THE FUTURE OF ITF TAEKWON-DO By Hayden Breese, New Zealand
Why do some organisations grow and others decline? Why do some sports thrive while others remain marginalized? How do we ensure Taekwon-Do thrives in the modern world?
Why do some organisations grow and others decline? Why do some sports thrive while others remain marginalized? How do we ensure Taekwon-Do thrives in the modern world?
To the uninitiated, martial arts invariably presents itself as an area of involvement for either young children seeking some form of self-protection from such things as bullying (on their part) or a means of instilling a form of discipline and physical fitness (on the part of their parents). For the older person, of whatever gender, the aspect of protection for themselves and others they may be responsible for, plus the added benefits of overall fitness and resulting personal self-confidence, this can act as a lure to investigate the world of martial arts as opposed to just attending a gym to improve their health (weight-wise) and fitness
Taekwon-Do is an effective, practical martial art, practiced by millions of people. The original art, developed by General Choi Hong Hi, has evolved with several different interpretations and organisations. My curiosity is not a competitive one nor is it pitched to validate any particular form. This is a dialog about how I have come to train with the International Taekwon-Do Federation, and how I now use and develop Taekwon-Do to reflect my interpretation 0f basic training methods, philosophy and technical application.
Professional Taekwon‐Do instructors are self‐employed owners of small businesses. They do not have the benefits of specialists employed by corporations. This includes common employment benefits, such as pension schemes. The ITF cannot create the infrastructure to do these things for professional instructors – it would be far too’ inefficient for a small international entity to develop efficient global structures. Instead, the ITF should arm instructors with the information they need to act themselves, and measure their success based on the actions of those instructors. Therefore, the ITF should educate its instructors financially – in budgeting, debt management, wealth protection, accumulation and decumulation.
A major restriction to the examination procedure is the need to drop your eyes to write and take note of the students performance. To help remedy this situation, I investigated the use of a web based application to digitise the grading and allow the Examiner to quickly make notes while also keeping their eyes turned to the students more often.
Advice for new umpires Thesis by Darren Ward, New Zealand For years I have thought about all the things that are not written in the rules that helps an umpire starting in their career (yes…
To achieve a black belt in any martial art is a great achievement. And the day of the grading itself is something you will remember for your entire life. You have already put in years of dedicated practice toward obtaining the required standard, but the last six months leading up to the grading are the most critical. I have seen many people come from nowhere to amazing in 6 months, through systematic, organised training. This e-book will show you how to do it.
Every student is different, with individual idiosyncracies or interpretations that may require specific corrections. But what I find is that there are many small errors or inconsistencies which are common — occurring often enough across a variety of students such that I would find myself making the same corrections over and over. “I should write them down,” I thought. And this document is the result. My general filter for inclusion was that if I’ve had to explain a correction to more than two or three black belt students, it’s worth including.
In the world of martial arts, Taekwondo is widely recognized for its range and the advantages of its foot techniques. Taekwondo’s arsenal of foot techniques is so great that in order to cover it completely, a separate book in which each technique is described from the point of view of biomechanics (the physics of the human anatomy) would be needed.
I like many others, believe that all TaeKwon-Do techniques have to be executed in class with absolute realism. When I see self-defence in some other classes, I take a step back and think, “really?… maybe it would be better done this way…….” When Master McNairn and I get together, we discuss this at length, and when I see what he teaches in the African development seminars, we both agree on what we’d like to see being taught – Realism!!