Hills District Martial Arts Pty Ltd

On Friday 27th March, Grandmaster Sam was acknowledged with an award at the Oceania Taekwondo Union 20th Anniversary Gala Dinner and Awards Night at the Museum of Contemporary Arts.

GM Sam was presented with an award acknowledging his commitment to the development of Taekwondo in Australia by World Taekwondo President Dr Choue. He was also presented with a Paris 2024 Olympic Black Belt personally signed by Dr Choue.

From GM Sam -
I'm humbled and honoured to receive such recognition. I would like to personally thank Mr Maher Magableh, OTU President, and Dr Choue, WT President.

Congratulations Grandmaster Sam!

What a great way to kick off 2026! As always, fantastic to see everyone putting in their best effort to demonstrate their improvement over the past few months/years! We held Belt Promotions in all our programs including TKD Kids, Taekwondo, Hapkido, Weaponry and Taekwondo Black Belts, with impressive performances across the board!

Congratulations to Leo Han on joining our Black Belt ranks! He has been training for more than half his life at HDMA!

Thank you to all parents and supporters who work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that our members can enjoy the benefits of Martial Arts, we appreciate all the time and effort you put in!

At the recent 80th Anniversary celebration for World Taekwondo Jidokwan (the world headquarters of our traditional lineage of Taekwondo), Grandmaster Sam has been acknowledged and awarded his 9th Degree Black Belt! This is truly a momentous achievement that can only be claimed by a handful of people in our country, as well as the world.

It's difficult to put into a few words how admirable an achievement this is, as it epitomises a lifetime of dedication to the art of Taekwondo. Grandmaster Sam has spent his life not only pursuing excellence in his own martial arts journey, but sparking inspiration and helping thousands of students over the lifetime of Hills District Martial Arts to achieve their own goals.

The 9th Degree Black Belt is the highest possible rank that a martial artist can achieve in Taekwondo in their lifetime and represents a great commitment to the spread of Taekwondo. Grandmaster Sam also received a commendation from the Kukkiwon for Outstanding Development and Dissemination of Taekwondo.

We are very proud of Grandmaster Sam at HDMA, CONGRATULATIONS Sir!

A massive congratulations to our 2025 Student of the Year award recipient Sebastian Santoso! What a year and what an all around great performance!

Sebastian trained in both Taekwondo and Weaponry throughout 2025 as well as being our most active member of the Leadership Team, volunteering throughout the week and extra during holidays to help make our Kids and Junior classes a spectacular experience for everyone involved. We're very proud of his consistency, improvement and the culture he brings to each class!

Our Student of the Year is chosen from the recipients of that year's Student of the Month awards. The Student of the Year is a student who demonstrates the qualities that we look for not only in the month they received the award, but each and every class they attend!

Classes start back TODAY! See you on the mats as per our 2026 Timetable https://www.hillstkd.com.au/timetable-and-enquiries/

Looking forward to another awesome year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and Happy Holidays to all members past and present! We hope you are spending quality time with family and friends this Holiday Season and we are wishing you all a safe and healthy journey into 2026!

Thank you all for an amazing year! In addition to the Public Holidays, HDMA will be closed 24th, 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th December.

We will reopen for all classes on Friday 2nd January!

Wrapping up the year is always a pleasure with such fantastic Belt Promotions! This Spring Belt Promotion Week was full of high skill, hard work and great results as everyone put forth their best effort to achieve their next level.

Congratulations to everyone who achieved their next level. Special congratulations to our new Black Belts and to Daniel Cook for achieving his 4th Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo, Mario Cardona and Chris Stephenson for their 3rd Dan in Hapkido, and Alexander Gundic and Samantha Taylor for reaching 3rd Dan in Taekwondo!

Check out our website on the below link for the full report!

https://www.hillstkd.com.au/spring-belt-promotions-2025/

Our Winter Belt Promotion Week was a huge success! Congratulations to everyone who participated and reached the next level, keep up the hard work!

Welcome to Black Belt Hayden Barker, Abigail Quanborough, Veer Bhikha, Grace Lo and Xavier Kyngdon!

Now we will start aiming for the next goals from tonight, let's get to it!

https://www.hillstkd.com.au/winter-belt-promotions-2025/

Another massive Junior Taekwondo Grading tonight! Awesome job everyone!