Triple Achievement for Damian and Great Success for All our NI Black Belt candidates!

They say that great things come in threes and this was certainly the case for our instructor Damian Duffy.  Within the space of 7 days at the end of March he passed his Para-Taekwondo Instructor, won ‘Senior Coach of the Year’ at the Belfast City Sports awards and was promoted to 5^th Dan Master! A panel consisting of GrandMaster TW Shin, Master David Bailey and Master Pete Johnson took Damian through stepping/dodging techniques , hand techniques, technical kicking, sports fighting kicking , three high grade poomsae, one step sparring , self defence, destruction , jumping kicks on spot and full contact sparring - all after a one hour written test!   Also taking part in the grading were candidates from all over the UK, including NI Chief Instructor Master Glen Culbert, who was promoted to 7^th Dan Master and Tommy McGuinness who was promoted to 2^nd Dan.  Well done Tommy! Damian said that although there was a lot of hard work before the grading, the preparation has been going on over the past 6 years.  The debt of gratitude he owes to Master Culbert cannot be exaggerated and to have passed his grading under such prestigious Masters is a source of great pride. The night before the grading Damian had donned bow tie and dinner suit to attend the Belfast City Sports Awards, having been nominated as Coach of the Year by Peter Mongan.   Also there was Stephen Johnston, who was nominated as 'Volunteer of the year'.  Not to mention Damian's long suffering wife, Breda!   He thought he was just going to enjoy a free meal (but no wine considering the following day’s grading!) but very surprised when his name was called as the winner.  Damian said that he was only too aware that the accolade, while given to him, was really shared with all of his students.  A coach’s worth can most accurately be measured by the success of his players, so it was a great pleasure to have some of them attend the dinner with him. The third achievement was passing his Para-Taekwondo course.  This had consisted of 15 modules covering all aspects of Para-Taekwondo, each with a set of questions at the end, followed by a two hour exam going back over all the topics covered.  Even before Taekwondo’s inclusion in the 2020 Paralympic Games Damian had been interested in how to increase the inclusiveness of our martial art.  He is a qualified Poomsae International Referee and has been selected to judge at the World Cerebal Palsy games in Nottingham in August.   He hopes to able to make best use of the combination of his IR and Para-Taekwondo qualification to be at the vanguard of this very important and worthwhile area.