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Taekwon-Do & Kickboxing Tournament Winners 2008
Exeter P.U.M.A. Schools Get Off To A Good Start:
Exeter P.U.M.A. Kickboxing & Taekwon-Do students took part in the Professional Unification of Martial Arts 2008 National Kickboxing Championships in Salisbury on February 17th. The junior lightweight division was dominated by the Exeter students winning all four trophy places. Kelsea Purchall - 9 - won Gold. Liam Statton - 9 - won Silver. Kane Downey - 10 - won Bronze. Regan Gent - 7 (was the only Pee Wee so moved up a weight category) won Bronze. In the lightweight division: Aidan Stemp - 11 - won Silver after he was beaten in the final by 14 year old Black Belt Sonia Harris from Tiverton P.U.M.A. Taekwon-Do Club. Light/Heavyweight: Kieran Statton - 11 - won Silver. Heavyweight: Kieran (The Gurpy) Guppy - 14 - won Silver. In the adults Middleweight: Sayed Iqbal (Legend in the Making) - 34 - won Bronze after losing to 4th dan black belt Dave Pixton in the semi finals. Ladies Adult Flyweight: Debbie Boyd - 24 who trains with the Exeter P.U.M.A. Taekwon-Do Club - won silver. Ladies Adult Heavyweight: Helen Down - 27 - won Silver. Kelsea Purchall impressed the officials to be awarded Best Overall Fighter.
In the P.U.M.A. 2008 Northern Open Championships held in Nottingham on 1st March just four students made the journey but returned with seven medals. Laura Parkin - 14 - won Bronze in Patterns & Silver in Sparring - Laura only started competing since becoming a Black Belt in October and this was only her 2nd competition. Aidan Stemp - 11 - won Bronze in Sparring - He was the only kickboxer at the competition. Debbie Boyd - 24 - won Gold in Patterns, Gold in Breaking & Silver in Sparring - Debbie has been recommended by Master Gayle VII to try for her Black Belt in October. Ian Bedborough - 38 - won Silver in Patterns.
Taekwon-Do & Kickboxing Black Belt Promotions! October 2007.
7 Students Promoted - Click for Photo
Seven Exeter P.U.M.A. Martial Arts Students were successful in their black belt gradings at the Professional Unification of Martial Arts (P.U.M.A.) Taekwon-Do & Kickboxing black belt grading held in Swindon over the weekend.
The students - six Taekwon-Do and one Kickboxing, endured a gruelling grading lasting several hours of intense physical and mental testing. Fitness, Traditional Techniques, Self Defence, Sparring, Theory, Power Testing, Breaking and finally a 45 minute Spirit Test, designed to put the students under extreme mental and physical pressure, in which they must demonstrate their determination to succeed and never give up, showing 'True Black Belt Spirit'. All of this takes place under the watchful eyes of the grading panel which is made up of three 6th Degree black belts & two 7th Degree Masters.
1st Degree black belt promotions - Taekwon-Do: Stefan Bryant aged 11 attends St Peter's C of E School, Laura Parkin aged 14 also attends St Peter's, Bobbi Richards aged 15 attends St Luke's Science & Sports College. 1st Dan Black Belt - Kickboxing: Dan Dowling aged 15 also attends St Luke's. Dan who is already a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Taekwon-Do, was the only Kickboxing student in the UK who qualified to take the grading.
2nd Degree black belt promotions - Taekwon-Do: Abigail Bryant aged 15 attends St Peter's & Tracey Bedborough aged (31) Sales Rep for Brabantia.
4th Degree black belt promotions - Taekwon-Do: Chris Clark aged 41 works for Exeter City Council was promoted to International Instructor Status and also runs his own P.U.M.A. Taekwon-Do Schools in Cullompton & Tiverton.
Exeter & Devon Senior Instructor Mr John Black 6th Degree Black Belt who sits on the grading panel, said "I am very pleased with the performance of all of my students. They have managed to pass what must be the toughest Martial Arts Grading there is. I am also pleased for my assistant instructor, Mr Brett Dowling 3rd Degree who runs the Exeter P.U.M.A. Kickboxing School as he has had his very first Kickboxing student attain Black Belt status, and an even bigger bonus is that the student is his younger brother.
Exeter Kickboxing Champions!
8 Students win 7 Trophies
8 Exeter P.U.M.A. Kickboxing students came away with 7 medals at the 'Professional Unification of Martial Arts' Kickboxing Championships held in Salisbury at the weekend. (10th June 2007)
Ten year old Aidan Stemp fought off stiff opposition, (including a 15 year old semi-contact fighter) only to be beaten by club mate Kieran Statton in the final. Kieran's years of experience over Aidan secured him the gold.
The only adult from the Exeter club to take part; Helen Down (26) won Gold in heavyweight ladies. Fighting for the very first time, Helen Down dominated the two round final to walk away with the gold.
The only other junior competitor from the Exeter club, Abbey Molyneux (15) found herself grouped with fellow Exeter Students Dowling, Guppy & Miles and lost to Miles in the play-off for third place.
Instructor Brett Dowling said "I'm lucky to have plenty of talent in my club, and I'm very proud to be their instructor. My students always set the standards high and prove that training hard really does pay off".
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Helen Down |
Gold |
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Dan Dowling |
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Kieran Statton |
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Kane Downey |
Silver |
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Aidan Stemp |
Silver |
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Kieran Guppy |
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Rhys Miles |
Bronze |
April 2007 Black Belt Success!
Two Exeter Black Belts Promoted
14 Year old Danny Dowling who attends St Lukes Science & Sports College in Exeter, was promoted to 2nd Degree Black Belt. He gained his Black Belt when he was just 9 years old and because of his age had to wait 5 years to do his 2nd Degree. Click for Photo
Ian Bedborough (30 something!) has just been promoted to 4th Degree which is 'Expert Level'.... Ian teaches Taekwon-Do in Chudleigh...
Exeter Little Puma Instructor Sue Raven who belongs to the Plymouth P.U.M.A. Taekwon-Do School, was also promoted to 2nd Degree.
The grading was a gruelling 4 hours of extreme physical & mental testing in front of three 6th Degree and two 7th Degree Masters. Mr Jonny Black is extremely proud of his students who's performance was a credit to him and the Exeter P.U.M.A. Taekwon-Do School...
Exeter Kickboxing Champions!
12 Students win 12 Trophies
12 Exeter P.U.M.A. Kickboxing students came away with 12 medals at the 'Professional Unification of Martial Arts' British Kickboxing Championships held in Bristol yesterday (5th November 2006).
All 12 students from Exeter that entered the competition came away with a trophy, taking 1/4 of the total trophies on offer.
Instructor Brett Dowling said he is very proud of all of his students and to have four British Champions at his club is a great honour. He added, "To achieve this you need good students and I have the very best".
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Brett Dowling 'Best Black Belt' on P.U.M.A. Summer Camp 2006!
Icing on the cake at the end of a great week
This was Mr Dowling's first adult Summer Camp as an adult, but as a 3rd Degree Black Belt he found himself in the front front row of the line-up to also become one of eleven Team Leaders. A lot of responsibility you might think for an eighteen year old, but Brett's been running classes and assisting Mr Black IV since he was just eleven.
Mr Dowling was also asked to teach 'Freestyle' Nunchaku & Bo Staff on the camp and also enjoyed teaching impromptu sessions when asked for help by students struggling to get to grips with particular techniques.
Master Ray Gayle VII & Master Mark Ogborne VII presented the award for 'Best Black Belt' at the 'End of Camp Party' where Master Gayle said Brett was "a great instructor who shows maturity beyond his years" (a proud and tearful moment for his dad). Master Ogborne tied to embarrass him!!!!
Brett Dowling takes over adult classes!
Beginning of a new era for the school
We are pleased to announce that Mr Brett Dowling will be taking over the running of the adult Exeter Kickboxing School as from 1st March 2006.
Bringing together the junior and adult schools to run under one instructor will bring many benefits to the students. The junior and adult classes will still run separately, but we will be looking towards having them on the same days running one after the other. This will take some time to organize and every effort will be made to ensure that the students will be happy with any changes to times and/or venue.
Brett's role within the class is as the instructor. He is supported by us (Charlie & Denise) who look after everything outside of the training hall. Equipment, licensing, fees, information and queries are all dealt with by us to ensure classes are not interrupted
The Exeter Kickboxing school was one of the first to open under P.U.M.A. and Brett was involved with the school at that time. There have been many changes over the past four years which has seen P.U.M.A. Kickboxing evolve to its current level. We feel there are exciting times ahead and look forward to building a strong friendly school which will lead the way for other P.U.M.A. schools.
Junior Kickboxing Grading!
29th May Grading. Great success for the kids
The second Exeter Junior Kickboxing grading was even more successful than the first. Thirteen students graded, three of which took assessment gradings to bring them to a grade which reflects the level of their ability.
Once again Instructor Mr Brett Dowling 3rd Dan was extremely pleased with the performance of his students.
The successful kickboxers are listed below:
Rhys Miles & Danny Dowling - Brown Belt - Distinction (Rhys & Danny are already Taekwon-Do Black Belts)
Kieran Statton - Orange Belt - Credit (Kieran is already a Taekwon-Do Blue Belt)
Kieran Smith - Yellow Belt - Credit
Alex Stribbling, Joshua Coles, Harley Coles & Daniel Pike - Yellow Belt - Pass
Kieran Guppy & Conner Johns - Red Belt - Credit
Ben Williams, Chloe Smith & Macauley Pillips - Red Belt - Pass
What More Black Belts?
April 2005 grading give Exeter Taekwon-Do four new Black Belts
Forty year old Antony Schmid who is the manager of County Tires in Exeter, has realised his dream of becoming a 1st Dan Black Belt. He started training with his two sons and after four years of hard training he achieved his goal.Exeter University student Gemma Hagen managed to work her training around her studies to not only pass her grading with 'Distinction' but also win the award for 'Best Female Student'.
Thirteen year old Abigail Bryant has worked so hard to become a Black Belt, she managed to overcome severe attacks of nerves that have plagued her for many years. She was an inspiration to both juniors and adults when she fought through the 'Spirit Test' to prove she has what it takes to wear a Black Belt around her waist.
Zoe Gauntlett, also thirteen pulled out all the stops after having mixed feelings about grading. Zoe decided the time was right and put in the work to achieve her goal, and along with the others was proud to receive her Black Belt presented by Master Ray Gayle at the presentation evening in Swindon on 21st May.
Black Belt Success - October 2004
Six Exeter Taekwon-Do students were successful at the recent P.U.M.A. ITF Black Belt grading.Ruby Vanston and Dominic Lovell were promoted to 1st Degree. Billy Khoo who has trained at Exeter since the school started in 1984 was promoted to 2nd Degree. Jason Mortimore, Andrew Humphries & Brett Dowling were all promoted to 3rd Degree.
Mr John Black was promoted to 6th Degree when he took his grading at the World Championships held in Korea.
History was made when ITF Taekwon-Do returned to it's birthplace for the first time since the founder General Choi Hong Hi moved the headquarters of the International Taekwon-Do Federation to Canada in 1972.
XIII Senior & VII Junior Taekwon-Do ITF World Championships
The return of Taekwon-Do to it's birth place - October 2004
Exeter Taekwon-Do are very proud that two of our black belts were picked as part of the UK-ITF team which went to Korea to take part in the World Championships. Mr Andrew Humphries and Miss Joeann Matthews travelled to Daejeon City, South Korea with 'Team UK'.Jo & Andrew were chosen to represent the UK in the ITF World Championships South Korea 2004. Team UK are the elite competitors selected by the UKITF from the selections held back in February. Jo competed in individual lightweight sparring and was narrowly beaten by her Japanese opponent who eventually won bronze. Andrew brought back the medals listed below after winning them in the team events.
Silver - Team Destruction, Silver - Special Technique, Bronze - Team Patterns, Bronze Team Sparring.
This history making event attracted entries from over forty countries around the world and saw the largest ever haul of medals won by a British ITF team. To have competitors of this calibre in our Taekwon-Do school is a real honour.