached many
students to success at both belt gradings and tournaments. His students
achieved 139 trophies and medals at local, national and international
tournaments. The biggest of these was the World Taekwondo Championships in
Scotland in November, where every one of his students won a medal, including
eleven World titles – ten of which were won by students aged under 16 years.
Before the World
Championships, Chris organised fundraising events, including a raffle and a sponsored
taekwondo ‘kick-a-thon’, which raised money to help each student with entry
fees, travel and accommodation. In June 2019, he took part in a sponsored
taekwondo charity event, the ‘100 Rounds of Sparring,’ where he and his
students completed 100 back-to-back rounds of sparring and raised £625 for
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
Chris encourages all his
students to attend national squad training, where they can improve their
fitness and fight skills, and potentially be selected to represent their
country at international competitions. He has already had eight students
selected over the years, and in 2019 he added another student to the list,
selected to represent England at just nine years old.
Chris has continued to run
the club’s Junior Coach programme in 2019, giving a few trusted students extra
responsibility and the title of ‘Junior Coach’ in return for free training.
This gives the students a confidence boost and helps them to develop their
coaching skills under Chris’s guidance, as well as providing more coaching
staff for the students.
Chris is always looking for
new ideas and he researches drills and techniques on YouTube and Instagram to
keep his classes fun, interesting and challenging. In 2019, he attended a
Taekwondo Instructor’s Day, where instructors from around the country trained
together and learned from one another, benefiting from new ideas to take back
to their students.
Chris regularly travels
across the country to support his fighters at various events throughout the
year. Chris enjoys coaching, as well as volunteering to referee at national
tournaments. He helped to run a Referees Course in 2019, passing on his
knowledge to other taekwondo practitioners and encouraging them to get
involved.
Chris is passionate about
keeping taekwondo affordable and inclusive, so class fees have been kept at the
same low price since his club opened in 2007. This, plus a free trial lesson
for beginners, continues to encourage participation, and keeps classes
affordable for those with low incomes and for families with several members taking
part.
Chris enjoys teaching both junior and senior students,
mixing high standards of performance with discipline, love of the sport and a
fun attitude. He has a great rapport with students of all ages and loves
helping students improve and reach their potential. He takes huge satisfaction from seeing his
students’ confidence grow, and by helping them persevere to achieve their
goals.
The 2020 PUMA International Open was held in Swindon on 8th February. It was a tough competition, but all seven of our fighters made it to the podium for medals. The final haul was 11 medals: 1 gold, 4 silver & 6 bronze!
Well done, everyone!
Thank you to everyone who helped with coaching and supporting the team!
Now that they have all finally been given out, we can now publish the full list of North West Spirit Taekwondo Student Award winners for 2019!
Well done, everyone!
Thank you to everyone who was able to join us for our Awards Evening in January. Big thanks to our awesome DJ Brian Killen, who supports us every year. Thanks to all our junior coaches, assistant coaches & instructors for all you do throughout the year. We’d be lost without you! And thank you to all our students and their families for helping to make this club such a success, as well as a fun place to be!
Tiger of the Year
Eloise Williams
Best Newcomer
Athika Kadar
Most Improved Student
Saad Jaffery
Indomitable Spirit Award
Sam Carlson
Best Young Junior Male Competitor
1st place Owen Gargan 2nd place Olly Gargan 3rd place Kaden Springer
Best Junior Male Competitor
1st place Callum Edwards 2nd place Connor Murphy 3rd place Alan Johnson
Best Junior Female Competitor
1st place Nikola Kliza 2nd place Tzaneen Long 3rd place Athika Kadar & Malika Nafees
The 2020 GTI English Open was held in Cheltenham on 26th January. Our Tournament Team got the year off to a great start, with our seven fighters winning seven medals: 6 gold and 1 bronze!
Well done, team!
Congratulations also to Callum Edwards and Stef Davies, who were awarded the GTI Black Belt Competitor of Year trophies for the 2018-19 tournament season. Eight awards are presented each season, and we’re proud to see four of these go to our club members this year! Callum won awards for Boys Patterns and Boys Sparring; while Stef won awards for Ladies Patterns and Ladies Sparring.
Thank you to everyone who helped with officiating, coaching and supporting!
Our Taekwondo Tournament Team has been hard at work during November in the quest for competition glory!
After achieving fantastic results at the World Championships at the start of the month, our fighters went on to win even more medals at the ITF Union Open English Cup, held in Bradford on 16th November.
Callum Edwards and Connor Murphy both competed in the black belt boys’ divisions, and they bagged 5 medals altogether: 2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze!
The next day, the lads also took part in the GTI British Open Championships in Cheltenham, where they were joined by several of their Liverpool teammates. The team of 11 students won 14 medals: 8 gold, 4 silver & 2 bronze!
Well done also to Connor, Athika & Amelia, who didn’t make it into the medals; but they each did us proud with determined performances in some very tough divisions.