Quest Stars prepare for the Ultimate challenge at the "Ultimate Taekwondo Championships"
Published on: 3rd October 2011
Following on from Quest Taekwondo's success both domestically and on the continent this year, we will be returning from their short summer recovery break to compete in the Ultimate Open Sparring Championships at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield in less than 2 weeks.
Quest Taekwondo, who practice Olympic World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) Taekwondo (practised by 60 million people worldwide), under the National Governing Body for Taekwondo in Great Britain (BTCB - British Taekwondo Control Board), will be sending a team of 25 competitors from the Keighley, Bingley and Baildon area. This pool of talent has been carefully prepared for this competition over the past 12 months by Head Coach Rick Simpson, a black belt 4th Dan from Silsden who has set up Olympic Taekwondo training clubs in Keighley, Bingley, Cottingley and Baildon.
Simpson is looking forward to releasing this talent at the Ultimate Open Sparring Championships where they will compete against some of the top Taekwondo athletes in the UK. Last year Quest Taekwondo came 2nd in the UK Team Rankings at this event, and Simpson is hoping his growing team will perform again. "While our team has grown in size, so have most other teams, especially the one that won it" added Simpson. "Most of last year's players from our team have moved up weight and skill categories which makes it more difficult for them to win. In a good way - nobody wants an easy win, we need continuous challenges".
Simpson explains "Olympic Taekwondo Sparring matches are where players are put into age, weight, gender and skill groups and compete against each other competitor within that group. A bit like boxing, except to win you have to beat every winner from your group in a single day as you progress from the prelims to quart, semi and then the final - provided you don't lose on the day. You'll get 3 rounds of 2 minutes to score more points than them. You score points by punching to the body or kicking to the body or head, scoring more points if the techniques are basic or advanced, such as spinning kicks".
Quest Taekwondo's classes are based at:
The Cornerstone Centre, Cottingley
Fitness First, Keighley
Sandal Primary School, Baildon
Beckfoot School, Bingley
Further information can be found on www.questbradford.co.uk, or contacting Head Coach Rick Simpson on 07977 065357 or Rick@QuestBradford.co.uk
