Congratulations to Dylan Russell, Leon Brennan and Luke McCarney, pictured above with Red Star head coach Jon Mackey. The trio were recently promoted to 1st degree black belt. The test took place on December 11th and consisted of a three hour tough physical and mental test. The test which covered all of the aspects of the ITF syllabus for 1st degree also covered a section on athletic coordination and endurance. This part of the test looked at different aspects of sparring including tactics, foot work and pad work. Not every one was successful so commiserations to those students who just missed out on promotion. Keep training! There is always next time.

As for the new 1st degrees, your journey starts now.

We've had some big names come and teach at Red Star in the past, from Tomaz Barada to Master José Maidana, Master Nestor Gallaraga to Master Don Dalton. To add to that list of big names we recently had the current ITF (63kg) World Champion Dylan Fitzgibbon come and teach a tremendous seminar for us on Sunday the 8th January.

Dylan taught two seminars, one which was aimed at the junior belts which covered some fun warm ups and some really great drills to help the juniors combine both hands and legs in kicking and punching drills. The second seminar was aimed at the higher grades and the more accomplished competitors at Red Star. Both seminars didn't fail to impress. The two hour session covered drills from blitz drills, side kick drills, power and speed development and footwork. The new gym was packed as everyone poured sweat and absorbed functional information that the world champion himself uses in the ring. After the sessions, which flew by, we had a questions and answers session which allowed us to get inside the mental preparation of world class competitor.

"I asked Dylan to come and conduct a seminar at the last International Irish Championships, I was delighted when he agreed to come. I asked him for two reasons; One was that in my opinion he is the best TKD competitor in the country at present, and two, because it's important for our competitors to get to train and learn from the best in the business. Years ago when we growing up as TKD competitors the top fighters in the world were only names you read about, the Paul Germain's, Tony Sewell's and the Tomaz Barada's of this world might as well of been Hollywood stars, you knew they existed but there was never a chance of meeting or training with them. Today with Irish Taekwon-Do doing so well on the international circuit we have our own stars and without doubt Dylan Fitzgibbon is one of them, that is why it is important that young competitors get the chance to train with this caliber and understand that they too can be world champions. I was very impressed with Dylan's seminar, well thought out and well structured with a context. He will no doubt be a regular visitor to Red Star in the times ahead - we wish him all the best as he prepares for the Euro's" - Jon Mackey.

Photos are in the gallery

Congratulations to all members who presented for testing over the past weekend. On Saturday 10th December members from Red Star Cabra and Red Star Setanta attended their grading which was held at the Ardmore Hotel. On Sunday 11th, four 1st kup members presented for testing to 1st degree and on Monday 12th the ladies class were put through the motions as they presented for grading also. Castleknock student will test on Tuesday 13th December at 6pm.

Well done to the following students who have achieved 'A' level passes so far!

• Megana Rukaite promoted to 9th Kup yellow stripe
• Asma Saleh promoted to 9th kup yellow stripe
• Toni Nic An Rí promoted to 9th kup yellow stripe
• Jade Kavanagh promoted to 9th kup yellow stripe
• Dayna Walsh promted to 8th kup yellow belt
• Luke McQuade promoted to 8th kup yellow belt
• Ben Bolton promoted to 8th kup yellow belt
• Eliza Bluma promoted to 8th kup yellow belt
• Grace Molloy promted to 8th kup yellow belt
• Seb Glowacki promoted to 8th kup yellow belt
• Karolina Wymyslo promoted to 8th kup yellow belt

We've been so busy over the past few weeks that we have been a bit behind in our web site updates, so apologies for that!

We will have all our latest updates uploaded very soon with full results from the International Irish Championships, the ITF Ireland Open championships and the Urban Combatives self defence seminar with Lee Morrison. Feel free to browse the gallery where all the latest photo's have been uploaded.

With the tournament year over, we must wish Lauren Bradshaw and Leon Brennan a hearty congrats on winning the over 13 years and 13 and under competitor of the year awards, the results can be viewed here.