CTI Masters Seminars a Hit

CTI Masters Seminars - Poomse & Target Kicking

By: David Wallace, 1st dan

The CTI Masters Seminars on Poomse and Target Kicking were held at the CTI Headquarters in Lakewood on January 22nd, 2011.

Led by Grandmaster James M. Sautel (7th dan) and instructed by Master Instructors Merinda J. Sautel (6th dan), John T. Sautel (6th dan) and Erik R. Albrechtson (5th dan) and the CTI 4th dan Black Belts including Mr. Freddy Sautel and Miss Alice Meyung.

Saturday morning started out strong with the Poomse Seminar. Grandmaster Sautel led students from the CTI Green Mountain, Littleton, Westminster, Golden and Conifer Campuses through a quick warm-up of jumping jacks and stretching. After warm-ups we broke off into groups and started working on various forms of Poomse techniques.

The first thing we worked on in my group was how to look first and deconstructed each count with look first, see your opponent or attacker and identify the threat, then throw the block or punch. After that my group worked on locking out the back leg and getting the heal down in the front stances and making sure your stances are correct before moving on to the next move in your Poomse. These are basic techniques that we worked on in our basic Poomse like Four Directional Punch, Chongi and Taegeuk Il Chang. As a student, this Poomse Seminar was a great way to refresh myself in the basic components of my own Poomse. As an instructor, it was an invaluable tool to take back to my own students.

After a short break, we went right into the Target Kicking Seminar. Again, Grandmaster Sautel had us warm-up and stretch just as we do before any regular class or event and then we broke off into groups again. We started out with the proper target holding techniques and stances and then moved on to basic kicking and how to identify the proper target areas to more advanced kicking and striking and how to be more precise in your kicking and sparring. We really had quite the work-out and was able to utilize different tools such as sparring bags and square targets that we sometimes don't normally get to use in our regular classes.

At the end of the day, I think everyone who attended either one of the CTI Masters Seminars, or both, had an amazing time, had an amazing work-out, and came away from it with infinite amounts of invaluable knowledge and a better understanding of not only the basic techniques of Poomse and Target holding but a better understanding of how Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo works and how educational and fulfilling it is, I know I did.