Issue 4 - Professional Unification of Martial Arts

Firstly, we’d like to wish you a Happy New Year from all at Planet P.U.M.A. As you can see from the photo above we decided 

to get away over Christmas and the New Year and ended up auditioning for the forthcoming “Baywatch: The Next Generation”. 

Back to reality now and we’re here to bring you the 4 th edition of Planet P.U.M.A. As always there’s plenty to grab your 

attention: an interview with Master Gayle, Chairman of the organisation, an update on the squad’s latest pillages and a lovingly 

photographed full guide to the first Tang Soo-Do bo pattern. Plus some articles aimed at our younger readers, including a 

much-requested kids page and advice from Mr Chance on what to do if you’re being bullied. 

We’d like to thank everyone who has supported Planet P.U.M.A. since its launch last year. To all the contributors, thank you 

for your continued support, without you the magazine would not be possible. Many thanks also to the instructors for promoting 

and selling it. The biggest thank you goes, of course, to all of you, the readers. We hope that you have enjoyed the magazine 

and found it informative so far. We feel that it has come a long way in a short time but are always looking for ways to improve 

it further and this is where we need your support most. Please email us and let us know what you’d like to see more of. If you 

have any specific ideas then why not offer to write an article for us! Get your name in print and make all your friends jealous… 

We have a number of ideas already in the pipeline and by the end of 2006 we hope to have brought you a full interview with 

Grand Master Choi Jung Hwa, peoples training experiences outside of the UK, a full report on the Junior World Championships 

in Australia and much much more. Let us know what else you’d like to see. 

In the meantime, our thanks to Master Gayle for submitting to the interview process, and our congratulations to the P.U.M.A. 

Squad for doing the business in Ireland. 

We’d like to finish by officially welcoming Mr Gareth Hitchcoe to the Planet P.U.M.A. team as health and fitness coordinator. 

He has already shared his expertise with us through the health and fitness column since the launch issue and will continue to 

do so for the time being. However, if you fancy penning an article relating to health and fitness then please contact us. Mr 

Hitchcoe will be happy to discuss the your article idea and give you guidance if required. 

The next issue will creep out around the start of June. Until then... we’ll always be there. We won’t let you out of our sight.

What's Inside 

Editorial 2 

Humble conduits doing whatever it is humble conduits do. 

Interview: Master Ray Gayle 4 

The organisation’s founder and chairman has a lamp shone in his face. 

Being Bullied? 8 

What you can do about it. 

Little P.U.M.A.s 11 

The Salisbury club visit the police station. 

P.U.M.A. Squad 12 

How they got on at the Junior World Championship trials and the Irish Open. 

Black Belt Grading Essay 14 

“My Tenets” - Courtesy of Paul Lockhart. 

Dog Attack 16 

Handling a nasty situation. 

Health & Fitness 18 

Flexibility training II : static stretching. 

Taekwon-Do 20 

Sine-wave movement explained. 

Kick-Boxing 22 

This time - Kicking For Kick-Boxing. 

Tang Soo-Do 24 

Bong Hyung Il Bu - that’s the first of the pole patterns - step by step. 

Child Protection 26 

Transporting children - frequently asked questions answered. 

Kids Corner 27 

At least we don’t spell corner with a ‘K’’. 

The Team 

Editor 

Mr Daniel Lammin 

Assistant Editor 

Mr Richard Potter 

Health & Fitness Coordinator Mr Gareth Hitchcoe 

Contributors 

Email 

Mr Craig Spreadbury, Mr Paul Lockhart, Mr Malcolm Jones, Mr Daniel Lammin, 

Mr Dik Chance, Mr Richard Potter, Master Ray Gayle, Ms Sarah Ward, Ms 

Louise Reeve, Mr Gareth Hitchcoe, Mr Oliver King, Mrs Claire King, Mr Mark 

Kell 

magazine@puma-uk.com 

Planet P.U.M.A. is published quarterly. For letters or article proposals, please contact the editorial team at the 

email address above. To locate your local club or for further information about P.U.M.A. please visit the official 

website at www.puma-uk.com or call the P.U.M.A. hotline on 0845 600 1967 

This magazine is copyright 2006 The Professional Unification of Martial Arts. All individual articles are the 

copyright of their respective authors. Opinions expressed are those of their authors and do not necessarily reflect 

those of P.U.M.A. Unauthorised reproduction is prohibited.

Ray Gayle 

Master Ray Gayle, seventh-degree 

Taekwon-Do black belt, is a founder 

member and the chairman of P.U.M.A. 

Richard Potter interviewed him during 

Winter Camp 2005 in Warmwell. 

Master Gayle, you were awarded that title earlier this year. 

It was obviously a long journey to that milestone, how did 

you get started? 

I really started from a self-defence point of view. Mr (Mark) 

Ogborne and I, when we were teenagers, started going out to 

various establishments and found there were a lot of fights 

going on. We thought it would be a good idea to do some 

martial arts. We looked around and initially did Karate, but we 

didn’t really get on with it for some reason. I saw a poster at 

work for Taekwon-Do and it went on from there. Mr Ogborne 

took a couple of months to follow me into it. 

So you and Mark Ogborne have been buddies since school 

days? 

Yes, definitely. We’ve known each other since we were in 

junior school and have done a lot of things together since – 

played for the same football team, cubs and scouts, things like 

that. We particularly liked the outdoor life, camping and such, 

as young kids. So yes, we’ve always been good friends. 

What other sports have you been involved in? 

I was a very keen footballer and played from the age of about 

eight up to twenty four. I actually gave it up to continue 

Taekwon-Do at the time because it reached a point where I 

had to choose one or the other. I played to quite a high level, 

county league, and the next step from there was semiprofessional. 

I was with a well known team in the Bristol area, 

so it was quite serious. I decided at around that time, when I 

was twenty three or twenty four, that football wasn’t going to 

be my future. I’d grown to love Taekwon-Do at that stage. I’d 

got my black belt and decided that this was what I really 

wanted to do. I also did some athletics and rugby at school. 

I know you’ve had some great successes in the sporting 

side of Taekwon-Do but I and probably a lot of the readers 

don’t know the particular details… 

It was funny because I never started Taekwon-Do to do 

competitions, but I’ve always been very competitive and I 

wanted to compete as soon as I could. I remember getting my 

green belt on a Friday and entering my first tournament the 

day after, so I was keen to get in there. I wasn’t particularly 

successful as a colour belt, but as a black belt I started to do 

better - firstly with sparring, and a couple of years later with 

patterns. I got to a point where, in eighty three, I was picked 

for the Taekwon-Do British team to fight in the world 

championships. It was really a great moment because I 

never really expected it. I enjoyed every minute of it. My 

first world championship was held in Hollywood in Los 

Angeles. The venue was a huge high-school in Beverly 

Hills, which was great. I think from there on I got the 

competition “bug”, so to speak, and started to train even 

harder. It culminated in nineteen eighty-nine, where I 

became European champion and also that year I was voted 

“International Taekwon-Do Fighter Of The Year”, so yes, it 

was a good year for me. It might sound strange to people, 

but my most enjoyable year was probably eighty-three, 

because I won every tournament I went into and was 

awarded the accolade “Up-and-coming Taekwon-Do 

Fighter Of The Year”, which was nice at the time. I still have 

the trophy somewhere. I enjoyed the competition side, but 

for me it’s all about the arts side now. 

My notes mention your interest in Minis. Is that 

connected to your time as an engineer? 

Yes, it was. I learnt to drive in a Mini, and my first car was a 

Mini and I’ve loved them ever since. Part of my engineering 

apprenticeship was dabbling with car engines before they 

let us onto aircraft engines. We used to strip down and 

build car engines, so that got me into that side of it. I had a 

few “project Minis” in my early days that rust got the better 

of. It’s a very simple car and being quite small I fit nicely 

into one and it was very cheap to run. I had a very good 

relationship with many Minis over the years and I still have 

to this day. It started life as a Mini Mayfair, a red one, but is 

now a bit of a souped-up 1400. 

It’s mutated… 

Yes, so it’s sitting in the garage and my next project, when I 

get some time, is to chop the roof off. 

I believe you dabble in music as well? 

I’ve always loved music. I played a lot of music as a 

youngster at secondary school. I dabbled with many 

instruments – the violin, the trumpet, the trombone at one 

time – but I always wanted to play guitar. An apprentice 

friend of mine sold me a guitar, which I started playing. I 

absolutely loved it and still have it to this day. A number of 

us in Taekwon-Do played guitar, so we formed a little band 

called the “Bruise Brothers”. We always played at

Taekwon-Do new-year parties, that sort of thing. 

What sort of stuff did you play? 

We all had different influences, but we ended up playing Blues 

/ Rock and Roll: easy stuff to play and very enjoyable. We 

used to meet up in someone’s bedroom at his mum’s house 

and make lots of noise. It was good fun and I play to this day 

and I’m really enjoying playing the guitar again and hope to do 

some gigs in the future. I’m getting a set of music up together 

for solo gigs on an acoustic guitar, but sometimes I enjoy just 

sitting down with a guitar and playing whatever comes to 

mind. It’s a nice contrast to the kicking and punching world of 

Taekwon-Do. 

Your two sons practice Taekwon-Do and hold black belts. 

Did you lead them into it, or was it their own choice? 

They both started of their own accord in the sense that they 

started when I felt they were ready for it. When my first son 

Richard (who’s now nineteen and still training) first asked, I let 

him start training then realised he wasn’t very serious. I 

stopped him doing it for a number of years and said he wasn’t 

going to do it until I felt he could do it seriously. He started 

again around the age of nine and really took to it. 

My younger son James also wanted to start early. This time I 

didn’t let him until I felt he was old enough to handle it. 

Richard is now a second degree, James is a first degree and 

they both enjoy Taekwon-Do as much as the other sports 

they’re involved in. 

Is it at all hard on them having their dad so high up the 

Taekwon-Do ladder? 

I told them very early on that I could never give Student Of 

The Year awards to them because it would perhaps be seen 

to be unfair, but they’ve handled it and they realise why I had 

to make that decision. 

It must have been quite a switch from being an engineer to 

teaching Taekwon-Do full time. 

If I’m honest, I think I should never really have been an 

engineer. The apprenticeship was really good, but the work 

environment inside an actual workshop was never really me. I 

loved the apprenticeship and would say to anyone “go for it”, 

but I need to be out and about. I’ve always been into physical 

activity so really it was a natural progression. 

reduced injury risks, however in the nine years I’ve 

trained the training has become less demanding 

physically. Are we losing anything because of this? 

Physically possibly yes, however I think we’ve gained a lot 

philosophically. There’s always a trade-off. In the traditional 

martial arts way things have to be “tough”, however things 

have changed and we have to move with the times. When 

I started as an instructor, all we had to know was how to 

teach people patterns and how to kick and we weren’t 

concerned with how safe it was. Now we have to be 

concerned with peoples’ welfare, not only physically, but 

how we treat them emotionally as well. We have to ensure 

that people have a good experience with martial arts and in 

ten, twenty years time they can say “I did this and I felt 

great because of it”, not “I did this and I’ve had two knee 

replacements, one hip operation…” and so on. Maybe we 

lose a bit on the physical side, but we can bring the 

philosophy back into the art. We can bring in some modern 

values as well, such as treating people with respect, 

respecting other people’s beliefs and so on. General Choi’s 

Taekwon-Do philosophy is such an important part of the 

art, but it’s the most neglected part of what we all do. His 

views on moral culture were far ahead of his time and if we 

can all just take a small part of his teachings, then the parts 

of the world that we live in will surely be better for it. All of 

you Taekwon-Do instructors out there have a responsibility 

to teach not just by saying but by doing and being too. 

The founder members decided to align the group with 

the International Taekwon-Do Federation. My 

introduction to them was the seminar in Weymouth with 

the founder, Major General Choi Hong Hi, in September 

2000. He made a great impression on me and everybody 

else who intended, what impact did he have on you? 

He made a massive impact on me. I didn’t realise it until a 

week or so afterwards. The introduction to his way of doing 

the art was a real eye opener. I think I went in on the first 

day with blinkers on. At the end of the first day there was 

no way I was going to take up his way of doing things. 

I recall that on the break we had on the first morning I 

heard you say “I think this makes me a blue belt”. 

Exactly, yes. I certainly felt like one. My mind was changed 

when I got to interview him for a martial arts magazine. I 

Around six years ago a group of you decided to form a new 

martial arts organisation. Can you tell us about your 

reasons for doing that? 

It wasn’t a sudden decision. Although P.U.M.A. was formed in 

2000, it was actually something that was born in about 1997. 

We felt the association we were with at the time was going 

down a line we didn’t really want to take. We had differing 

ideas and philosophies that we felt wouldn’t be realised in the 

existing organisation, so some guys decided to leave and form 

a new one. We decided this as a group, it wasn’t just myself 

as an individual. A number of different people decided that 

and they asked me to head the group. I was happy to do so. 

We could say with your sports background, you represent 

the newer wave of instructor with a more scientific 

approach to martial arts. We see the benefits, such as 

In a classic pose with lifetime friend Mr Mark 

Ogborne

went into his room and I wouldn’t call it a religious 

experience or anything like that but I came out feeling 

completely different about this individual. He’d just spent two 

hours telling me what Taekwon-Do really meant to him. He 

was so passionate about it, his whole life had been devoted 

to it. I felt quite ashamed about how I’d felt and decided that I 

would follow his way of doing Taekwon-Do. 

A month after that seminar I attended the first P.U.M.A. 

black belt grading. I passed it, but the whole experience 

and attainment of that belt was spoilt by the knowledge I 

was doing it wrong. At about that time you were awarded 

your sixth degree. I remember reading on the Internet that 

someone had anonymously criticised your grading. What 

were your feelings on that grading? 

I should say I’m now actually really good friends with the 

person who posted that comment. He lives in Spain now and 

has invited me over for a holiday. I approached him and 

asked him why he’d said what he’d said and it turned out he 

just hadn’t been aware of the particular circumstances. After 

the grading I didn’t really feel I deserved the grade because I 

found the new system very very difficult to perform three 

days after being introduced to it. 

Did you actually perform that grading using the “sinewave” 

style? 

I did attempt it and for me it was a real disaster. I swore to 

myself that if I took another grading, and I wanted to take 

another one in front of General Choi, I would do it as well as 

I could. As it happens I did get my sixth degree. At the time I 

spoke to one of the seniors there and said I didn’t feel I 

deserved it. He told me the general felt because I’d come 

back to the root of Taekwon-Do and had a number of people 

following me, he had put his trust into me to teach it the right 

way. Essentially he said “Look: here’s the sixth degree, I 

know you have a lot of work to do but I feel you can do it.”. 

Speaking to General Choi after that made me feel a lot 

better. He told me I should practise as much as I could and 

pass the ITF way down to all my students and he had 

confidence that I would do it. That made me feel a lot better, 

but to this day I still cringe when I think of that grading. 

A deliberate decision was made to form a multidiscipline 

organisation. Was that risky given you’re pure 

orthodox Taekwon-Do? 

I think it was at the time. Having a number of martial arts 

under the same banner was a new way of doing things, but 

we thought it would complement people’s main training – 

weapons training from the Tang Soo-Do people, closer 

fighting from the Ju-Jitsu people, etcetera. I think it’s worked 

well. We possibly haven’t yet integrated it as well as we 

would have liked, we’d certainly like to get more input from 

the other arts. We’re hopefully taking some of the mystery 

away by showing that the different arts can do their thing 

together. 

P.U.M.A. took on the F.A.S.T. Defence course several 

years ago. It’s a very practical self-defence solution and 

can teach somebody useful self-defence skills very 

quickly. Is this recognition that many traditional martial 

arts, Taekwon-Do included, aren’t very good for self 

defence and if so, what is their strength given the great 

time and indeed money we invest in them? 

F.A.S.T. is a great self-defence system, and I feel it 

Master Gayle with Major General Choi Hong Hi, the 

founder of Taekwon-Do 

complements the martial arts we already do, especially with 

the hands-on aspects. One of the problems with traditional 

arts is giving people enough knowledge to be able to defend 

themselves without too many people getting hurt. I think 

people get different things from them: certainly the 

confidence it can give a child or someone afraid of 

confrontational situations, even if just confidence to stand up 

to somebody without things getting physical. It’s not always 

about kicking and punching and fighting, sometimes it’s 

about talking as well. Obvious F.A.S.T. Defence caters for 

people who want to use some full-power kicks and strikes 

without anybody getting hurt. That’s its particular advantage. 

People who know you will agree that you are a 

genuinely nice guy. Obviously you’ve taken on the 

mantle of an authority figure since forming PU.M.A. 

Have you found that hard? 

Yes, because I like people to take responsibility for what 

they do. I’ve always tried to do that myself and encourage it 

in others, so it’s hard for me when I have to use harsh 

words. We all know what’s right and wrong, surely most of 

us are old enough if we do something wrong to put our 

hands up and say “look, I was wrong”. That’s important to 

me, I’ve never been afraid to admit to a mistake, so I find it a 

bit disappointing when others don’t do that. 

What management lessons have you learned while 

heading the organisation? 

One of the big lessons is to never be complacent and 

assume that people know what they should know. We 

instructors all come from different backgrounds. Some are 

fantastic with administration because of their previous jobs, 

while others don’t have the discipline to keep proper 

accounts and such. Sometimes I’ve had to spell things out. 

You’ve assembled a great team of people to help run the 

organisation. How did you select them? 

I felt the association we used to belong to didn’t use the 

skills of the people they had around them. We have so many 

people in our organisation with fantastic skills, often from

their full-time job or previous jobs. We have people involved 

with computers, children, administrators, teachers… I don’t 

think I’ve done anything fantastic really, I’ll just approach 

somebody who does something in a particular field, perhaps 

something they’ve done every day for years, and say “can 

you do this for us?” and generally people say “Yeah, great.”. 

That’s been fantastic. 

What particular challenges have you faced and which 

people would you like to credit for getting and keeping 

things going? 

Forming P.U.M.A. had its challenges. Mr Chris Wood helps 

to run a number of things such as Cross-training and 

F.A.S.T. Defence and he looks after the accounts for us 

now. He has really grown into these roles and is doing a 

great job. Mr Ogborne, we’ve known each other so long we 

know how each other tick and help each other through the 

difficult times. I have to mention Miss Katy Carr - a lot of 

people don’t realise there’s a great deal of paper work for me 

now. One thing that’s been difficult for me is running both 

P.U.M.A. and my own schools, people sometimes don’t 

realise I’m still a martial arts instructor and still earn a living 

from actual teaching. Miss Carr has helped me with the 

paper work and been fantastic for the past few years with 

things like presentation evenings and dealing with 

instructors. We make a really good team together. Being a 

teacher, she’s helped organise the courses we run, which 

now have a great structure to them and are well respected 

by the various martial associations around the country. The 

following senior grades have also put their trust and backing 

behind me and for that I will be eternally grateful: 

Mr John Black: loved by all in the UK and around the ITF 

world. 

Mr Don Deedigan: much respected for his humility by 

students and instructors. 

Mr David Murphy: a real hands on martial artist and a true 

brave-heart. 

Mr Malcolm Jones: much loved by all his students and fellow 

instructors. 

Mr Dennis Salt: truly inspirational, the tenets should be 

renamed the way of the Salt. 

Mr Gary Bradshaw: works tirelessly and unconditionally for 

P.U.M.A. and for his own students. 

There are plenty more, too many to mention. I’d like to say 

Mr Gayle and Mr Ogborne pose with their 

collective trophy collection back in their 

competition days. 

“thanks” to all the management team for doing a great job 

because without them the organisation wouldn’t be where it 

is today. They all deserve credit. 

What sacrifices have you made and do you have any 

particular regrets? 

I’ve had to make many sacrifices because of the formation of 

P.U.M.A., some of which would be difficult to explain here 

and also would take up the rest of this magazine. One of the 

main things that has been difficult is not being able to spend 

as much time as I would’ve liked with my children; this has 

been very hard and continues to be a challenge. 

When P.U.M.A. was formed “they” said you wouldn’t last 

a year. That was over five years ago now, what do see us 

doing in the next five years? 

I’d like to see P.U.M.A. moving forward and providing a good 

example to other martial arts organisations. We are still a 

young group and still have a way to go. I hope that in five or 

ten years time we’ll be seen as a really professional and 

forward-thinking group. There are a number of different 

people around the world – Portugal, Ireland, Australia – who 

have contacted me about opening schools under the 

P.U.M.A. name. I hope we continue to grow, not just in terms 

of membership numbers but also in terms of those members 

getting what they want from it. If we can grow but still keep it 

very personal, I’d be happy with that. I want people to be 

happy to be with the association. When they mention 

P.U.M.A. I hope they feel they can say they had a really 

good time, a good experience with us. 

Anything else to close with? 

This has been a busy year, but I’ve enjoyed it. Being 

awarded my seventh degree by Master Choi was a very 

emotional experience for me. I was actually asked to take 

the grading but as some people will know I’ve had a medical 

problem with my skin. I’m a lot better now but at the time I 

felt I wouldn’t do a good job on the grading and didn’t want 

to do it then. At the fiftieth anniversary Master Choi made a 

speech where he said that that you don’t always have to 

take a grading and if we think you deserve it then we’ll 

award it to you, which he did. In one way I felt “Oh No! I 

wanted to do the grading!”, in another way I felt honoured to 

be considered deserving of a seventh degree. He said to 

me, when he awarded me it, that I needed to promise to 

uphold the good name of Taekwon-Do and the ITF and 

teach it in the best way I could. I promised him I would. 

Master Choi has continued to be a big influence in my life, I 

get a lot from him personally. He’s a great leader for the ITF, 

I’m sure he’ll go on to be just as good as his father and I 

look forward to working with him more in the future. 

Master Gayle, thank you.

Dik Chance with more valuable advice, this time for our younger 

readers. 

I was bullied horribly at school. One day it got so bad that I 

was choked unconscious and had blood vessels in my eyes 

burst with the pressure. I was the target for bullying constantly 

from aged 10 – 14. Things didn’t really change for me until I 

grew substantially. So when I say I know what you are going 

through, I mean it. 

This is remarkably common amongst people who have 

embraced the reality side of martial arts training. I’ve met 

some very, very tough people around the world who were 

bullied in their youth. That experience seems to have made 

them stronger and tougher. So, if you are being bullied, take 

heart. Even though this seems like the end of the world, you 

will get through it. You have to start making changes today. 

Bullying comes in many different forms. Some of the things 

that happened to me include: 

being called names; 

being ignored and excluded; 

having things stolen from me; 

being constantly flicked on the ears; 

being pushed, punched, kicked and choked. 

Bullying can also include things like picking on how someone 

looks (the colour of their hair or skin, if they wear glasses, if 

they are fat or thin, short or tall etc). Mobile phones are being 

used to send people bullying text messages. 

Being the target of bullying can leave you feeling confused, 

helpless, weak and desperate. You can’t face leaving the 

house and may even invent illness to keep you at home. 

During the actual bullying, your mind and body may play tricks 

on you. You might feel sick, shaky, weak and in desperate 

need of the toilet. Your legs might wobble and your hands 

might be sweaty and shaky. Your mouth might get really dry 

and all the clever things you hoped to say might get stuck in 

your throat. 

This happens to everyone! It is the effect of adrenaline, a 

hormone your body produces when you are in an emergency 

situation. When you are worried at night about something that 

is going to happen tomorrow, your body decides this is an 

emergency and starts to release adrenaline slowly. This 

makes your heart beat faster and increases your breathing. It 

wakes you up and stops you sleeping. When something is 

threatening you your body dumps adrenaline into you really 

fast. 

Being picked on by a group of people is a very scary thing. 

THE FENCE – Your friend and ally.

Your submissive body language gives you away. 

You must control the distance – but not like this 

All this happens so that your body is prepared for flight 

(running away) or fight. Unfortunately, if you aren’t ready for it 

to happen, it can also make you freeze and panic. Every time 

this happens to you (even on roller coasters or watching scary 

things on TV) remind yourself that ‘it’s just adrenaline and it’s 

your friend’. Adrenaline is the turbo charge that your body 

needs in times of danger. That’s why some people do extreme 

sports like bungee jumping. They like the feeling of the 

adrenaline rush. 

One of the things I found out though is that it is easy to be a 

bully without realising it. Have a look at some of the things you 

do or say to other people, especially when you are in a group 

of friends. You might be surprised to find that you are bullying 

someone else. 

So what can you do if you are being bullied, or you know 

someone that is being bullied? The first thing to do is to 

accept that it is not your fault. You are not stupid, weak or any 

other of the negative emotions you are feeling. It is okay to 

have big ears or glasses or ginger hair or any of the other 

things that people are using to pick on you. Very often people 

who are being bullied don’t say anything because they are 

worried what people will think of them. You might even be 

worrying that you’ll make it worse. 

Unfortunately you do have to take the first steps for yourself. It 

is vital that you tell someone. To start with you might feel 

comfortable telling your friend. That’s okay. You can feel a 

little safer if you aren’t on your own. However, if the bullying is 

continuing, you need to tell someone who can do something 

about it. Your parents are the best choice. If you can’t tell 

them, what about talking to another family member? You 

could tell a sympathetic teacher. You could tell your sports 

coach. Keep a record of everything done or said to you. 

Childline has an excellent log that you can download. 

By telling an adult, you have asked them to help you with the 

problem. Adults should listen to you and they have ways to 

help available to them that you may not. Schools should have 

anti-bullying policies that they should use to help stop the 

problem. If the problem doesn’t stop, tell someone else. 

So what about things that you can do? Firstly let’s try to 

decide what bullies look for when selecting the targets. Most 

people I ask will admit to bullying someone. Their brother or 

sister, someone younger at school, their best friend even. 

Think about what you looked for when this happened. Most 

bullies pick on people who are: 

not very confident; 

showing they are scared; 

looking down; 

talking nervously or too quietly; 

timid; 

not going to make a fuss. 

The first rule then is to be a hard target. A hard target is 

someone who is difficult to get to. The most basic way of 

being a hard target is to be somewhere else. You can’t be 

picked on if you aren’t there. If you know where the bullies are 

going to be, be somewhere different. 

The second way of being a hard target is to look confident, 

even if you aren’t feeling like it. We call this duck style. On the 

surface of the water a duck looks calm and relaxed. Under the 

water, its legs are flapping like crazy. It’s the same for you. 

You have to give the impression that you aren’t nervous and 

scared, even if under the surface you are flapping like crazy. 

This is done by body language. If you don’t know what body 

language is, imagine the last time your mum and dad were 

angry with you. They don’t need to say anything, you just 

know. What you need to do is show confident and assertive 

body language. This should include:

Being left out of the group is a very nasty form of bullying 

keeping your head up and your eyes looking; 

confident strong, but polite, voice; 

walking like you are going somewhere important; 

not getting involved in conversations with bullies; 

keeping your distance. 

The third rule (and also the first rule too!!) is keeping your 

distance. If you have good assertive body language this will 

go along way to keeping people away. Another trick for your 

duck style is called The Fence. If you want to keep people out 

of your garden, you put up a fence. If you want to keep bullies 

out of your space, you put up your fence. A good fence is just 

having your hands up in front. It tells the bully you are 

confident and ready, but it tells people watching that you don’t 

want to fight (so you don’t get into trouble too). A good fence 

is also like an insect’s antenna. It will tell you if people are 

getting too close. 

Using your confident assertive voice is important too. Don’t 

get involved in bullies conversations – that’s just playing their 

game. Just put up your fence and say ‘what do you want’ over 

and over, just like a stuck CD. If you aren’t responding, their 

game plan isn’t working. 

If that isn’t working and they are getting too close to your 

antenna, tell them to ‘BACK OFF’, loudly. 

People often ask me, when should we use our martial arts 

skills? There is no real, 100% answer. If you need to do 

something more physical than running away, you risk getting 

badly hurt. You can get into serious trouble and labelled as a 

bully yourself. I always say that ‘if someone is going to do 

something to you that might make you bleed, or bruise you, or 

All of the people in our photos were acting – they like each 

other really’ 

hurt you, then it’s the right time’. This is very difficult because 

you can get into lots of trouble, and even be accused of being 

the bully yourself. You need to think carefully, and if you do 

use something physical, make sure that you do it at the right 

time. 

Ask your instructors to show you some good releases from 

grabs and chokes (I wish I’d known some). Come on a FAST 

Defence course. We do them for 6 years old and above. 

Making yourself a hard target is better than having to defend 

yourself. 

Take care of yourself and your friends. If you are being 

bullied, tell someone and remember that you are not alone. 

Until next time, train safely, respectfully and smartly with an 

open mind.

The Salisbury Little P.U.M.A.s visit their local police 

station - as told by Sarah Ward 

How many Little P.U.M.A.s can you get in a police car? Well 

that is what Salisbury's Little P.U.M.A.s Taekwon-Do club 

went to find out, on their visit to the police station. Twenty 

seven excitable children were treated to a behind the scenes 

peek, after being invited around by the city's force. 

The children were firstly guided to the rear of the station, 

where the patrol vehicles are kept. The officers in charge of 

the visit bravely allowed the children to clamber into a very 

classy police car! (No doubt the car’s regular driver would 

have been horrified!) Fourteen of them managed to climb in, 

before bailing out and bundling into a police van. They had 

copious amounts of fun testing the loud speakers, sirens and 

horn and took turns at being shut in the cells at the rear of 

the van. As you can imagine, it was extremely noisy, but the 

kids loved every minute. Some of the children were passed 

police hats and jackets to try on, which was quite a comical 

sight, watching them seemingly disappear under oversized 

police clothing. 

Once the Little P.U.M.A.s had exhausted playing at being 

constables, they were ushered inside and shown the holding 

cells. Most of the children were locked inside a cell with Mrs 

Houston, but fortunately were released without charge soon 

after. They were then led through the station and shown the 

interview rooms, where one child was nominated to push the 

panic button. Thankfully no one took it upon themselves to 

have an unsupervised go at pressing the various panic 

points throughout the rest of the visit. Phew! 

Our tour ended in the conference room, where the children 

had their fingerprints taken and were given goody bags. They 

were also delighted and entertained by the sight of the police 

officer demonstrating how to use his lethal baton (asp) 

against Mr Houston's body through padding and the use of 

velcro restraints on another volunteer. It was amusing to see 

a grown man wriggling on the floor, unable to free himself, 

with something as simple as velcro! - But how effective it 

was. So be warned, if you ever get involved in a 

confrontation with the law, beware the velcro!

After a year of very hard work P.U.M.A’s squad finished 2005 on a massive high with phenomenal successes 

at the Junior World Championships Trials and then the Irish Open two weeks later. Daniel Lammin chats all 

about it... 

Junior World Championships Trials 

The Junior ITF World Championships are to be held in 

Melbourne Australia during September of this year. As with 

all major international tournaments the UKITF will be sending 

a large squad of competitors across to represent the United 

Kingdom. Last November a number of P.U.M.A’s top juniors 

attended the final UKITF selection tournament in an attempt 

to earn a place on the plane to Australia. 

Whilst everyone competed superbly it was our girls who lead 

the way, dominating the tournament, including clean sweeps 

in the second degree patterns and under 60kg sparring! 

There were so many good performances that it seems almost 

unfair to single out individuals but special congratulations 

must go to four competitors in particular. Mitchell Ross, Jenny 

Francis, Kimberley Bradshaw and Marie Udall qualified in 

both their sparring and patterns categories with Mitchell and 

Jenny particularly impressive in winning both of their 

respective categories. 

A full list of P.U.M.A. competitors who have qualified for the 

UKITF team for Australia is shown to the right. However, 

congratulations should also go to all of those who attended 

the tournament whether successful on this occasion or not. 

At the last World Championships, held in Korea in 2003, 

UKITF juniors competed brilliantly and came away with a 

hatful of medals including a couple of individual world 

champions. With a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck 

hopefully the current team will go on to achieve similar or 

even greater levels of success. 

Boys Patterns 

Jack Creber 

Mitchell Ross 

Girls Patterns 

Roxanne Humphries 

Jenny Francis 

Kimberley Bradshaw 

Marie Udall 

Boys Sparring 

Mitchell Ross 

Mike Whitlock 

Girls Sparring 

Jenny Francis 

Catherine Damen 

Natalie McColl 

Natasha Knapman 

Alex Page 

Marie Udall 

Esme Hyde 

Laura Penny 

Kimberley Bradshaw 

1 st Degree Patterns – 1 st 

2 nd Degree Patterns – 1 st 

1 st Degree Patterns – 1 st 

2 nd Degree Patterns - 1 st 

2 nd Degree Patterns – 2 nd 

2 nd Degree Patterns – 3 rd 

Under 70kg Sparring - 1 st 

Over 70kg Sparring - 2 nd 

Under 42kg Sparring - 1 st 

Under 48kg - 2 nd 

Under 53kg - 1 st 

Under 53kg - 3 rd 

Under 60kg - 1 st 

Under 60kg - 2 nd 

Under 60kg - 3 rd 

Over 60kg - 1 st 

Over 60kg - 2 nd 

Breaking and Special Techniques still to be decided.

Irish Open – Cork 

The long trip to Ireland started in Matlock Derby early on a cold and frosty November morning. The 14 hour coach and ferry 

journey to Cork was going to be a long one but everyone was in high spirits and looking forward to the competition ahead. 

P.U.M.A. squad head coach Gary Bradshaw and assistant coach Daniel Lammin took a young squad of 35 competitors across 

to the South of Ireland for the annual Irish Open. P.U.M.A. last sent a squad to this event in 2003 but the current squad included 

many new faces and for many of them it was the first time they had competed internationally. 

Due to the number of competitors the tournament was held over 2 long days. All of the adult black belt categories were held 

on the first day along with the 4 team events - men’s, women’s, boy’s and girl’s. 

Day 1 

After a hard year of training everyone was hopeful that P.U.M.A. 

could come away with a good medal haul but nobody was 

prepared for quite how good, including the Irish! As with the 

junior world championships trials it’s hard to single out 

individuals for praise when every single person competed 

fantastically. Seven competitors earned medals in all, with 

men’s team captain Dave Pixton taking gold over a large field 

in patterns whilst world champions James Murueta and Stacey 

Weatherer earned Gold in their respective sparring categories. 

The above performances gave everyone a massive boost 

ahead of the four team events. Chants of “PUMA” rang 

around Cork leisure centre as amazingly P.U.M.A’s women’s, 

boy’s and girl’s teams all won gold whilst the men’s team 

earned bronze in the largest category of the day. These 

results are made even more impressive by the fact that three 

of the boys’ team, Mitchell Ross, Phil and Mike Whitlock, 

fought in both the boys’ and men’s teams, with Laura Penny 

and Alex Page doing the same in the girl’s and lady’s teams. 

Many people impressed in the team events including Josh 

Atiya-Alla who scored a stunning knock out with a reverse 

turning kick and Matt Winchester who performed superbly in 

his first international event. 

Gold 

D Pixton (Men’s Patterns) 

J Murueta (Men’s Under 72kg Sparring) 

S Weatherer (Ladies Under 68kg Sparring) 

Silver 

J Atiya-Alla (Men’s Patterns) 

Bronze 

J Atiya –Alla (Men’s Under 72kg Sparring) 

A Page (Ladies Under 60kg Sparring) 

E Deakin (Ladies Over 68kg Sparring) 

MENS TEAM (BRONZE) 

D Pixton, J Murueta, M Whitlock, M Ross, P Whitlock and M 

Winchester 

LADIES TEAM (GOLD) 

E Deakin, S Weatherer, B Dearlove, L Penny, A Page and N 

Zimmer 

BOYS TEAM (GOLD) 

M Whitlock, P Whitlock, J Atty-Alla, M Ross, G Bradshaw and M 

Brunger 

GIRLS TEAM (GOLD) 

K Bradshaw, A Page, L Penny, M Udall, E Hyde and N Knapman 

Day 2 

Arriving at the leisure centre on day two, everyone was still on 

a massive high as a result of the numerous successes from day 

one. As you will see from the list of results there really were just 

too many fantastic performances on day two to be able to do 

justice to all of them but there were plenty of highlights. P.U.M.A. 

claimed a clean sweep of medals in the under 16 black belt 

patterns with gold for Jenny Francis, silver for Esme Hyde and 

bronze for Kimberley Bradshaw. In the girl’s under 17 sparring 

Marie Udall fought with immense courage to get up from 2 knock 

downs in her semi final to go on and win gold but perhaps the 

best performance of the day came from Chris Mullens. Chris, 

a blue tag competing internationally for the first time, earned 

gold in both patterns and sparring where he had to compete 

against all grades up to black tags. 

The Celebrations 

Gold 

C Mullens (Patterns and Sparring) 

D Jones (Patterns) 

B Jones (Patterns) 

J Francis (Patterns) 

J Creber (Patterns) 

G Bradshaw (Sparring) 

C Randle (Sparring) 

K Bradshaw (Sparring) 

M Udall (Sparring) 

Silver 

L Penny (Sparring) 

S Harris (Patterns) 

E Hyde (Patterns) 

S Finch (Patterns) 

M Ross (Sparring) 

E Hyde (Sparring) 

Bronze 

K Bradshaw (Patterns) 

B Angriss (Patterns and Sparring) 

M Whitlock (Sparring) 

D Jones (Sparring) 

B Jones (Sparring) 

After 2 days of phenomenal success all that was left was to celebrate! After a quick trip back to the hotels the majority of the 

adults headed out into Cork to sample the Irish food and hospitality. After tucking in to a nice healthy MacDonalds, the adults 

headed to a local hotel to meet up with some of the other competitors where the biggest shock of the weekend took place – Mr 

John Black actually brought a round! According to Mr Ogborne and other reliable sources this was the first time that Mr Black’s 

wallet had seen the light of day in over 20 years. The 18 or so people lucky enough to have been bought a drink by Mr Black 

have all said how privileged they feel - thanks Mr Black!

The author Paul Lockhart, at the 

awards evening, with his award. 

For those of you that have just joined us: P.U.M.A. black belt 

grading candidates are required to compose and submit an 

essay from a prescribed title. The intention is for the candidates 

to express the motivations and philosophies behind their 

training. The best entry is then recognised with a prize at the 

following black belt awards evening. 

This is the winning essay from the October 2005 Taekwon-Do 

grading and is courtesy of Mr Paul Lockhart (now 1st degree 

black belt) of Gravesend Taekwon-Do, who has kindly given 

permission for us to reproduce it here. 

This is probably the thing that I was dreading most of all coming 

up to my Black belt: the essay. 

I have always found it a problem putting my thoughts down onto 

paper and I have never been good at writing, especially when 

it comes to essays. So I would just like to say a special thank 

you to whoever it was that invented spelling and grammar checks! 

My essay starts with me on a slight hill in a field. The sky is a 

clear and very blue and I’m surrounded by lots of people that I 

don’t know. I’m at Cherry tree farm camp site in Croyde, for 

Summer Camp 2005. I have just spent approximately seven 

hours battling my way through heavy traffic trying to get here, 

I’m already feeling shattered and we haven’t even begun yet. I 

hope that this is going to be good. We line up in grade order, 

I’m feeling a bit nervous and I start to chat to the first kup next 

to me, I ask her if she’s going in for the next grading and if she 

knew what the dreaded essay title would be. All that I remember 

her saying very casually was “My personal tenets, didn’t you 

know?”. I suppose that I knew something like this was coming, 

something that required me to look deep inside myself, just not 

which angle that they wanted me to look from. 

Part of the reason for attending summer camp was so that I 

could kick-start my Black belt campaign. “Why kick start it now?” 

you may ask yourself, surely I should be working towards it one 

hundred percent all of the time? Well I would if my body could 

take the pace that I submit it to. I think that I probably hold some 

kind of record at my club for most injuries sustained in and 

outside of Taekwon-Do. Six weeks previous to summer camp I 

broke and dislocated a toe. This made a bit of a mess of my 

training routine. My fitness, technique and knowledge really 

suffered. Summer camp was my chance at jumping straight back 

in at the deep end. I should have taken some arm bands and a 

rubber ring with me, it was one hell of a deep end! By the end 

of the week I realised how much I didn’t know and how much I 

needed to knuckle down. All the other first kups seemed to be 

so good. 

I was looking forward to my first lesson back after camp. I really 

felt as though I had learnt some valuable information from 

various instructors and students, and I couldn’t wait to share it 

with my club while it was still fresh in my memory. All of the 

students were interested in what we got up to on camp, so I 

shared a few stories with them before the class started. My 

instructor that day, Mrs Jones, overheard something technical 

that I had said and she asked me if I would be willing to take 

the warm up and show the class some of the things that I had 

learnt. I ended up taking about ninety percent of the lesson. It 

felt great taking the class and best of all the students thought it 

was an excellent lesson. I think what felt so good was the fact 

that I had shared some valuable knowledge from something 

the vast majority of the class were unable to experience for 

themselves. 

I feel a great sense of loyalty towards my club, but most of all 

for my fellow students. This I feel is one of my strongest tenets. 

Loyalty has never been something that I’ve had to work at or 

even really thought about. It is only now that I’m looking at myself 

that I can see it quite clearly. It makes me feel proud of myself, 

proud because it is natural for me, and looking at society today 

it is obvious to see so many people are only loyal to themselves. 

Just watch the news or read the tabloids and I’m sure you’ll find 

some examples. 

I am especially loyal to family and friends. I’ll stand by them even 

if I don’t agree with their ideas, or if they were in trouble I will 

try to help them in any way that I can. 

About ten years ago my cousin had to move out of home very 

suddenly, and he didn’t have any money to transport his 

possessions. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I would 

help him out. We used our cars to drive the three or four miles 

between the houses, loading them up each time. I can’t 

remember how many runs that we had to make, but we started 

at the crack of dawn and it was dark by the time that we had 

finished. 

My aunt and my mother didn’t really get on that well, so from a 

very young age my cousin and I promised never to be like that 

to each other. This turned our relationship from cousins to more 

like that of brothers. I know one hundred percent that I could 

count on him, we have a kind of loyalty that could never fade. 

This in turn has strengthened my loyalty in all aspects of my life. 

People who know me well would say that this is my strongest 

tenet (mum and dad).The next three tenets that I feel strongly 

about are in their own right quite separate, but for me they 

intertwine and become quite a powerful force.

A few lucky people will go through life and find that they have 

a natural talent or a gift. I believe that every person has a gift, 

but unfortunately the vast majority of people never realise or 

learn what their special talent is. It could be anything from 

playing the piano to gymnastics. I fall into the category of people 

that hasn’t found theirs yet, and this is what drives the force of 

the next three tenets: dedication, perseverance and 

commitment. 

I never found a subject at school which interested me or that I 

was particularly good at. This didn’t help me at all when it came 

to picking a career path, but I got on and did what I could. After 

my G.C.S.E exams my cousin offered me a job and I took it. I 

became a trainee shoe repairer, key cutter and engraver. I found 

out quite quickly that I wasn’t very good with my hands, but I 

was determined to become the best that I could be. It took me 

longer than most of the other trainees to pick up the skills, but 

the harder I found it the harder I worked. After ten years of hard 

graft (and many injuries to my poor hands) I found myself 

managing a one man shop to the best of my ability. I achieved 

the highest increase in work load and in turn the highest increase 

in turnover in the area of Kent – about thirty five shops. I had 

become a well respected and sought after manager. Only made 

possible with dedication, perseverance and commitment. Twice, 

near the end of this ten year period I was asked by rival 

companies to join their team and twice I turned them down. I 

wanted to remain loyal to the people who had taught me and 

changed me into the highly skilled professional that I had 

become. I also felt that I had reached my peak and I wanted to 

find a new challenge, a career in which I could channel my skills. 

I committed myself to finding a new job, it was very difficult but 

I persevered. 

For the last ten months now I have been working for a 

prestigious watchmaker at their headquarters in London. I have 

had to start at the bottom again; I am a mere watchmaker’s 

assistant. I’m going to do my very best to become a qualified 

watchmaker. It isn’t going to happen soon though; it’s going to 

take much dedication perseverance and commitment. 

I took my health for granted in my teens. I worked in an 

environment with a lot of dust and chemical fumes. I also started 

smoking, which is probably one of the worst things that I have 

ever done. At about the age of twenty I started to get bad chest 

pains and I also started to get a lot of throat infections. I ended 

up going to the hospital for a chest x-ray. Luckily nothing showed 

up. 

I tried giving up smoking and going to the gym. I got a lot fitter 

and felt healthier than I had for a long time. I only managed to 

give up the smoking for about six months, but I carried on with 

my fitness. I think it made me feel less guilty about smoking. 

Something had changed though, deep down I had started to 

care about my body and the way that I felt. 

I started Taekwon-Do at the age of twenty three. I became fitter 

than I had ever been before and decided that smoking no longer 

had a part in my life. I gave it up for good this time. It came down 

to self respect. This is a tenet that I have had to work at. It has 

always been inside me somewhere but just needed some 

coaxing out. 

I love my body now, without it I would just be a head!! 

I walk about three miles a day, train at Taekwon-do three times 

a week and sometimes go for a six mile run on Sundays. I also 

eat quite healthily now. The good thing now is that I have made 

self respect the addictive habit. 

The next two tenets are again quite different, but for me they 

both go hand in hand, in two ways. Firstly, one brings out the 

other in me, and secondly, I feel that I lack them a lot. They are 

patience and self control. I hate to admit it but it is true. In writing 

this essay it makes me feel quite ashamed of myself, but at the 

same time it makes me want to get a grip and sort these 

problems out. The fact that I recognise these flaws in my 

character I think is good start. It means that I can build on that 

foundation and improve on them both. 

I would say that my lack of patience is the worse of the two. In 

a stressful environment I sometimes find it hard to keep my cool, 

and I can lose my patience. The stupid thing is, that I am usually 

fully aware that I am losing it and that it makes the given situation 

worse, so why do it? I have become a lot more conscious of this 

problem, and due to this I can start to control it better. 

My lack of self control isn’t so bad that I would lose it all together 

and take it out on a person or object, but bad in the sense that 

I would cut off my nose to spite my face. A typical example of 

this was when I had given up smoking for the first time, I had 

had an argument which resulted in me storming off and buying 

a packet of cigarettes and starting smoking again, just because 

I could. How stupid is that? I find it a lot harder to lose my self 

control, and when I do I’m still aware that I’m doing it, but the 

main problem is that I find it a lot harder to control when I lose 

my patience. 

Writing this essay has made several things clear to me; that not 

all of my tenets are good and strong. Some of them still need 

some work. When I started writing this, I thought that I would 

be writing about all of my positive tenets, but the deeper I looked, 

the more I realised this was about me as a whole, and should 

include the side of me that isn’t so great as well. Also I have 

realised that since leaving school, not having to write an essay 

for twelve years has somehow miraculously improved my ability 

to put my thoughts onto paper! 

“The Warrior” 

(By Miss Louise Reeve. Reproduced from the 

P.U.M.A. black belt certificates with permission.)

DOG ATTACK 

Not all attackers are human. Mr Craig Spreadbury offers advice on dealing 

with that most threatening of adversaries - an aggressive dog. 

Being assaulted by a human is one 

thing, but this is not the only dangerous 

problem we might encounter when out 

and about in the park or on the streets. 

An attack by a dog is a very frightening 

experience, not least because a dog 

cannot be reasoned with. 

If you do encounter a strange dog, you 

can avoid being bitten by acting in a 

non-threatening way. Do not stare at the 

dog or approach too quickly. Call the 

local council who will arrange collection 

of the animal. Dogs respond to body 

language, sights and sounds. Do not 

allow young children to scream or 

become over excited. 

If you are approached and attacked by a 

‘nervous’ dog (which is more frightened 

than aggressive) you should try to keep 

as calm as possible. This type of dog 

will usually bite randomly if cornered, 

‘nipping’ with the front teeth. If you fail to 

react, it will want to escape your 

presence as quickly as possible. Try to 

stand at a 45° angle to the animal 

avoiding direct eye-to-eye contact and 

offer no response to its actions. Under 

no circumstances should you turn your 

back to the animal. If possible, it may 

help to talk to the dog in a quite calm 

voice to reassure it that you are not a 

threat. 

You can deter an initial attack by 

‘fronting down’ the dog as it approaches. 

This can be achieved by waving your 

arms out to the side and shouting NO 

aggressively and if necessary, kicking 

out. If dogs have been trained to attack 

(such as police and military dogs) this 

type of behaviour will be of no 

consequence to the animal as it would 

have been conditioned to overcome 

such a scenario. It is likely to ‘check 

pace,’ then continue with the attack. 

this by standing exposed next to the 

corner of a building or to the side of a 

tree. 

Wait until the dog is a few feet away, 

then at the last second, move rapidly 

around the corner, but continue facing 

the dogs charge. The dog is forced to 

slow down in order to turn, take 

advantage of this and kick out. 

If a dog is charging at you, try to break 

its momentum (which it is gathering in 

order to knock you down). You can do 

Dogs will attack whatever is offered to 

them initially. This could be a strong

stick or anything else that comes to 

hand. This may buy you some time and 

confuse the dog sufficiently for you to 

escape or deter the dog from attacking 

further. 

An attacking dog will want to bite and 

‘lock on’ to a part of your body, normally 

an arm or leg. If you have time, take off 

your coat or jacket and wrap it around 

your arm. Although this will still hurt and 

the pressure from the bite may surprise 

you, it is better to offer the covered arm 

to the dog than to be bitten elsewhere 

on your body. 

Try to force the padded arm to the back 

of the dog’s mouth, onto its molar teeth, 

avoiding as much as possible, the sharp 

canine teeth at the front which are likely 

to cause deep puncture wounds. 

Remember! An animal bite to 

unprotected body parts will probably 

leave permanent scarring. Try not to let 

the dog attack you from the rear or drag 

you to the ground. 

Once the dog has bitten your ‘padded 

arm’ keep it busy biting the padding by 

gently moving the arm side to side, 

providing enough movement to keep the 

dog interested. If the padded arm stops 

moving, the animal may perceive the 

threat to be ‘dead’ and change to a 

livelier moving target, possibly your leg, 

as you try to back away. If you can at 

this stage, beat the dog with a suitable 

object such as rock or stick. If this does 

not repel the dog, reach for its collar to 

gain control and try to obtain help in 

securing the animal. 

However, if the attack continues and 

your life (or somebody else’s) is 

threatened, and if you are physically 

able to, force the dog onto its back and 

reaffirm the grip on its collar. If no collar 

is present, and the dog has released its 

bite on you, hold onto the ‘ruff’ of the 

dog’s neck tightly (grip tightly to each 

side of the dogs neck close to the 

mouth, and this will prevent it from 

turning and biting). If the animal has not 

released its hold on your arm, proceed 

to apply pressure with the other hand, 

down hard onto the dog’s throat. 

When the dog begins to choke, it will 

release its hold on you. Be advised, a 

dog in this position will fight for its life 

and you may be surprised by its strength 

and aggression. Do not release your grip 

prematurely, or you will be attacked 

again. As a last resort, if the dog 

continues to bite hard and shows no 

sign of relenting, drop down hard with 

your knee onto the lower section of the 

dog’s rib cage (where the ribs meet), 

and continue to choke the animal until 

help arrives. 

A reasonably strong and fit person 

would be able to lift the dog off of the 

ground, lifting by the collar, or both sides 

of the dogs mouth (taking care not to let 

the animal bite). Removing the ground 

from beneath its feet will psychologically 

disarm the animal. 

Look for eye contact to be relinquished 

by the dog during the struggle. This will 

indicate to you that the animal is 

preparing to give up. 

Dogs may attack you: 

If they feel threatened (this 

will trigger their ‘defence’ 

instinct) 

If they are provided with 

something to chase (this will 

trigger their ‘prey’ instinct) 

Craig Spreadbury, 3 rd Degree Black Belt, has trained in Taekwon-Do for 

12 years and, prior to becoming a full time Taekwon-do Instructor, was a 

member of a personal protection team responsible for the safety and 

protection of a VIP and his immediate family. Mr Spreadbury has been 

involved with the training of security dogs for over 15 years including 

advanced obedience and agility, search work and full criminal workouts. 

For any questions you may have on dog behavior or training contact 

readingtkd@hotmail.co.uk 

Photography by Paul Palmer 3rd kup Taekwon-Do.

By Gareth Hitchcoe 

FLEXIBILITY TRAINING: STATIC STRETCHING. 

Last issue, we covered the underlying principles of flexibility 

training and what we should be addressing when we try to 

improve our Range of Motion (ROM). This edition, we shall be 

looking at Static Stretching. 

What is Static Stretching? 

Static Stretching is the act of taking a muscle to the limit of its 

ROM and maintaining that position for a certain period of time. 

As the muscle fascia is held in this lengthened position, it 

becomes stretched and this lengthened position becomes 

permanent. Repeating this process can drastically increase 

the resting length of the muscle fascia and thus ROM. As we 

discussed in the previous article, muscle fascia is the biggest 

factor influencing flexibility that we can alter through training 

and this is why we shall be looking at Static Stretching first of 

all. 

The act of Static Stretching can be split into 2 sub-categories: 

Active Static Stretching – Maintaining the static stretch 

position through the muscular contraction of the antagonist 

muscle group to the targeted stretch muscle. 

Passive Static Stretching – Maintaining the static stretch 

position through an external force such as gravity or a partner. 

Ok, just give me some stretching to do! 

Right, what follows is some static stretches aimed at 

improving flexibility in the muscles involved in performing 

the side-splits / high kicks. 

Passive Side Splits Stretch 

Why are there 2 different forms of Static Stretching? 

Passive stretching is a very useful technique as it encourages 

the participant to stretch in a position where the muscle is 

completely relaxed and can be stretched effectively. The act 

of using a partner or gravity to elicit the stretch means that the 

person stretching will not become fatigued and thus the 

stretch can be held for any period of time required. Passive 

stretching also makes use of the Inverse Stretch Reflex 

whereby the action of increasing the force running through the 

muscle switches on the Golgi Tendon Organs (GTOs) telling 

the muscle to relax and be taken further into stretch. 

MAIN USE OF PASSIVE STRETCHING = Best form of 

stretching to lengthen muscle fascia. 

Active stretching makes use of Reciprocal Inhibition. By 

actively contracting the opposite muscle to the muscle being 

stretched, Reciprocal Inhibition causes the muscle being 

stretched to relax even further. This form of stretching also 

encourages strength gains, which supplement increases in 

flexibility and play an important part in flexibility training. 

Unfortunately, due to the active nature of the stretch, it can 

become hard to maintain the stretch for long periods of time 

and must therefore be used correctly. 

MAIN USE OF ACTIVE STRETCHING – Encourages strength 

gains as flexibility improves. 

Whew! Enough of the technical blurb, on with the useful bits… 

Lie with your arms folded above your head as shown, 

braced against a wall. 

Have your partner push your legs sideways into the side 

split position up to the limit of your range of motion. 

After about 10-15 seconds, you should notice the stretch 

becoming more comfortable, at this point, your partner 

should take the legs out further until the discomfort 

returns. 

Hold the stretch for a further 15-20 seconds (total stretch 

time should be about 30 seconds), then relax. 

This equates to 1 set. Perform up to 4 sets.

Passive Side Kick Stretch 

Active Side Kick Stretch 

Perform a Side Kick, but aim to keep your body as upright 

as possible. 

Have your partner take ALL the weight of your kicking leg so 

that you can relax into the position. Your kicking leg should 

be doing nothing to maintain position. 

After about 10-15 seconds, you should notice the stretch 

becoming more comfortable, at this point, your partner 

should lift the leg until the discomfort returns. 

Hold the stretch for a further 15-20 seconds (total stretch 

time should be about 30 seconds), then relax. 

Repeat for the other leg. 1 stretch per leg equates to 1 set. 

Perform up to 4 sets each leg. 

Slowly Perform a Side Rising Kick, but aim to keep your 

body as upright as possible. 

Keeping your body as upright as possible, aim to hold your 

leg at the peak height of the kick using the muscles in the 

side of your torso and down the outside of your thighs. 

There are 2 alternative ways to perform the set from here; 

Hold the peak height for a count of 2 seconds then slowly 

lower the leg and repeat this lift – hold – lower procedure for 

10 repetitions. 

Hold the peak height for a count of 10-20 seconds then 

slowly lower the leg. 

Repeat for the other leg. 1 stretch per leg equates to 1 set. 

Perform up to 4 sets each leg. 

Tips and Advice 

Remember to stretch when your muscles are warm, ideally at the end of an exercise session. Just ensure your muscles 

aren’t completely fatigued when you begin stretching. 

Ideally you should stretch twice a day, every day of the week but 2 – 3 times a week is generally quoted as the minimum 

levels of stretching to elicit improvements. 

Stretches should be mildly uncomfortable, you should not be shaking with pain. This is a sign that you have triggered the 

Stretch Reflex and the muscle will never relax properly and the stretch will be ineffective. 

Static Stretching acts as a cool-down. Holding positions for long periods of time cuts off the blood supply to the muscles 

being stretched. Therefore, you should not exercise directly after a session of Static Stretching. Don’t use static stretching 

in your warm-up! 

Ok, I hope that there is enough information there for you to get going and start re-arranging your stretching routines. Next 

article we will be covering the subject of Dynamic Stretching... 

Gareth Hitchcoe, 2 nd Degree Black Belt, has been training in Taekwon-Do for 8 years but has been involved with the leisure 

industry for the past 10 years. He currently works as a Fitness Consultant at the Hampshire Tennis and Health Club in 

Southampton and also as a free-lance Personal Trainer all over the South. Mr Hitchcoe holds a degree in Sport Science, is a 

fully qualified P.U.M.A. Instructor and a Registered Exercise Professional at level 3 (Advanced Instructor / Personal Trainer). 

If you have any queries or questions, please feel free to e-mail him at garethhitchcoe@hotmail.com

Taekwon-Do has evolved so much in the last 50 years that it is now almost unrecognisable from when it was officially named 

on 11 th April 1955. In the beginning, our martial art looked like Japanese Karate, using exaggerated hip twist to generate power 

into the techniques. Over time, the pioneering Masters under the guide of General Choi developed a new identity for 

Taekwon-Do: sine wave. 

Sine wave should not intimidate you. It is simply an elegant, graceful and scientific method to generate power into our 

movements. It helps to give the patterns rhythm whilst efficiently delivering the force of any particular technique. Remember 

that although it forms the heart of Taekwon-Do’s identity, it is not once mentioned in the Theory of Power. Instead it forms part 

of the 8 ‘training secrets’ of Taekwon-Do but, alas, it comes in last place on that list. This shouldn’t detract from its significance, 

but perhaps it illustrates that sine wave alone does not make Taekwon-Do what it is today. 

So how do we do it? Firstly, I wish to dispel one particular way of thinking about it. Try not to think of it as a DOWN-UP-DOWN 

movement, but rather as a relaxation, followed by a controlled loss of balance. When I say loss of balance I mean that the 

final stage of the movement (assuming you are stepping forwards or backwards) is like a fall. You fall into the stance allowing 

gravity to pull you down and impacting your technique at the same time. Having said that, our bodies do perform a “down-updown” 

movement and it is inevitable that we must use those terms to describe the sine wave motion. 

For example, walking stance obverse punch, stepping forwards: 

To begin, you bend your arms and legs 

(making the down part of the sine wave). 

Then you step forwards naturally (this 

will rise the body upwards slightly). 

Once your moving foot passes the static 

foot, you will not be able to stop yourself 

from ‘falling’ forwards into the stance. 

Your highest point will be precisely when 

you can no longer stop yourself falling. 

As you complete the stance and the 

punch together, your body makes that 

last downward phase of the wave. 

From this example, you should hopefully see that the only bit of work you have to put into the technique is bending your arms 

and legs at the beginning of the movement. Stepping through naturally will automatically make your body rise and fall. Gravity 

will complete the movement for you, as long as you bend your limbs at the start! Try for yourself; it will take some practise to 

make it smooth, but essentially sine wave can happen almost by itself.

When we perform techniques on the spot, the situation is slightly different. In L-stance, you need to take control of more of the 

movement, bending your legs at the beginning, straightening them (not completely, never lock the legs out) and sitting down 

into the stance again. The last phase of it (the second downward motion) is the most important, so don’t emphasise the first 

downward part too much. This is hard to describe with pictures and words, but it shouldn’t be DOWN……..UP……..DOWN, but 

more like down...up...DOWN! 

Finally, on the spot in walking stance: 

The first stage is as before, i.e. bend 

arms and legs (down). 

Next, allow your back foot to push your 

body forwards slightly, (forwards) 

Your front leg now straightens a little, 

(up). 

The three variations described above lay the foundation for all motions in the 

patterns. There will inevitably be some small points to consider in more 

advanced stances, but essentially the points outlined here are the most 

significant. 

Like everything else, it takes practice to make the movement as natural as 

possible and there is an art to it. I recommend spending 10 minutes every day 

practising one particular technique, until it becomes second nature. 

As a slight aside, I know of many students who find sine wave difficult, but are 

often too eager to practise senior patterns. This won’t help your technique; the 

basics really are the most fundamental. Don’t practise using difficult/advanced 

techniques when the basic blocks, punches and stances we learn as a beginner 

grade hold the key to all other techniques. Master Gayle spent a whole day (6 

hours or more) practising Chon-Ji with General Choi. This demonstrates how 

much importance General Choi placed on the first pattern, ‘the initial pattern 

played by the beginner’. There is no point applying sine wave to black belt 

patterns before you can apply it to Chon-Ji. 

Until next time, persevere with your sine wave technique. It will get better. 

Finally, drop your body weight back into 

the original stance, by bring the rear 

heel back onto the floor. 

You will find with this movement that if 

you had a paintbrush on your hip, it 

would draw out a squashed circle, or 

something like the eye of a needle. 

“One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore 

for a very long time.” 

- André Gide 1869-1951, French writer, humanist & moralist. 

Kevin McCabe, 4th degree black belt, has trained in Taekwon-Do for 14 years. He is a member of the PUMA 

management team as Technical Assistant. He aids senior instructors with training duties at PUMA camps and 

other events and also teaches technical and pattern seminars. He trains under Master Ray Gayle and recently 

opened his first school, in Cardiff.

Kicking for Kickboxing 

The last time we looked at techniques, we focused on 

elbows. This issue we’re going to concentrate on the use of 

the legs. 

The legs are potentially our most powerful weapons; 

unfortunately they are also the least accurate in our 

armoury. If you read the article on elbows you would have 

noticed that even though we have them in the syllabus, we 

don’t actually use them in the sparring arena. 

As opposed to all the various leg techniques that we’re 

going to concentrate on later. There is one exception, being 

the knee, which P.U.M.A. is not going to allow in its fights. 

There are 5 basic kicks that are predominantly used in 

kickboxing: 

Front kick 

Turning kick 

Roundhouse kick 

Side kick 

Back kick 

You may say why is there no axe kick? Why no spinning 

heel kick and why no hooking kick? The answer is nine 

times out of ten those kicks, brilliant though they are, are 

not going to work for you in a full contact fight. 

Most of the above kicks should be thrown after the use of 

your more accurate hands, with the possible exception of 

the front kick you should look to use your kicking prowess 

after your hands have got the opponent on the back foot. 

Flicky kicks serve absolutely no purpose in a kickboxing 

fight; so train all your kicks in the class on kick shields or 

heavy bags. 

Front kick 

This kick is probably going to be the easiest and fastest of 

all the basic five mentioned earlier, it also generally uses 

less energy than the rest. It has a dual role in that it can be 

used off the front leg as a range finder, and a tool to keep 

the other fighter at a distance. Alternatively it can be thrown 

from a greater distance with the rear leg with more power. 

The ball of the foot is used if kicking with the front leg, and if 

you have the time the bottom of the heel is used for the rear 

leg kick. 

One thing that doesn’t change is the target, which is the pit 

of the stomach. Very rarely do you have the opportunity to 

kick to the head, however if the opportunity presents itself 

then take advantage of it. 

Turning kick 

Similar to the front kick this kick can be delivered from front 

or rear legs, however it is purely an attacking kick with 

absolutely no defensive qualities. 

This kick needs to be faster than its sister technique the 

roundhouse and is mainly used for attacking the body. As 

stated with the front kick if it’s speed you’re after then you 

need to kick with the lead leg whereas if it’s power you need 

then drive either the instep or the shin of the rear leg into 

the target. 

Both the front kick and the turning kick are delivered from a 

normal guarding stance and within the guidelines of 

P.U.M.A. should never be used beneath the waist. 

When using a rear leg turning kick your goal is to hit the 

area between the opponent’s waist and his or her guarding 

elbows. 

Roundhouse kick 

P.U.M.A.‘s Kickboxing coordinator, 

Mr Malcolm Jones 

This kick, if delivered with accuracy and speed, can have a 

devastating effect on the opponent. To the non-educated it 

looks similar to a turning kick, in that the kicking leg is 

cocked to the side and the supporting leg pivots around 90 

degrees. 

Roundhouse kicks are mainly thrown towards the head, with 

a straight leg and no recoil. 

There is one school of thought that states that a recoiling 

turning kick does not have the same power and impact as a 

roundhouse. The kick was taken from Muay Thai where the 

total objective was to knock down the opponent. 

When practising roundhouse kicks on pads make sure you 

use a pad that has some ‘give’ in it, something like a kicking 

paddle or a kick shield held horizontally. 

The tool for a roundhouse kick can be either the instep or 

the shin.

Sidekick 

Because of the distances involved with kicking a good sidekick 

can be your best friend. It is probably your longest weapon, 

and if you are in a sideways stance the easiest kick to employ. 

If your opponent is moving in to you then a side kick can be a 

great stopper. Many an opponent has had the wind taken out 

of their sails with a strong lead leg side kick. 

For those martial art movie fans out there who think that a 

high section sidekick is going to end a fight, I’m sorry to be the 

bearer of bad news, but it won’t. The main target area is the 

body: ribs, stomach and solar plexus are suggested targets. 

The kick employs the sole of the foot. 

Stepping in sidekick can be used to close down an opponent 

whilst still maintaining a strong defensive position, due to the 

length of the leg. 

Snap Kick 

Back kick 

Due to the mechanics of kicking (Maximum use of body weight 

and torque) back kick along with spinning heel kick become 

the most powerful. The power coming from the full body 

rotation along with the use of the biggest muscles in the 

human body. 

The danger with this kick is turning your back on your 

opponent, so timing is of the essence. 

Personally I employ this kick without looking at the opponent, 

to me this slows the technique and reduces the amount of 

body mass that can be employed. 

Targets for back kick are roughly the same as side kick, 

however because of its greater power and its longer journey, it 

can been deployed to the head with considerable success. 

The foot tool is the same as for sidekick. 

All the kicks mentioned can be used whilst jumping, the most 

popular being jumping back kick. 

Train all your kicks on the pads in your class. If you’re lucky 

enough to have a bag at home use that to develop not only 

your kicks but also your stamina. 

Good luck and see you next time. 

Side Kick 

Front Pushing Kick 

Turning Kick

By Claire and Ollie King 

Hi. We are back again with a continuation of the bo staff for you. This time we are going to go through the first bo form with 

you. Obviously these articles are just to get you a brief outline of the forms, the best way to learn them properly is from an 

instructor. We are more than happy to come and teach you at you clubs. 

Bong Hyung are patterns training with the bong and need the same elements as empty hand forms such as speed,balance and 

good stance. Bong Hyung Il Bu has twenty three moves not including choon be at the beginning. It is as follows... 

1. Assume choon bee ja seh. 

(ready stance) 

2. Step straight ahead into a 

left chun kul ja seh (front 

stance) and execute a left ha 

dan mahk ki (low block) 

3. Step forward into a right 

chun kul ja sah (front stance) 

executing a right choon dan 

mahk ki (middle section 

block) 

4. Step forward into a left 

chun kul ja seh (front stance) 

while executing a left ha dan 

mahk ki (low block) 

5. Take the bong back to the 

waist and execute a left 

choong dan makh ki (middle 

section block) 

6. Take the bong down to 

your waist height then 

execute a sang dan mahk ki 

(double high block). 

7. Pull the bong down to the 

chest while executing a right 

sang dan ahp cha ki (high 

section front kick) with a ki 

hap (yell) 

8. Immediately step forward 

into a right chun kul ja seh 

(front stance) while 

executing a right ha dan 

9. Turn counterclockwise 

(180 degrees) into a left 



mahk ki (low block). 

10. Step forward into a right 


while executing a right 

choong dan mahk ki (high 

section block) 

11. Step forward into a left 



mahk ki (low block). 

12. Again take the bong 

back to the waist and 

execute a left choong dan 

mahk ki (high section block).

We hope you find this a useful reference. We will be covering the other pole patterns in a future edition. If you want any help or 

advice you can contact us by email at sahbumnim@blueyonder.co.uk. 

13. Execute a sang dan 

mahk ki (double high section 

block) 

14. Pull the bong down to 

the chest while executing a 

right sang dan ahp cha ki 

(high section front kick) with 

a ki hap (yell) 

15. Immediately step forward 

into a right chun kul ja seh 




16. Turn counterclockwise 

(270 degrees) into a left hu 

kul ja seh (back stance) 



17. Follow immediately with 

a sang dan mahk ki (double 

high section block) 

18. Turn clockwise (180 

degrees ) into a right hul kul 

ja seh (back stance) while 



19. Follow immediately with 

a sang dan mahk ki (double 


20. Look to the left. Step left 

into a left chun kul ja seh 


executing a left ha dan mahk 

ki (low block) 

21. Follow immediately with a 

sang dan mahk ki (double 


22. Pull the bong down to the 

chest while executing a right 

sang dan ahp cha ki (high 

section front kick) with a ki hap 

(yell) 

23. Immediately after the kick, 

return the right leg to the back 

position and execute a left 

choong dan kong kyuck 

(middle section strike) to the 

right side 

24. Follow immediately with a 

right chun kul bandae chi ru 

ki (high section reverse strike). 

On Completion: return to ready stance.

Transporting Children 

This month we’ll be looking at the reasons behind P.U.M.A’s strict policy on transporting children and why we 

attach so much importance to it. We’ll do it as a series of questions and answers that hopefully will allow you to 

see the significance. A lot of these questions have been asked at Child Protection seminars or have been emailed 

directly to me. 

So what is the policy? 

Simply that no instructor, assistant, helper or leadership team member is allowed to carry children in their car 

without that child’s parent being present. 

This seems very harsh. Why are we making such a big deal? 

There are a number of reasons. Firstly, anyone in a position of authority in one of our P.U.M.A. schools must be 

beyond reproach, as far as is humanly possible. The position of authority brings significant responsibility. It also 

allows you significant influence over students (even if you don’t realise it). 

Secondly this shows anyone targeting a P.U.M.A. school with a view to gaining access to children that we are 

very serious about our protection duties and that we will not make it easy for them. 

Thirdly, by ensuring that no-one does it, anyone breaking the rule quickly stands out and is very obvious. This 

allows us to act swiftly. 

As a parent, can’t I give you permission to transport my child? 

No. You are placing the instructor/helper in a difficult position. This is not a parental permission issue. This is a 

P.U.M.A. rule and the instructor or helper will get into serious trouble. 

What sort of trouble? 

Ultimately, anyone breaking the rules of the Child Protection Policy will be expelled from the association. 

But I’m a police officer/ social worker/ nurse. Surely I’m okay to transport children? 

It doesn’t matter. No instructor, assistant or helper may transport children in their car. This rule applies to me as 

the child protection officer and even to Master Gayle, the chairman. Some of the highest profile child abuse cases 

in this country have involved people you would assume to be OK.. 

What if myself and my wife/partner/helper/friend etc are also in the car? 

Nope. 

I’ve been asked to help to teach at my club for one hour per week. I bring a friend’s child to training. 

Will I still be able to do this? 

Unfortunately not. You have a very difficult choice to make. By accepting the position of authority, you gain all the 

extra responsibilities that come with it. 

If I don’t take Little Johnny to the tournament, he won’t be able to go. 

Is his Mum or Dad going to be in the car too? If not, you cannot do it. Again, some of the highest profile child 

abuse cases have involved sports coaches etc taking their students to events. 

I’m taking my own child to the event. Can’t I bring his friend too? 

Is his friend’s Mum or Dad going to be in the car too? 

Isn’t this all going a little far? 

P.U.M.A. has taken the U.K. lead on providing a strong framework for instructors and helpers to work within. I 

have trained extensively with the NSPCC and this rule has come as a direct result of their advice and the cases of 

abuse they’ve dealt with. Ultimately P.U.M.A. is protecting the children in its care. How far is too far? 

CHILD PROTECTION

Welcome to the first of what we hope will become a regular kids 

page. We hope that enjoy it and are able to help Mr James Murueta 

find his lost gum shield as well as finding all 10 words in the word 

search (if you need a hand I'm sure that your parents or instructor 

will be happy to help). We have also included a few quick jokes but 

this is where we need your help! As you can tell from the jokes, 

we're just not that funny and so need all of you to email your favourite 

jokes to us at magazine@puma-uk.com. We won’t be able to 

answer all of your emails but if we use your joke in a future edition 

of Planet P.U.M.A. you will get your name in print and be the envy 

of all your friends, so get emailing now! 

It’s twirly (too early). 

Rustle 

A bee flying backwards. 

Mr James Murueta, World Champion and member of the 

P.U.M.A. Squad, is at a tournament! He’s due up to spar next, it’s 

the semifinals and he’s LOST HIS GUMSHIELD! Help him to find 

it quickly before he’s disqualified! 

Because they’re too big to fit on an ironing board. 

K X L D O J A N G C R 

A L I P A L M O K H T 

Have you been learning your theory? Test yourself here! 

There are TEN Taekwon-Do words or terms hidden 

cunningly up, down, forwards and backwards across the 

grid to the right. How many of these can you find? None 

of them are higher than green belt level. One of the 

tennets of Taekwon-Do is also lurking in there 

somewhere - can you spot it? 

Good Luck! 

T I G U R I J O R A B 

Q E O Y Y D J Z E R J 

R W S O T A R H W Y U 

L Q A P P N K O B O D 

A S O C D G T E L T E 

K H M H O U W R W S A 

N K L A V N P Q O O O 

O V N G T A E R I G I 

S Y T I R G E T N I W

Issue 4 - Professional Unification of Martial Arts

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