T-UK Umpire Course

On Sunday 24 March, Taekwon-Do UK held the first Umpire Course of the year at the Trident Academy at Sale Rugby Club.  The course was run by Master Ian Ridley VII, Mr Jonathan Emm V and Mr Alan Smith V, some of our most experienced and respected Umpires, and saw students from all over the North West, as well as a few who travelled up from Stratford, in attendance.  This course is not just for those people who are looking at grading soon or who haven’t umpired before and it was nice to see some of our International Instructors in attendance to refresh their skills and share their experiences with the other attendees.

The course started promptly with us up in a classroom style environment with Master Ridley taking the lead and going over a presentation of some of the protocols and theory required in umpiring, including the different roles that are required to successfully run a square at a tournament.  There were a lot of questions from the students, which was a refreshing change. 

After a short break we changed into doboks and moved downstairs to the dojang to put the theory into practice and give students a chance to see how judging works in practical terms.  Patterns judging in particular takes a lot of practice and is a skill that needs to be worked on just like anything else in taekwon-do. 

We then moved on to sparring and some of the more senior students in attendance had a try at centre refereeing with some very good acting by the students doing the sparring!  As always with these courses it’s important to have fun whilst we are learning.

We wrapped things up with a brief demonstration of the protocols around destruction and special technique.

Overall there were a lot of elements covered but everyone worked hard and paid attention as well as having some fun along the way.

A big thank you must firstly go to Master Ridley, Mr Emm and Mr Smith for a well run course and for taking the time to share their knowledge with us all.  Secondly, thank you to Master Miley for hosting the course at the Academy and finally, thank you to all the students who attended and worked hard all day and to the parents for bringing them.