Kimberley Clarke 2nd Dan     is a regular face in the patterns class held at focus and also unbeknown to many a regular at Master Baileys Scottish Poomsae squad training– and recently due to her standard and commitment has earned her right to train with the British Poomsae Team down in Nottingham. Kimberley has been travelling down south once a month– and knows it’s the right thing to do if she’s to become a world poomsae champion. Some would say patterns are not as physical as sparring but from what Kimberley has told us its as technical and as physical as many a sparring class she attended when she was younger. Kimberley has been picked to be on the British B squad and has a gruelling year ahead attending up to 5 international competitions and training camps up and down the country………... Bring on 2009!

January 2009 Kimberley will be asking some students she feels has the potential to follow in her footsteps and join a NEW focus patterns team. Training times will be Saturday 4-5pm. Kimberley will teach this specialised class and it is invite only she will be passing on technical advice so hopefully focus as a team will bring home more gold medals from patterns  competitions .

 Gary Mitchell 17 returned from Oldenzal, Holland recently with a silver medal in the –58kg Men's sparring division. The Scottish team which Gary is a member also returned triumphant winning a second place team trophy losing to team Iran who were coached by the legendary Karami. Scotland returned with 3 gold's 5 silvers and 3 bronzes from this one of the oldest competitions in Europe. Gary was beaten in the final by Russia, both Scottish coaches were happy with Gary's performance. The competitions was using the controversial Electronic Adidas Body pads and once again scoring sometimes seemed impossible. Good practice though !

Focus had a small team going down to the 2008 British Championships, veledrome Manchester Sportcity. Our team consisted of Gary Mitchell, Peter Woods, Josh Cruickshanks and of course our Full time athlete on the British team, Louise Mair. Gary came home with a silver medal in the Jnr -55kg male advanced section, Peter came home with a gold in the Cadet -63kg male advanced, Louise came home with a gold in the Snr -47kg female advanced. This is the fourth year running Louise has won a british title. Josh done amazingly well in his preliminary matches 7 pointing all his opponents however in the match to get him into the medals josh was unfortunate not to win -two head shots not being scored put joshs medal hopes at bay til next time, but we are sure josh will be back keener and stronger next year. well done guys !

Yesterday saw a great day for focus taekwondo Black Belt Alistair Symon father to Connor and Adam ( also students at focus tkd)  he married his long term partner Julie. Instructor Mark Russell attended the wedding and the dance later that night, " the bride and bridesmaids looked beautiful, the wedding was great, the food was excellent (thanks to the laich moray hotel) and the dance at night was a good laugh and a perfect end to a perfect day". im sure your with me and the whole of focus in congratulating Alistair and Julie, all the best for your future together.

kimberley Clarke travelled down to Manchester last weekend  hoping to follow in the footsteps of three of her taekwondo heroes, kimberley was attending a special seminar with Master Shin, Master Kim (spain) and Master Laura Kim (spain) all world leaders and medal winners in the world Poomsae circuit.

Kimberley made the 8hr journey last weekend and has come back to focus inspired and keen to put all she has learned to practice and im sure improving her chances of picking up more medals in competitions in the future.

Some of focus taekwondo students were fortunate enough to be helped in their class by two of Britains Best players , Miss Stella Whitehead and elgins very own Miss Louise Mair. The pair have just returned from two top class events in Europe and both done exceptional -Louise won Gold at the Dutch Open and Stella Won Gold at the German Open.

Louise and Stella joined in the 5-8yrs old class at focus and helped students learn the finer points of Taekwondo to help there progression to become future champions.  Louises younger sister Sophie was also in the class and was happy to be taught by her sister as Louise is now in Manchester training full time with the British Olympic team so Sophie doesnt get to see her sister as often as she would like. 

Today Louise Mair is returning to the UK as the Gold Medal Winner from the 2008 Dutch Open, the largest European Open Championships. Only three other people in the UK have ever achieved such a win. Louise 19, fought the best she has ever done beating other National Team players from Belgium, Iran and Germany. Unfortunetly louises first fight was against fellow scot Lesley jacubiack, Louise fought well winning 7-2.  Louise was travelling as part of the British Team and due to her achievement, Sarah Stevensons gold and Bianca Waldens junior gold Britains female team won second overall female team. No one from Focus was able to attend due to other commitments ( competition in Glasgow) however we were all keeping our fingers crossed for her and text messages were flying across europe to keep us informed of her exceptional progress. Well done Louise :-)

Yesterday Focus Taekwondo sent a team of 16 down to the Iain Nicholson Centre Chryston Glasgow- The competition was organised by Kyorugi Taekwondo club it was a good first comp for the year and preperation for the up and coming Scottish cup. The team consisted of children between 6-14yrs old our students brought back golds, silvers and bronzes from various weight divisions and also the pattern divisions.  One special moment was when Kimberley Clarke won the black belt patterns and beat Lyndzie Jeffrey in the final, lyndzie actually taught kimberley as a white belt, its great to see students progress and the best gift an instructor can recieve is seeing one of their students becoming as good as them and eventually better than them. well done lyndzie and kimberley :-)

Louise Mair 19yrs old has just returned from Turkey where she came fourth - just missing out on the medals and her place at the Beijing Olympics. She fought exceptionally well throughout the tournament and lost against the Germany -49kg player by one point. Louise was gutted but has moved on and is back to the national squad centre in Manchester training for The Dutch , German and then Senior European Championships in Rome later this year.  All the best Louise we are all behind you 100 percent.

3rd of February saw the latest in a series of ongoing local competitions between students from Focus Tkd. The day ran smoothly starting at 9am and finishing around 4pm. The competition was attended by lots of our keen students of varying grades and ages. The day was filled with good fun, lots of happy students walking away with their focus medals for either sparring or patterns. An added bonus was Louise Mair was home for the event and was able to coach and pass on some of her vast knowledge of sport taekwondo. There was over 25 matches with patterns in between. Thanks to all the junior black belt helpers, if it wasnt for you guys the day would not have run so smooth.  Dvd's of the event will be available soon for fight analysis ( for those true professionals looking for the edge)  til next time - may 2008