On Sunday 1 December 2024, Taekwon-Do UK were privileged to host a Seminar taught by Grand Master Ellis and Grand Master Nardizzi at the Stratford Upon Avon Leisure Centre. Unfortunately, our President, Master Archer, was unable to attend due to having a hip operation the day before but he sent his best wishes to everyone and I know he will have been very pleased at the effort everyone put in to their training on the day.

The day was split into two Seminars, one aimed at Colour Belts and one aimed at Black Belts, although Black Belt students were encouraged to attend both if they wished.

Master Ridley, Vice President of Taekwon-Do UK, introduced the Grand Masters at the start of the first session and officially welcomed everyone to the Seminar. The Grand Masters then spoke a few words before we got stuck in to the serious business of training.

The group was split into two with blue belts and above going on one half of the hall with Grand Master Nardizzi and blue tags and below staying on the other half with Grand Master Ellis.

After a quick warm up designed to get our brains and bodies working the Grand Masters worked through a couple of patterns each, selecting a few techniques from those patterns to pay particular attention to. As an Instructor, I personally found Grand Master Nardizzi’s comments about the importance of helping to teach students to be teachable really interesting. When I’m teaching, I’m always conscious of treating students as individuals and being aware that everyone learns in different ways and what works for one student might not work for another. He was also keen to stress the importance of not being afraid of making mistakes as long as we’re learning from them.

Halfway through the session the Grand Masters switched groups so everyone in attendance got the opportunity to learn from each of them. Grand Master Ellis uses a lot of repetition to help students to master techniques whilst coming round the room and making adjustments as necessary.

The colour belt students were then dismissed after a quick photo opportunity before the Black Belt session got started. It was nice to see some quite Senior grades who had travelled to train with the Grand Masters and, as always at events like this, it was nice to catch up with people during the short break.

Again, Master Ridley introduced the Grand Masters to everyone and welcomed all participants to the Seminar. We were then again split into two groups with 3rd Degree and above on one side with Grand Master Ellis first and 1st and 2nd Degrees staying on the other side with Grand Master Nardizzi first.

The session followed a similar format with us going through a couple of patterns as well as some specific techniques with each of the Grand Masters.

Personally, I always find it inspiring when we get the opportunity to train with Grand Masters who take the time to share their wealth of knowledge and speak with such passion and joy about taekwon-do still after many years of training.

I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to attend events like this so a big thank you to Taekwon-Do UK for organising.

Lastly, special thanks to Grand Master Ellis and Grand Master Nardizzi for giving up their time and sharing their knowledge with us all.

If you missed this event, I know it can be a difficult time of year for people as far as time and finances go, I would recommend you look out for the next one and take the opportunity to train with Grand Masters in a smaller setting like this as you get much more actual contact with them as far as adjustments and things go in comparison to events like IICs where it is such a huge group there isn’t really an opportunity for this level of focus unless you volunteer to perform one of the patterns in front of everyone.

Jayne Heywood IV Degree

ITF Grand Masters’ Seminar – 1 December 2024