Australian Taekwondo Academy

ATA members performed well to gain very good results from the 2024 WA State championships held recently. Our 5 poomsae entries all won gold while our kyorugi players gained 2 gold and 2 silvers. Overall a very good result.

In preparation for the upcoming WA Cup, Jacob, Neb, and Stefan engaged in a rigorous workout to refine their kyorugi sparring skills and match management strategies during training this week. The session also provided an opportunity for fellow class members to observe the three athletes in action.

We entered 3 players in the Perth Open tournament on Sunday 24th March. Asher Calicdan won 1st place (trophy) winning his match against twin brother Dan in the final of the male 12-14 years blue belt division. Jacob Brady stepped up to black belt for the first time and was up against an experienced black belt in the male open heavyweight final division. Jacob is developing and this match will be a good learning experience for the next competitions coming up in May, June and July. Both Dan and Jacob placed 2nd and received silver medals.

Jedi Calicdan passes 4th dan black belt. His dedication has been rewarded when he completed all round grading tests for poomsae, creative poomsae, step sparring, precision kicking, free sparring, self defence, gyokpa breaking, theory, special skills and 2 essays on taekwondo kyorugi sparring and a core martial art value. Congratulations Jedi and well deserved.

He started taekwondo with the ATA under Grandmaster Kim Seng back in 2004, paused to start a family and began working up north on a FIFO roster. He resumed training in 2022 year with his family and last year resumed his competition days, winning the Nationals in the 3rd dan black belt poomsae aged group division.

Scroll through the photos to see some of the tests Jedi went through. An earlier post showed video clips of his gyokpa breaking tests.

Festive season is over, we enjoyed our first get together social to kick off the new year at the Mandurah Western foreshore on the weekend. Elanie organised the members to come for a BBQ picnic as we also celebrate the first anniversary of our ATA members Facebook group page. We had a quiz game to test our knowledge. Scroll through the photos to see how we enjoyed the day. Our first class back is on 1st February, just 2 more weeks to go.

We concluded the 2023 year with an awards presentation and a mini games night to celebrate individual members and club successes, recognise milestone achievements and finish off with a mini games night. It was timely to end the year with a festive season greetings for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Jacob Brady achieves his black belt after years of dedication, commitment and focus, finally reaching his goal in December 2023. Jacob has displayed commendable martial arts indomitable spirit, perserverance, determination and stayed true to his believes. He has done it. He has overcome obstacles and cleared the speed humps and is now a proud black belt.

Jacob started at a young age up north in 2014 and moved down to Mandurah in 2020. We overhauled his skill sets and re-worked his basic movements so he could move freely with speed, balance, rhythm, physical strength and agility as well as instill a mental toughness and confidence. He was very patient, as we were with him.

He had a bad start at his first state comp but he worked hard and steadily gained confidence and improved to win at state level in 2022 and runner up at his first nationals in 2023. His main focus was in kyorugi sparring, and surprised us when he decided to give poomsae a shot and came second at his very first ever poomsae comp in 2023.

He is now skilled at self defence and gyokpa breaking as well, so he is eyeing to compete in these categories in future as well.

Jacob has been a work in progress development project and it is pleasing to see his progress has bore fruit. Well done Jacob. His family has supported his development program and they are as pleased as us all in the club to see him succeed. There will be many more goals for him to aim for. Getting the black belt ends one chapter in his journey, let there be more pathways to strive and more chapters to shape and frame the stories he wants.

2023 ends with a good note. Turning 18 and passing his black belt.

Elanie Van Zyl gets her black belt .. finally .. Her efforts, commitments, dedication and perseverance in doing what she loves prevails. An inspiration worthy of praise and for others to follow. Well done, after what seemed like 25 years passed after starting in South Africa while not quite a teenager yet. Then stopping, with the family migrating to Australia, restarted when a fully grown adult, then paused when she went north for work, starting a family and resumed just over 18 months ago.

Her dedication shone through and she regained her national titles, this time in the masters class. Mission achieved .. and now passing the first step into black belt. Her commitments and focus will guide her to higher accomplishments, just more pathways, more missions. This time with her family included.

Congratulations Elanie, well done. You have definitely earned it. May you flourish in your continuing taekwondo and martial arts journey, and complimenting your family and businesses.

A new chapter begins.

Elanie and Jacob are going through their black belt promotion tests starting with gyokpa breaking. They have had quite an active year having competed in three competitions this year and winning gold and silver at the Australian Nationals, WA State and WA Cup in kyorugi sparring and poomsae.

You can view some of their gyokpa breaking tests in the photos following.

ATA members won an overall 7 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze medals at the 2023 Australian Taekwondo Nationals held in Perth over the 13-15 October weekend. Overall our gold medal haul was near on 50% success rate, meaning we returned a gold medal win for every 2 contested divisions. We entered 9 players for the Nationals and contested 13 divisions.

The poomsae competition (day 1) results was posted 2 days earlier. In the kyorugi sparring competition (day 3), ATA players won 2 divisions, came second in 2 divisions and bronze in another 2 divisions.

The team prepared well, with the majority participating first time at Nationals. Seasoned players at Nationals, Jed Paragas Calicdan (1 gold) and Elanie Van Zyl (2 gold) helped mentor the first time members.

Scroll through the photos and view the performances of the kyorugi sparring players.

ATA members won three 1st placings in 3 divisions out of 7 contested divisions at the 2023 Australian Taekwondo poomsae Nationals. The team returns a 43% success rate. Grandmaster Kim Seng was pleased with the result and performances. Congratulations to 2023 National champions Jed Paragas Calicdan (black belt), Elanie Van Zyl (red belt), Stefan Van Zyl (blue belt) and Annette Calicdan (blue belt).

Grandmaster Kim helped out as the director in charge of the nationals power breaking competition.

Scroll through the photos to see our ATA members in action.

ATA members won 10 gold, 10 silver and 3 bronze medals total at the 2023 WA State championships held on the weekend in Mandurah. 9 players qualify to represent the state at the Nationals next month in Perth for kyorugi and poomsae.

Scroll through the photos and news captions to view each player and their kyorugi sparring performance. Poomsae photos are shown in an earlier separate post.

ATA members won 6 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals at the 2023 WA State Poomsae championships. Members performed well and returned a 50% strike rate of gold medals from 12 entered divisions. It could have been another 2 golds but a couple of mistakes were costly.

8 members will now prepare for the poomsae nationals being held in Perth over the weekend from 13th to 15th October 2023. Scroll through the photos of ATA members in their poomsae performances with news captions.

ATA team members prepare for the 2023 WA State championships being held in Mandurah on the 2nd-3rd September weekend.

It was in Morayfield, an hour's drive north of Brisbane in sunny Queensland (even in winter), Australia, where the taekwondo community assembled from 7th to 9th July 2023 for the Oceania Open, WT President's Cup and the Australian Open. I officiated as one of the Poomsae International Referees over 3 days. It was great teamwork and a pleasure to work with friends and fellow IR's.

ATA entered a small Mandurah team of 4 players to the WA Invitation tournament held recently and we won one 1st placing and three 2nd placings. Dan Calicdan won 1st place while Asher Calicdan, Amalie Calicdan and Edwin Aquino won 2nd placing silver medals.

Jacob Brady is developing into a fine taekwondo player. He has worked hard and continues to gain confidence in each of his competition fights. His is a worthy success story. Below is a short brief of his transformation and journey.

When he arrived at the ATA Mandurah club in 2020 from up north, he was awkward in his taekwondo skills and was clumsy in body movements. We had to do a complete overhaul on him, starting with his basic movements for competition sparring and overhauled his skills and techniques.

It was a 2 year journey, that was the plan. Jacob was the patient and diligent student. He was focussed, he was determined. His parents supported the plan. His skills improved, his body movements became smoother and faster and he learnt to string combinations together with speed and accuracy and still had good balance.

We tried him out for his first competition after 1 year, the 2021 WA State comp. While the skills were there, his mental state was not. He would back away after getting hit. He just couldn't get his kicks in. He was beaten badly and suffered concussion. So we worked on his mental toughness as well as body toughness for another year along with his court management fighting strategies. He worked hard and improved. He was determined.

Jacob's second comp, the 2022 WA Cup, we were apprehensive on how he would perform after a bad loss the previous year. He performed much better and won a convincing fight, this time with a player of similar age and belt. His mum, Natasha was very proud, it was the best Mother's day present. All the hard work is paying off.

His third comp, the 2022 WA state comp, he had to fight an adult while only 16 years old. He was a little worried. He lost his first round, but after some hard pep talking, he came out firing on all 8 cylinders and piled up point after point to win running away with quite a large margin. What a joy to watch this shy young boy putting it on. The transformation was very satisfying. Mum, Natasha was very proud, she had just witnessed how Jacob had matured. His little sister was totally gobsmacked and couldn't believe the transformation of Jacob into the mean machine.

His fourth comp, the 2023 WA Cup, Jacob was very relaxed and knew what he had to do, cruising away to win 2 rounds to nil. Jacob is now looking forward to his next comps, the 2023 WA State comp and the 2023 Nationals. His confidence is high and we look forward to more success.

Jacob is in the red in the following photos from his most recent tournament win at the 2023 WA Cup held in May.

ATA wins 4 gold and 2 silver medals at the WA cup held recently from an entry of 6 players. It is a good result with 4 new kyorugi (sparring) first time players in our squad this year. Scroll through the photos to see and read about the players in their actions and medals won.

Amalie practices routines to warm up her kicks with stretching which improves flexibility, balance, stability and strength. All are base requirements to performing skilfull side kicks, roundhouse kicks and axe kicks.

Some ATA members practiced their jumping kicks after normal class last week.

Classes resume this week from Thursday 2nd Feb at the John Tonkin College gym hall, 35 Gibla Street, Mandurah. Call 0403 431 688 or send message. Suitable for 6 years old and upwards. Learn martial arts, Olympic sport, self defence, discipline, health and fitness.

One more week to resuming classes for 2023. Here is a recap on the awards recipients for 2022 year.