Dear Students, Families, and Guests:

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to Taekwondo Seoul’s 16^th Semi-Annual Black Belt Testing and Taekwondo Seoul’s 10 year anniversary.  It is also a great honor to welcome a group of world-known Taekwondo Grandmasters and Masters as judges today.  I thank all the students and families for their support of Taekwondo Seoul and the Spirit of Taekwondo, Inc., as we host this wonderful event.

Today we have 5 black belt candidates who strive for their 1^st degree Taekwondo Black Belts.  We also have 3 candidates for their 2^nd degree Taekwondo Black Belts.  And we have 1 candidate looking to achieve their 3^rd degree Black Belt.  Their efforts for the last few years have been remarkable and deserve our compliments.  They have put Taekwondo as a major priority, sacrificing many important things and showing much patience while learning about the Korean culture.  They have learned a martial art and survived the most demanding Taekwondo program in the world.  You should know that for the last 6 months they have followed a strict set of high standard requirements in order to become a Black Belt.  I am so proud of the Black Belt candidates from the bottom of my heart.  I wish you all good luck and a wonderful pay-off for all of your hard work. 

I wish to thank our dedicated instructors, as well as the president and board members of Spirit of Taekwondo, Inc., whose mission is to share the physical and mental values of Taekwondo with others.  With their help, we share blessings through a Taekwondo spirit with our neighborhood high school special needs classes.  I hope that this tradition of sharing our blessings with others in need will be another challenging goal for the new Taekwondo Seoul Black Belts.

 Many thanks for your support and love for Taekwondo.  Enjoy your day as you celebrate your achievements!

Taekwon! Master Young Yoo Sabomnim, Taekwondo Seoul