This past June, Grandmaster Taejoon Lee traveled to Italy for the annual European Hwa Rang Do Championships, Seminars and Black Sash Conference. He was hosted by Kyo Sa Nim Marco Mattiucci, a 2nd Degree Black Sash in Hwa Rang Do, and head of the Italian Hwa Rang Do Headquarters. From June 3rd - 5th, 2009 the Black Sash conference was held at the beautiful Chianni medieval village, built on top of a hill surrounded by gorgeous greenery, vineyards and complete calm. Black Sashes from across Europe gathered for 3 days of intense training and meditation with Grandmaster Lee. Following the conference on June 6th, 2009 the venue moved to the world famous city of Pisa where Grandmaster Lee led a full day of seminars at the Sports Stadium to help competitors prepare for the European Hwa Rang Do Championships, which included instruction in Grappling Submissions, Grappling Escapes, and Joint Manipulation w/ Pressure Point applications. Also, for the first time ever, a special lecture by Grandmaster Lee was held on “Living the Warrior’s Path” to impart some of Hwa Rang Do’s philosophical life lessons and powerful ancient wisdom. On June 7th, 2009 the European Hwa Rang Do Championships 2009 commenced with competition in 5 categories: 1) Unarmed Forms 2) Armed (Weapon) Forms 3) Kick/Punch/Throw Fighting 4) Goo Too Gi (Submission Fighting) 5) Kyuk Too Gi (Full Contact Fighting) - NEW! This year’s tournament featured a fierce mixed gender Full Contact Fighting tournament, further …

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