After a period of time more focused on our higher ranked students with a flood of senior gup and black belt gradings in recent years we are now seeing more new students coming through shifting the dynamics of our classes back towards the younger and lower grades. This is giving our trainee instructors plenty of experience with new recruits.

As usual there were four gup gradings this years, with the latest being only a couple of weeks ago with student representation in all the belt categories from white belts through to senior red.

Christmas Training / Social & Students of the Year

Following tradition our last training session in Wilburton is an oppurtunity for friends and family to come along and see an example of our training. Afterwards everyone tucked into party food and drink brought along to share.

This year we also awarded our inaugural Student of the Year trophies, voted for by all the students, this went to Susie Morris and Will Dockerill for their achievements, dedication and contributions to the club throughout 2025.

Also on display was the impressive collection of trophies and medals accumulated by our students at this year’s National, Regional and European Championships as well as last year’s World Championship. The centre piece of which was Susie’s Gup Grand Champion trophy from the regionals.

Championships

This year students attended three championships, the Nationals in Nottingham, the Europeans in Greece and the Regionals in Ebbw Vale, Wales. Everyone who attended put in a lot of effort both in the preparations and on the day, and their achievements reflect that.

Below is a hightlight video of the years championships.

Here are the results:

Looking Forward

Every one of our students will face new challenges in 2026, junior grades will transition through the belts learning new forms and techniques, higher grades will be challenged to perfect their knowledge while passing it on to the juniors.

Championships this year will be the usual Nationals in Nottingham and the Regionals in Coventry, and not forgetting that 2026 is World Championship year with some students heading to Chicago as part of the GB team.

This year we sported the largest number of black belts the club has probably seen at any single training session with two 4th Dan Masters, one 3rd Dan, three 2nd Dans, four 1st Dans and not forgetting two of our newest 1st Dan’s who will receive their belts in January. Joining them were three Cho Dan Bo (Blue Belts), two Red, one Brown, two Greens, an Orange and a White Belt. Not far off having our own 12-days of Tang Soo Do Christmas song!

With the last training session on the 17th December this brings training for 2024 to an end, we will all take a well earned rest until the new year when training resumes 6th January to work off all the turkey and mince pies.

This year brought the usual range of activities for the club, National and Regional Championships with our own Gup Grand Champion among the results. We participated in the GBTSDA team for the World Championships in the US. Two Black Belts were promoted to E-Dan (2nd), two joined the Dan ranks by being presented their Cho-Dan (1st) and three tested and passed their grading and will be presented their Cho-Dan Belts in Janurary 2025. At the Gup level we were well represented at all four gradings this year with many students achieving good and outstanding results.

Christmas border supplied by Freepik