The next coloured grading is on Saturday 20 October conducted by Master Andy Betts 7th Dan. We use the standard GTI grading syllabus with the following upgrades. 

Yellow belts with Green tags need to do “free sparring” instead of “3 Step-semi free sparring“. This means Green tags and above need to own and bring a full set of sparring equipment to their gradings.

The Power test for Blue Belts and above means breaking for both Juniors and Adults using age appropriate plastic boards. Display your hand and foot breaking techniques appropriate for your age, weight, grade and general awesomeness. 

The GTI press-ups requirements for each grade

• White – 10
• White with yellow tag 15 press ups
• Yellow Belt – 20 press ups

The following are the NLTKD requirements which are conducted during the “Basics” phase of the grading

• Green Belt – 30 press ups
• Blue Belt – 40 press ups
• Red Belt – 50 press ups

None of the above is new. Just posting all syllabus changes from past few years in one post.

I know from my personal experience that press-ups can be hard. I hated them as male adults have to do press-ups on knuckles, but also they are not impossible. I asked in class today, particularly the adults and ladies, if I should lower the press-up target and they all said keep we should keep it. The ladies said reducing their requirement would be discriminatory 😎   OKaaaay  !! Also in my experience the students who struggle to do press-up will generally struggle to be a good Black belts and whilst the student who are going to be good Black Belts will do 1000 press-ups if I asked. Press-up, like patterns and stretching simply need practice.

Also making a clear rule that you need to be 11 years old to be a Blue Belt. This is not currently an issue as you need to be 11 to simply join our club, but we occasionally take younger students with previous martial art experience or siblings of existing students. Under those circumstances, the student will now need to be 11 before getting a blue belts. I have heard there are 10 year olds with 4th Dan Black Belts out there but . .  not with the NLTKD.

Due to the Easter and Bank holidays we have a lot of days where there will be no training. The Tottenham Branch closes on school holidays while the Leytonstone branch will try to remain open except this Thursday due to a funeral. So therefore

The Tottenham branch is always forced to close on school holidays so we encourage those students who wish to continue training to try and attend the Leytonstone branch. You can get the Oveground train from South Tottenham and ride a few stops to Leytonstone High Road and we are a short walk from the station. 

If you are going away on holiday, have fun and don’t eat too much. If you want to train at home check out the NLTKD Homework page

Due to the snow and difficult travel conditions Gladesmore will be closed on Friday. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Those are the words taken directly off the Gladesmore school website. So Tottenham Branch is closed tomorrow and Leytonstone Branch is closed today. I visited both branches myself today and it was not fun. The snow in east London seems thicker than North London but both have bad side streets. Since the weather is supposed to get worse and the classes are late in the evening it is best to heed the weather warnings. We should be back to normal next week.

In meantime I have spoken to Rinchin bout finding us a Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor to teach us ground work. Taekwondo is probably the best stand-up martial arts style but we are no good on the ground. Rinchin has found someone and I am in talks to see if we can get him down to show us a few moves. 

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I always attend classes after work in my work clothes. If you have not guessed from the condition of my clothes, I am a builder by day. I run the Aon Building Contractors www.aonbuild.com firm. I refurbish houses and though I do have people who help out, I prefer to get my hands dirty to get the work done.
Some people might have seen me on “Homes Under the Hammer” Series 20 episode 41, where I bought a house in East London at auction and refurbished it. Below are picture from another house I bought at auction.

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I often recommend young people to consider a career in the building industry. There are lots of different area of specialisation. I have had a few guys who started their careers with me as a labourer, go on the learn the trade and eventually start own business. From their building careers, they have their own homes/mortgages, ski holidays, pets and 2.4 kids.
I do not recommend a career as a Martial arts instructor as the high hall rent and very stiff competition in London make it difficult to achieve. On the other hand there is a shortage of highly skilled tradesmen in London. If you want further advise in the building industry, please contact me. PS I am very busy and unable to do your works but if you need any free advice, you can call me.