H.U. Lee Board-Break-A-Thon

Space Coast Martial Arts is pleased to announce it will be hosting the first annual Board Break-A-Thon in honor of American Taekwondo Assoiciation's Founders Month. The event will be held on October 10th, 2009, 10 am at our Merritt Island and Titusville locations. The students will form teams and will break more than 1,000 boards in just one hour.
Location Addresses:
2072 North Courtenay Pkwy, Merritt Island FL 32953

1925 Knox Mcrae Dr, Titusville FL 32780

The Board Break-A-Thon event benefits the H.U. Lee Memorial Foundation, which was founded in 1992 to honor Eternal Grand Master H.U. Lee, founder of the American Taekwondo Association. The Foundation strives to assist those students that exemplifed skills obtained through the American Taekwondo Association by providing scholarships assist with the costs of higher education.

We will be handing out donation forms in class starting Monday September 21st, 2009. However, there is an eaiser alternative to traditional fundraising for this event.

Online fundraising is a simple and easy way to raise money for your event. We recommend using the FirstGiving website which allows anyone to create a personalized webpage, including pictures, to collect donations. After creating their pages, participants can send out an email to their friends and family with a link to their page. The email recipients click on the link and make a donation with a credit card.

To create a fundraising page for the Foundation, go to www.firstgiving.com/21852. You can see your participant's fundraising totals on this page, as well.

Thank You!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the St. Jude Children's Hospital Fundraiser. As of Saturday, we had raised over $900.

If you participated in the Fundraiser, but haven't brought in your donation yet it's not too late. We'll still be collecting money until the end of this week.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this event a big success!

5 Tips for Great Testing

Testing is coming up in just a couple of weeks! The deadline to register is next Thursday, Sept. 24, and it's important to go ahead and get signed up. Remember, even if you don't end up testing this cycle, you're registration will carry over to the next cycle.

Here are some tips to help everyone do their best at testing:

1) Arrive 15-20 minutes early. This will give you time to warm up, stretch, and get lined up.

2) Practice at home. Even if you don't have your form stripe yet, you can still practice for testing. If you're having trouble practicing at home, there are Encyclopedias and DVDs available for purchase at both schools if you need a reference to remind you what a move or segment of the form looks like.

3) Know you're belt meaning. Every belt has a symbolic meaning. For example, the meaning of the while belt is, "pure and without the knowledge of Songahm Taekwondo. As with the pine tree, the seed must now be planted and nourished to develop strong roots" (p. 7 The Way of Traditional Taekwondo: Vol. 1). If you want to know what you're belt means, be sure to ask your instructor the next time you're in class!

4) Remember this month's life skill: Honor. President Calvin Coolidge once said, "No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave." By showing your black belt attitude, courtesy, and respect for others you can work towards your next belt every single day, not just at testing.

5) Smile, relax, and have fun.


Testing will be held on Friday, October 2, 2009 at the Titusville school from 6:00-8:00 p.m. and on Saturday, October 3, 2009 at the Merritt Island school from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

This Saturday, Space Coast Martial Arts is holding a fundraiser for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. St. Jude is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. St. Jude is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. Founded by late entertainer Danny Thomas and based in Memphis, Tenn., St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world. St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. No child is ever denied treatment because of the family's inability to pay.

To help children receive this life-saving treatment, there will be two seminars at the Merritt Island school only. The first is an Introduction to Martial Arts, which will be held from 10-11 a.m. The second is a Kids Self Defense Seminar held from 12-1:00 p.m. We ask that you bring a friend and a $15 donation to the seminar.

For more information on St. Jude Children's Research hospital click here.

September's Life Skill: Honor

Every month as part of the ATA Leadership Lifeskills curriculum, we adopt a lifeskill to practice and learn throughout the month. This month we're working on Honor.

What does "Honor" mean for a taekwondo student? It means a lot of things, but to start out, "Honor means deserving the trust and faith others have in you."

A great example of honor is in the life of Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi was born in 1869 and grew up in a small province of India. Gandhi began his career as a lawyer in both India and South Africa. However, because of his race he had limited rights. He could not travel to some areas of the country, and when he traveled he was forced to ride in a separate train car from other people. This angered Gandhi, but instead of fighting back with violence Gandhi fought back with nonviolence. He refused to obey laws that he believed were unjust. Because of this, Gandhi was put in jail many times, but he accepted the consequences of his actions.

Eventually, Gandhi and the nonviolent protests he led in India gained international attention. Gandhi showed the world that the British rule in India was unfair and that changes needed to be made so that the people of India could rule their own country. And in 1947, after 40 years of struggle, India was granted its independence.


Even though it was difficult and he was sent to jail many times, Gandhi knew that he was doing the right thing for his country and his people. He refused to respond to British threats with violence and persevered through difficult times, always teaching others to follow his example.


Because of his example and honor, the people of India began referring to him as Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma means "great soul." Because of his honor--his commitment to doing the right thing; his belief that the Indian people had the power to choose their own destiny, and his commitment to nonviolence--Gandhi helped lead India to independence, and he helped influence people all over the world to seek peaceful change.