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Scottish Players Visit Great Britain's Taekwondo Olympic Centre
A group of Scottish Taekwondo (TKD) players recently visited the TKD Olympic training centre in Manchester to meet the senior British team. This group comprised players from clubs from almost every corner of Scotland including: Dynamic TKD club, Lhanbryde; Granite City TKD club, Aberdeen; Cumbrae TKD club, Falkirk; Central TKD Academy, Carronshore, Han Won TKD club, Edinburgh; Chong Yong, Kirkintilloch; Hamilton TKD club, Hamilton; and Jamiat TKD club, Glasgow.
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This was a unique opportunity for Scottish cadets and juniors to watch the best senior British fighters, and Olympic hopefuls including Jade Jones and Bianca Walkden, during their training and also have some time with them for pictures and autographs.
Unfortunately Sarah Stevenson is still recovering from a minor injury and was not present.
We wish her a very speedy recovery and hope to see her at our next visit.
Both the players and the coaches who work for team GB made our group feel very welcome. Scotland’s Performance Coach, Master Nikos Jakubiak, arranged this trip with the intention of helping more Scottish young players understand how a full time high performance environment looks and what World class players look like in training. “Our intention is to inspire young Scottish players and give them something to aim for and perhaps for them this now feels a lot more tangible” commented Master Nikos, and continued: ”Our programme is going from strength to strength and this is reflected in the geographical spread of clubs involved which covers almost every major centre in Scotland. We always keep in mind that the success of our programme will ultimately be determined by the number of Scottish players we can produce that make it into the British team and excel at the highest level. Our visit to Manchester demonstrates the openness of the Manchester based programme and will no doubt go a long way in helping us build strong links with the British high performance programme for the benefit of all young Scottish players with aspirations to become the best!”.
Unfortunately Sarah Stevenson is still recovering from a minor injury and was not present.
We wish her a very speedy recovery and hope to see her at our next visit.
Both the players and the coaches who work for team GB made our group feel very welcome. Scotland’s Performance Coach, Master Nikos Jakubiak, arranged this trip with the intention of helping more Scottish young players understand how a full time high performance environment looks and what World class players look like in training. “Our intention is to inspire young Scottish players and give them something to aim for and perhaps for them this now feels a lot more tangible” commented Master Nikos, and continued: ”Our programme is going from strength to strength and this is reflected in the geographical spread of clubs involved which covers almost every major centre in Scotland. We always keep in mind that the success of our programme will ultimately be determined by the number of Scottish players we can produce that make it into the British team and excel at the highest level. Our visit to Manchester demonstrates the openness of the Manchester based programme and will no doubt go a long way in helping us build strong links with the British high performance programme for the benefit of all young Scottish players with aspirations to become the best!”.
After all the cadets and juniors met with the players they were allowed a training session at the Olympic TKD centre under the coaching of Master Nikos and the Scottish National Team Cadets Coach, Stuart Wright. “What a fantastic opportunity for our youngsters to be given a chance to watch the senior players as they are preparing for the European Championship” said Stuart who was also very impressed with the quality of the training facilities available.
Overall this trip has been a success. All the cadets and juniors had a great time and made their journey back to Scotland with a big smile on their faces. Many clubs took this opportunity and we are sure that even more will join us at our next visit. As always our programme is open to all TKD clubs registered with Scotland’s National Governing Body for TKD. Only a few months back we announced that four Scots had been picked for the GB cadet and junior squads and we hope this trip will encourage more people to engage in regular training. We can only hope that the ambition of Scotland’s full time training centre can become a reality very soon to help us deliver more sessions. However, this can only happen with the help of funding and only once the importance this has in helping us turn more young Scots into potential Olympians is understood by funding bodies. Until such day though our team of high performance coaches will continue to work tirelessly with the resources available to ensure every hard working, talented Scottish player gets the opportunities they deserve. |