Saracen

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Awarded United Kingdom’s Top Martial Arts Club 2009

Germany 28/07/2008

The summer of 2008 saw Chris Hemstock take his family to Austria for a ten day break. It has become tradition that when they’re away they travel with their training kit, in the hope of squeezing in a training session at some point. It doesn’t always happen, however on this trip the Hemstock’s in particular Chris and Harriet managed to arrange a training session with Instructor Gülabi Erkoc 4th Dan Black Belt and his Club. The Club is based in the Southern German town of  ‘Garmisch-Partenkirchen’ just across the Austrian German border.
a Wettersteinstraße 3382467 Garmisch- Partenkirchen Southern Germany

The Venue is on the top floor of a three storey building. Harriet is pictured at the entrance found to the rear of the property.
b Entrance to Taekwon-Do Schule Garmisch-Partenkirchen
c Training in Germany d Training in Germany

Such an intense cardiovascular warm up ! If you look closely, you can see Chris Hemstock sneaking a breather !!! 
e Training in Germany L Training in Germany

The theme of the evening was defending against multiple attacks. Here the young lad is delivering front kicks to four different targets. The white belt student surrounded by senior grades was getting the Birthday treatment ! All was light hearted and good humoured. However I can think of better ways of celebrating Birthdays !!!
f Training in Germany

It looks like someone has poured a bucket of water over this young lad ! No bucket or water present, the weather was so humid, and the altitude did the rest !! Garmisch-Partenkirchen sits 700M above sea level. Compared to Norwich’s 40M. This would explain why Chris and Harriet found it so hard going ! The Mountains that you see through the windows rise to the dizzy heights of 2960M compared to ‘Ben Nevis’s’ 1340M.
i Training in Germany
j Training in Germany
g Training in Germany

Here Harriet is about to perform ‘Choong-Moo’, which turns out to be this Clubs 1st Dan pattern as they follow the ‘Chang Hon’ series. Chris is about to perform ‘Koryo’ which as we know comes from the ‘Palgwe’ series.
h Training in Germany

The evening ended with a group photograph. Gülabi Erkoc 4th Dan is stood on the far right beside Harriet Hemstock 3rd Dan. Chris and Harriet would like to thank Gülabi and his students for the warm hospitality shown through out the evening. It was a pleasure to train with hard working honest students.
k Training in Germany

Two days later the Hemstock’s were invited by Gülabi Erkoc 4th Dan to a Tae Kwon Do Demo by his Club at a Special Needs school in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.