We would like to invite you and your family and friends to two very important seminars. The lessons that you will learn may potentially save your life or those of the people close to you. These seminars are called "Family Defense" and "Surviving a Home Invasion". The seminar will be conducted by Mr. Dave Young of US Fighting Systems.

Mr. Young is recognized as one of the nation’s leading personal safety and tactical-defense instructors. Mr. Young will be in the Los Angeles area as he has been invited to train with the LAPD.

Three Main Topics:
1. Having a family plan for keeping your children safe at home, at the park, or a family outing, strategies for finding them if they are lost, or how to handle a situation where you need to gather everyone together and safely leave a building.
2. What to do if you are approached by unknown person(s).
3. How to increase your awareness of your surroundings and safety tips you can immediately teach your children.

Additional Benefit:s:
Every student and parent who attends will receive a free access to US Fighting Systems tips consisting of:
a. Family defense tips
b. Personal defense tips
c. Pepper spray tips

Our school did an eXcellent job at the 2011 Camarillo Mayor's Cup! Everyone did their best to do poomsae, spar, and have FUN. We won a total of 42 gold medals, according to the tournament organizer. Our total medal count is not yet done so we'll keep you posted.

We brought home the following awards last Saturday:
1. Best Team Award - For winning the most number of gold medals. We have won this award for 3 years in a row. (Yey!)
2. Referee of the Year Award - For Ms. Arielle Kiarashpour. Four of our referees have won this award in the past 5 or 6 years. (Yey again!)
3. Most Pictures Taken Award - Not really, but please make sure you share them with us. We were busy running around.

Special thanks to the following wonderful people:
1. Those who watched, cheered, and supported our team. It meant a lot to our competitors
2. Our Referee Corps doing an outstanding job! Kudos to Mr. Hemenover and Mr. Weiner for training our referees
3. Ms. Ditan for organizing and managing the tea
4. The Black Belt Leaders and Mr. Hall for helping the students prepare and warm up.
5. Mr. and Mrs. Lee, Ms. Susan McRae, Ms. Oliva Villaluz, Mr. Dabare, and other students and parents for taking pictures
6. The families who stayed until the tournament was over.

It was a great and fulfilling day. Thank you again for all your support!

Team Excel, FIGHT!

Ethics Workshop for Instructors – August 5, 2011

The instructors and the instructor candidates attended an Ethics Workshop last Friday, August 5. The workshop was aimed to remind the instructors of their duties, especially to the students. The topics of the workshop included:

Ethics - Concern and respect for:

• The TRUTH
• What is right,
• What is fair,
• What is proper,
• Other people’s beliefs,
• Other people’s feelings.

The workshop concluded with group discussions concerning possible dilemmas they might encounter in the class, in school, or daily life.

Leadership and Acting Seminar for Instructors – July 23, 2011

Excel TKD sponsored its instructors and select Black Belts to a Leadership and Acting Seminar. The seminar was aptly titled “Improving Confidence, Teaching, and Leadership Skills Through Acting.” The goal was to help the instructors improve their confidence and teach them how to project themselves effectively and connect with their students. It also served as a team-building event for the instructors. In spite of their hesitation in the beginning, everyone had a great and fun time.

The class was conducted by Ms. Sara Wood of Valley West Actors Space in Woodland Hills. Ms. Wood is a 1st Dan Black Belt and has been an actor for 35 years and an acting coach for over 15.

We continually strive to make our instructors learn new and effective ways of teaching. Instructors and teachers, just like students, must continue to learn and expand their knowledge.

Awesome Performance at the Nationals – June 30 to July 4, 2011

Our sparring competition team came back from a successful stint at the 2011 Junior Olympics and Senior National Taekwondo Championships in San Jose. With 2 gold and 2 silver medals in sparring, it was our team’s best performance at the nationals. Our new national champions are:

Alex Alonso – Black Belt – 10 to 11 Year Old Division
Madeleine Lee – Black Belt – 9 to 9 Year Old Division

The winners of the silver medals were:
Jakob Mesina – Black Belt – 12 to 13 Year Old Division
Ms. Marina Sobrevinas – Black Belt – Senior Division (18 to 32 YO)

By winning the silver medal in the finweight division, Ms. Marina qualified to compete in the National Team Trials.

To cap the team’s awesome performance, Ms. Eva Ditan was also named the 2011 USA Taekwondo Coach of the Year, out of more than 400 coaches throughout the country. Team Excel ROCKS!

The Team Excel Sparring and Forms Competition Team are currently in Austin, Texas to compete in the 2011 US Open Taekwondo Championships. The tournament began on February 17 and will continue through February 21. The US Open is an international tournament that is open to the best Black Belts from all over the world. It is one of the World Taekwondo Federation's (WTF) highest ranked open tournaments. The annual tournament sees the participation of some of the world's elite Taekwondo athletes. Top national teams from Korea, China, Australia, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Taiwan, among others; send their national athletes to compete in this prestigious tournament.

Leading Team Excel is Team Captain Ms. Marina Sobrevinas. Ms. Sobrevinas will compete in the Senior Finweight Division. She won the bronze medal in the 2009 US Open. This is her first year to formally compete in the seniors division (18 to 32 years old). As a junior, Ms. Sobrevinas won the gold medal in the Junior Olympics (junior nationals) and placed second twice in the US Junior National Team Trials. Ms. Sobrevinas is one of our instructors at Excel and teaches every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Also competing is 13 year old Tyler Miyagishima, who will face a very tough challenge as he competes for the first time in the junior division (14 to 17 years old). Tyler is a two-time national champion. Another experienced US Open competitor is Sachi Dela Cruz, 11 years old, who won the silver medal in the 2010 US Open.

Rounding up the sparring competition team are Jakob Mesina, 11 years old, and Bishop Dela Cruz, 9 years old. Both are newcomers to the US Open. Jakob won the gold medal in last year's Junior Olympics held in Orlando, Florida.

In forms competition, Excel's lone competitor is Eleanor Lee, who is competing in her second US Open. She placed fourth in a field of more than 20 athletes in last year's US Open.

Coaching Team Excel in the US Open is Ms. Eva Ditan. Ms. Ditan was an accomplished athlete during her competition days. She represented the Philippines in the 2000 Olympic Games and won one silver and two bronze medals in 3 World Cup Taekwondo Championships.

Our athletes trained very hard for this tournament. We hope that they will fight and compete to the best of their abilities.

Go Team Excel!