Three students from our school did exceptionally well at the recent UK All Styles Northern England martial arts tournament in Bradford.

Stefanie Probert, her son Zack and friend Olivia Mountain all came home with medals from the event, which attracted almost 200 competitors from 20 different martial arts schools from all over the UK.

The club did not enter a formal team for the event, but the three students decided to go it alone and enter on the clubs behalf. They all did extremely well as can be seen from the photo.

Olivia won a Gold medal for forms in the 6-3 kyu 8-10 year olds section. Zack tied for second and just missed out on the replay to gain 3^rd place in the same event for 9-7 kyu. His mother Stefanie brought home two bronze medals in the 17+ 9-7 kyu forms and sparing competitions.

The picture shows the three proudly wearing their medals.

KJN John is extremely proud of his students’ achievements which he puts down to hard work and enthusiasm. The three hope to take part in the National Finals later this year..

Sunday 17th saw the schools third open tournament take place.
Because of the success of previous events the entry had grown somewhat since last years event. In the end well over 70 students took part in the competition.
These came from several different schools from the Northwestt and included 30 from Master John Watsons school in Liverpool as well as KSN Andy Lee.

Students took part in Sparring, Forms, Weapons, Team and creative events. A popular new addition was the Champion of Champions sparring events which was open to all ranks and split into three age groups. The prize for each event was a fantastic Championship style belt.
There were so many events and highlights that it is impossible to publish everything that took place. But we will publish a list of all the winners on this page within the next few weeks.

KJN John is very proud to announce that as from 1st January 2012 he has been given the honour of becoming the UK Director of NKMAA for Kuk Sool Hapkido in the UK. This follows Saja Nim's visit to our school during which he was very impressed with the students' attitude and willingness to learn.
KJN John is very excited about this appointment, which he believes marks the bginning of great things for the NKMAA in the UK. With more schools joining or starting this year it is a great time to be part of such a unique organisation.
John intends to work closely with all member schools as well as with Saja Nim to ensure the continued growth of the organisation over the coming years.
Details of his appointment and other important news can be found in the NKMAA Winter Newsletter which may be downloaded on this page....

NKMAA Winter News (901kb)

IN HOUSE TOURNAMENT
On Saturday February 18th, we will be holding our own in-house tournament. This is a chance for you to show your skills and win some trophies.
To download an appplication form click on the file below. Please complete and return the form as soon as possible, well before the closing date of 4th February 2012

Tournament details (92kb)
Entry Form (92kb)

Sunday 10^th April saw yet another first for students of the John Ward School of Korean Martial Arts when we hosted a seminar by Grand Master Geoff Booth of the Australian Hapkido Group and Kwan Nyom Hapkido. GM Booth visited Master Ward’s School as part of his world tour. His trip was to take aproximately 2 months in which he is visited 9 countries, had at least 22 Seminar days, 20 Flights, and 5 long distance trains!

August 14th, 2010 was a VERY important day for school owner John Ward and Instructor Angela Prince. This was the day that they both received promotion to their next dahn grade at the special ceremony during the Meeting of Grandmasters.
For John this was the culmination of over 18 years of hard work and dedication to his art. His original aim had been to get to Master level by his 60th birthday. But this promotion means that he has achieved that goal some 5 years early as he is "only" 55. But not to rest on his laurels, John's next aim is to achieve the same goal in the much harder style of Kong Shin Bup, which includes all the same techniques and forms as KS Hapkido, but has many more besides. In addidion the techniques are performed somewhat more "realistically" and the test is even harder. This will take a LOT of training on John's behalf, but he is determined to give it his best shot, so that he can then have the oportunity of teaching both styles to his students.
It was a fantastic event and a great trip. Read all about here....

Sunday 9th May saw a great event at the school. KJN John Watson, 6th Dahn  Kuk Sool Master, came to give a seminar.
KJN John  is renowned for his ability in all areas of martial arts and is arguably the best practitioner of Kuk Sool in UK today.
The seminar included sparring and staff sparring techniques as well as some very practical self defence.
Students were taught practical ways to defend against some of the more common attacks such as groin kicks, grabs to the throat and "haymaker" or hook type punches.
The amazing thing was that many of the techniques used in these defences were taken from the very earliest techniques and forms in the Kuk Sool syllabus, meaning that they were just as practical for beginners as for more seasoned practitioners.