IT WASN’T everybody’s favourite year, but BOP (Bude, Okehampton and Plymouth) T.A.G.B. Tae Kwon-Do Schools did have a run of successes to celebrate.

A total of 19 students entered six competitions, the most local of which were at Torquay. They also travelled to Worcestershire, Cardiff, Glasgow and Birmingham, and brought home with them eight bronze medals, three silver and four gold.

Bude were top of the medal list, with Heather Sirmon bagging three of the four golds as she become Patterns champion at the Southern, Scottish and British competitions. Her daughter Evelyne entered the most number of competitions; five out of six; closely followed by her fellow students Martha and Millie Stratton.

As well as 15 medals, BOP students brought some excellent grading results. There were four colour belt gradings over the year, with around 30 students taking part each time. Overall there were 40 awards of either A or plus passes, which means that the students performed exceptionally well.

Instructor Guy Southard puts this success down to vigorous in house practice.

He said: “We always do a pre-grading in class, and I won’t let students grade if I see that they are underperforming.

“With competitions, there’s no pressure to compete but I encourage it as the experience is so valuable. It puts your knowledge under pressure, and if you can perform under pressure then you are becoming a good martial artist. You don’t need to win a medal to have a great learning experience, a lot of the time you learn more from losing; having said that, I am obviously thrilled when they do win.

“The British is the last competition of the year and Bude club now have a triple medallist. Next year the World Championships will be held in July at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, with over 20 different countries represented, that’s an exciting event and opportunity, I think we have some keen competitors lined up!”

There were two black belt gradings in the year: five students earned their First Dan black belts, and one progressed to Second Dan. These gradings were held in Bristol, and before taking the test, the students also had to pass a pre-grading held at the Tae Kwon-Do Association of Great Britain headquarters in Bristol, and survive two gruelling training sessions in Weston-super-Mare.

Guy added: “It’s not just about achieving a black belt, it’s about maintaining it. In order to progress through the Dan grades you have to be attending training sessions regularly and be a supportive member of your club and organisation. It isn’t unachievable though, there’s a good range of ages and abilities represented in the black belt ranks.”

The final success of the year was Lisa Southard passing all the requirements to advance from assistant to full instructor and she was delighted.

She said: “I’ve been meaning to make this move for a while. Although I have been happy to be an assistant instructor it hasn’t felt like I was fulfilling my potential. The instructor’s course was tough, actually harder than I expected, but then you have to be aware of so much — safeguarding, insurance, first aid, tax, psychology of learning — and obviously all of the syllabus, and your personal standard of training needs to be good, so I’m pleased that it was so rigorous and over the moon to have earned my instructor status.”

BOP students were back in training on Monday (January 8) and there’s plenty to be training for; including a colour belt grading on Saturday, February 3, and to get everyone revved up for the competitive circuit, the World Championships and to raise money for a mental health charity, which will see an interclub ‘sparrathon’ on Sunday, January 21, involving students from BOP, Tavistock and Newton Abbot.