Master Class Training by Ralph Allison

Choi Kwang Do International Web Site
July 2004

Sunday 18 th July 2004 saw a Special Training Day with Choi Kwang Do Master Pereira, 6 th Dan, hosted by the Sutton Choi Kwang Do school in Surrey / border South London . Master Pereira who works directly under Dojunim Kwang Choi, 9 th Dan at the CKD Headquarters in Georgia presented a 4 hour session open to all belt ranks for children, adults and a special training session for Black Belt Instructors, Assistant Instructors and future school owners.

Master P. was a 4 th degree black belt under TKD Grandmaster Rhee Ki Ha when he and other senior Instructors founded the UKTF (UK Tae Kwon Do Federation) which invited several Grandmasters to England during 1987 and 1988. Grandmaster Kwang Jo Choi outshone everyone when he presented his new system and concept called Choi Kwang Do.

Since that time, Master Pereira has been training with Dojunim in Atlanta and has since been promoted to 6 th Dan. He is currently the Chief Instructor at the CKD Headquarters in Georgia , USA which currently has 52 Instructors and a student membership of over 400. Master Pereira's experience is vast and the people he is associated with list like a "who's who" in martial arts circles (as described on the Wade Green location USA website - see there).

A training session was held at Sutton Choi Kwang Do School on Sunday 18 July. Over 150 students turned up for this special training session, 50 of them were black belt level. Sutton also welcome guest TKD Master Ewan Briscoe who expressed his interest in CKD. Master Briscoe is known for many of his achievements including being 9 times UK TKD champion. Master Baron, who changed over from the Kung Fu system to CKD in 2002 was also present.

The atmosphere on this beautiful Sunday was electric and students were mesmerized by the amount of 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st Dan black belts present in the school. The children amazed their parents who stood by with smiling faces. Master Pereira explained the difference between the various martial arts systems and why Choi Kwang Do is dubbed the "health martial art". This was further evident by Mrs. Tuvey who at the age of 71 (!) is a black belt and in excellent form - she stood up in the hall to a roaring applause by all attendees. Master Pereira has a way to give everyone such a "feel-good-factor" that training was just pure fun as opposed to being grueling hard. This is not to say that the effort displayed was diminished in anyway - on the contrary - Master P.'s influence made everyone perform in such a way that it almost looked easy - even when it was the senior Black Belts turn to do their sparring.

The Master class was scheduled to be between 1:30 and 5:30 pm when we had to vacate the hall. However the atmosphere was still so vibrant that most people still stayed on and followed him to the open fields adjacent to the hall where he continued his teaching. The CKD website Guestbooks were flooded with positive comments about this very enjoyable and informative training session. Master Pereira is a true ambassador of CKD. He also traveled with Master Baron to Greece on July 21 to conduct a training seminar at Mr. Nick Bilas' school in Athens. Mr. Bilas and his instructors are planning to open many schools in metropolitan Athens . They are already making plans to visit England in order to train with the Senior Instructors.

Master Pereira is a true reflection of our exceptional Founder (Dojunim) who at 62 years of age still continues to stun the martial arts world with his incredible martial arts skill. Dojunim has continued to, research with experts in the fields of neuro-muscular physiology, anatomy and biomechanics in order to stay on the cutting edge of the CKD martial arts revolution. All this latest information will be included in Dojunim's upcoming CKD book, due to be released soon. We would like to thank everyone: parents, students and all the instructors who participated in these important events.