Joint Practices this week

First off, great job at MIT to everyone who competed, and thanks to Master Hatfield, Betsy, Phil, and Jasmine for coaching, driving, cheering, and overall supporting the team. The second Sunday of Fall Break is Cornell, so get pumped!!

Next, this week is midterms, but you should all still come to practice as a way to relieve a bit of stress. For this week, we will be holding joint practices -- that is, combining the beginners/advanced. The modified schedule will be:

Monday: (tonight)

8:30pm-10:00pm Multi-purpose Room (combined beginners + advanced)

Wednesday:

9:30pm-11:00pm Multi-purpose Room (combined beginners + advanced)

Good luck with all your work

Welcome!

Welcome to a new year and a new website! From now on, all news and updates will be posted through this blogger account, and not through the static /~tkd page provided by OIT.

NYU/Columbia Scrimmage

Eager to get in some extra practice before the first league tournament of the Spring at West Point, Princeton hosted a scrimmage with Taekwondo athletes from NYU and Columbia on Saturday, February 7th from 2-5pm. Masters Albert Lee and Tim Marmo also came down from NYU to help out. Carissa led the warmups, and athletes then paired off with students from other schools for hogu drills under Masters Lee and Marmo. Emphasis was placed on eliminating unnecessary movement, kick distancing, and fixing other common sparring mistakes. The last part of the session was devoted to inter-school sparring. The room was split into two rings, and students fought each other for single 2-minute rounds under ECTC rules, while observers shouted help and encouragement. The matches were competitive but friendly, and everybody got lots of practice in (including Coach Marmo, who fought briefly with Marc, much to the entertainment of everybody else).

The scrimmage was a really positive experience, giving students an opportunity to train under new masters and fight unfamiliar opponents. Opportunities like this allow us to learn from people we don't usually practice with, which is always a good thing. Princeton would like to thank NYU and Columbia's Taekwondo teams for coming to train, as well as Masters Hatfield, Lee, and Marmo for coming and offering their expertise. We hope that everyone found this session to be as helpful as we did, and that we can set up more of them in the future.

Grand Prix 2009

Just for fun and extra practice, the 6 members of the Taekwondo team headed up to East Orange, NJ yesterday to compete in the 2009 Grand Prix, hosted by Master Mark Williams. Competitors included David Huie, Marc Osherson, Eddie Lee, Peng Jiang, Gina Davis, and Cristian Proistosescu. This being an open local tournament, we weren't really sure what to expect in terms of the competition. We arrived shortly after noon, and the adult divisions were just getting started. There, we also met Master Lee from NYU and a few NYU fighters. First up were the color belts. Peng's first fight was also his first ever at a Taekwondo tournament, and he was understandably a little shaky. Fortunately he was able to pull out a win against his first opponent. Gina also registered a victory. Unfortunately, after some in the clinch and a few questionable points, Cristi lost in the final seconds of his match. Peng also fell in a close second match. Gina, true to form, defeated her second opponent to take gold in her division.

After the color belt divisions, the time came for the black belt competition. To increase the number of matches, Master Williams decided to eschew the usual weight divisions, and instead divided the black belt pool in half by weight. First to spar was Eddie, competing in the lower weight class that we later learned contained two National champions. Unfortunately, Eddie's opponent proved to be simply too quick, and Eddie lost due to 7-point gap. David was up next, and was evenly matched such that the score remained tied after 3 rounds. During the tiebreaker, one exchange ended with David landing a kick that both he and his opponent thought had ended the match, so much so that both stopped fighting - until they realized that it hadn't been scored. Unfortunately, David's opponent finally landed a kick against a passive block to score and win in overtime. In Princeton's final match, Marc fought his opponent - a Dominican Republic National Team member - with a bad back. Marc's injury prevented him from kicking, and his opponent continued to eventually win the division. For his efforts, and because of a bye in the first round, Marc's performance was good enough for a bronze medal.

The tournament was a great experience overall, with some very high level competition. Congratulations again to Gina for taking gold in her division! We would also like to thank Master Williams for hosting the tournament, and for getting us out earlier than any other tournament we've been to. As the league season approaches, we look forward to continue training, as well as possibly scrimmaging with NYU.

Officer Elections!

Taekwondo elections were held prior to testing on Wednesday, December 10th. Below is a list of the new officer corps. Officers will serve through the 2009 calendar year. Congratulations!

President: Marc Osherson '10
Vice President: Carissa Fu '11
Secretary: Andrew Mandelbaum '12
Treasurer: Steven Kim '12
Equipment Chair: Gina Davis '10
Webmaster: Ellen Kim '10
Community Liaison: Erika Yih '12

Fall 2008 Belt Testing

Princeton Taekwondo held belt testing for the Fall 2008 semester last night in the Multipurpose Room. In all, 13 members tested for their next rank. Testing began with the white and yellow belts, and consisted of hand techniques, kicks, simulated sparring, fitness/flexibility, forms, and breaking. All of the white and yellow belts did very well, and Master Choi was very impressed.

Next, Master Choi called up Cristian Proistosescu and Forest Sebastian, both blue belts, as well as Henry Ong '03, who originally trained at Princeton and is now at UPenn, and decided to return to test for his black belt. Like the white and yellow belts, the candidates were also tested in the same areas. As part of his black belt test, Henry was put through a grueling fitness test, followed by a long sequence of board breaking that tested his strength, reaction time, and focus. Though challenged, Henry proved himself to be up to the task, passing his test and earning his black belt.

Master Choi was thoroughly pleased with the outcome of the testing, commending the testers on their skill, focus, and concentration. We would like to thank Masters Choi and Hatfield for taking the time to administer the testing, all of the black belts who came in support, everybody else who came to watch, and of course, the testers themselves. Congratulations to everybody who tested last night! Have a great winter break!

Yellow Belt:
Andrew Mandelbaum
Jasmine Evans
Shannon Mercer
Melekot Abate
Chris Triolo
Erika Yih
Mike McCaffery

Green Belt:
Peng Jiang
Gina Davis
Byron Davis

Senior Blue Belt:
Cristian Proistosescu
Forest Sebastian

Black Belt, 1st Dan:
Henry Ong