The Olympics only happen every four years and they capture a lot of public attention when they occur.

Even though Soo Bahk Do^® is not an Olympic event, creative school owners can benefit from the wave of public awareness and excitement that accompanies the Olympics by conceptually linking to them in some manner designed to promote your school and/or bolster your student enthusiasm and excitement.

The Rio Olympics provides sponsors and brands unparalleled marketing opportunities – and infringement minefields. When it comes to the Olympics, marketing is never business as usual. Stephen von Muenster.

Rather than walk through those Olympic trademarks minefields, why not create your own "Olympics" at your school by conceiving a new and different name that completely avoids Olympic Trademark infringement scenarios, while simultaneously providing you with a powerful opportunity to use the public awareness and excitement generated about the Olympics to benefit your school and your students.

For example, the Olympics consist of a series of competitive goodwill events in a number of different activities.

While the Olympics are underway, school owners might consider conducting a parallel set of Soo Bahk Do^® activities designed to promote your school and/or to create student and parent enthusiasm and increase student retention.

The "Soo Bahk Do^® Olympics?"

Olympic Committee trademark rights prohibit unauthorized use of their marks for purposes such as "Soo Bahk Do Olympics," so be mindful of their rights by simply being creative and coming up with creative conceptual connections to the Olympics without inferring any Olympic trademark affiliation and without creating any misrepresentation to the public.

For example, a creative Moo Duk Kwan^® school might organize and schedule a series of Soo Bahk Do® and moo do focused events during the same time frame as the Olympics and give the series of school events a unique, catchy name like:

• Superior Soo Bahk Do^® Skill Exhibitions
• Moo Duk Kwan^® Matchups

• Moo Duk Kwan^® Goodwill Bouts
• Moo Duk Kwan^® Goodwill Games / Playoffs
• Moo Duk Kwan^® Prime
• Soo Bahk Do^® Games / Matchups / Bouts
• Soo Bahk Do^® Exhibitions
• Soo Bahk Do^® Masters
• Moo Do Meet
• Mini Moo Do Festival
• Warrior Showcase
• etc.

Remember you will only have an opportunity to piggy-back the Olympics awareness once every four years, so design exciting, interesting and unusual activities that students will be talking about having participated in long after your school Soo Bahk Do^® olympiad has concluded.

What Might Your School "Soo Bahk Do^® Olympiad Look Like?

A few ideas that have been submitted about coordinating school activities with scheduled Olympic activities include, but are not limited to:

• Schedule school activities to coorelate with The 2016 Olympics Events Schedule
• Create an exciting experience at your school that is coorelated to the Olympics schedule in some manner
  • Schedule a series of special "Superior Soo Bahk Do^® Skill Exhibitions" competitions / demonstrations after regular classes.
    • Award points to participants for each event they participate in during the week
    • Award medals to participants with the most points at the end of each event
    • Award "Master medals" to participants with the most points at the end of the week.
    • Employing performance scoring and evaluation concepts similar to the TAC's Moo Do sparring judging, point scoring during your events might be designed to focus on rewarding excellence of individual performance rather than competitive outcomes. This approach helps acknowledge that all winners have demonstrated the highest level of quality in their performances and it focuses the competition by each participant on their own performance.
  • Scheduled Soo Bahk Do^® events might be roughly correlated to scheduled Olympic events such as:
    • Self Defense exhibitions / competitions after class during Olympics Wrestling week
      • Consider using continuous self defense as the event with the student in the center of a group of attackers. Award points for each grab that the student successfully escapes from and additional points for a successful counter attack after escape.
    • Sparring exhibitions / competitions after class during Olympics Taekwondo week
      • Consider using multiple opponent sparring as the event with the student in the center of a group of attackers. (More than 2)  Award points for each attack the student defends and additional points for each successful counter attack. Optional, minus points might be considered for each time the student is struck by an opponent.
    • Team Hyung exhibitions / competitions after class during Olympics Synchronized Swimming week
      • Consider allowing any 3 students to demonstrate as a hyung team and they can use any hyung available for their rank. Consider announcing that a higher number of points will be awarded for participation in this event because of the additional preparation and group coordination that it requires.
      • Points may be awarded in the usual manner, but recommend multiplying values by ten or more to increase overall points participants can earn.
    • Flying Jump Kicks exhibitions / competitions after class during Olympics Long Jump week
      • Consider allowing students to run and jump from a marker on the floor and fly toward a square target marked on a kicking bag. With each attempt, the marker is moved further away from the bag so the distance to the bag increases. Use mats under the entire landing area for safety.  The student's foot must land partially within the square target area to earn distance jumping points. The more accurate the strike, the more points the student earns. Additional points are awarded for distance but distance points only count when their striking foot lands within the square target area.
        • Highly organized body position at instant of strike earns 50 points. Disorganized body position at instant of strike earns minus points in increments of ten (10) up to <minus 50> depending on degree of body disorganization.
        • Foot striking position earns points. For example: If a perfectly horizontal foot position within the square (as would align with the grain of a wooden board)  is worth 100 points, then a student whose foot lands half in and half out of the square area only receives 50 points. Should their foot position rotate toward a vertical position, thus not aligning with the imaginary grain of the board, then points are deducted for the degree of rotation.
        • Perfectly horizontal foot position within square target areaon the bag earns 100 points
        • Jumping distance adds 10 points for every foot from the marker to the bag.  Ten feet to the bag = 100 points
        • Failure to jump far enough to strike bag ZERO POINTS
        • When foots strikes the bag with foot position rotated 45 degrees toward vertical, but perfectly within square target area <minus 25 points>
        • When foots strikes the bag with foot position perfectly horizontal foot position landing half in and half out of the square target area <minus 50 points>
        • When foots strikes the bag with foot position rotated 45 degrees toward vertical, and landing half in and half out of the square target area <minus 75 points>
          
    • Hwa Rang archery exhibitions / competitions during Olympics Archery week
      • 

        Nerf N-Strike Elite Mega Ligntning Bow,

        Since archery proficiency requires skill at controlling breathing, contraction and expansion, focus, relaxation and tension, those skills can still be discussed, demonstrated and evaluated using a simulated bow and arrow like a Nerf N-Strike Elite Mega Ligntining Bow, thus making it possible to safely hold a simulated Hwa Rang archery class indoors at the school.

      • Points may be awarded using typical archery target scores.
      • FREE NERF EQUIPMENT?: You might even consider incorporating archery as an activity used during a Self Esteem Enhancement Program to build self esteem.
        • If you are providing such a course as a "no charge" community service you may be able to get your local Walmart manager to donate five to ten Nerf Bows and Arrows for that purpose.
        • Or you might even be able to coordinate with the Foundation and approach Hasbro directly and get Hasbro to donate the Nerf Bows and Arrows for that purpose.
        • Or you might even use the BUSINESS SPONSOR method explained on the  Self Esteem Enhancement Program example flyer in order to easily acquire sponsor dollars from local community businesses, parents and other supporters that you can then use to purchase the equipment you need.
    • Precision Breaking exhibitions / competitions during Olympics shooting week
      • 

        Foot striking position can be practiced on kicking bags to develop proper form and then demonstrated on re-breakable boards or real board or bricks to confirm power and accuracy.

        Since breaking requires focus, precision and power, those skills can be can still be discussed, demonstrated and evaluated using re-breakable boards.

      • Points might be awarded the same as in the Flying Jump Kicks event.
      • FREE RE-BREAKABLE BOARDS?: You might even consider incorporating breaking as an activity used during a Self Esteem Enhancement Program to build self esteem.
        • Employ same methods described above to possibly acquire free equipment.
• Perhaps rebrand/ reschedule  a school tournament as a "Superior Soo Bahk Do^® Skill Exhibition" or hold special tournament while the Olympics are underway
• Create a "Superior Soo Bahk Do^® Skill Exhibition" experience as a regional event for multiple schools to join in
  • Beyond the scope of this article although it could be a feasible concept
• Create "Superior Soo Bahk Do^® Skill Exhibition" experience as a national event
  • Beyond the scope of this article although it could be a feasible concept
• Make "Superior Soo Bahk Do^® Skill Exhibition" T-shirts for all participants
  • Manufacturer on demand t-shirt services
    • Spreadshirt
      • Example Spreadshirt Store For Fundraising
    • Teespring - Apparel
    • Cafepress
      • Example Store Soo Bahk Do Mall
• Etc.

PVT Committees might consider seizing the opportunity to lead the way and take ownership of promoting your school alternative to the Olympics.

Savvy school owners may find value in conceiving creative ways to leverage the fact that the Olympics are on everyone's mind and do so in a manner beneficial to your school and your students by taking action now.

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