Next journey to the origins

Hello from czech summer camp, I started to write this article just a moment after I´ve returned from the event, but then laziness appeared and it was

FOTO

CELÁ GALERIE

rotting till now when I got kissed again by muse.

I took part in another interesting seminar. It´s been few months now so I don´t remember all the boring information you don´t want to know, when it was, how long were trainings etc. I ´ll write just what comes to my tongue (ok, to my fingers)…

First taekwondists are aging like normal people. After General Choi passed away I was sad also because I have never had chance to meet him and to train under his guidance. So I decided to visit and practice with those who were closest to him. It is not about training, or corrections, but more about feeling the athmosphere and getting motivation for next training. After meeting Rhee Ki Ha, Park Joong So and Choi Jung Hwa, next top level taekwondist was grand master Hwang Kwang Sung, whose style of teaching is described by some people to be the most similiar to Gen. Choi´s.

And how was it? Six brave ones travelled to Wroclav (there´s no direct flight from Prague), who was it can be seen on photos, if you don´t know them, it is not important. One car used kind of pioneer GPS, so we used roads that were more suitable for off-road cars, we reached old airport that did not work, but fortunately they built new one nearby. Second car, bringing our air-tickets, had to stop to play golf, because it can´t be different way (hello Hara). Fortunately they have good GPS. Unfortunately „someone“ (hello MiKi) set wrong place, so they were 80 km far from the airport 30 minutes before the gate closed. They managed to come in time. In Škoda Fabia. Probably good tuning. So after all I did not get heart attack, spending lot of money calling from Poland and watching coffee drinkers happily calm. So as always with this group of people, calm and easy travelling.

Seminar took place in Cork, at the really south of Ireland. City was not very interesting, but natural surroundings were wonderful as everywhere on the islands. We stayed in nice hotel with swimming pool, whirlpool, sauna so we talked a lot about how we will swim before breakfast, and between trainings and and and….we went to whirlpool twice. Sexy swimming caps had to be worn by everyone, and our beardy friend looked perfect in it. We have arrived whole day before the seminar so we had some time to visit nearby Blarney castle, which is really nice, you´ll see better on photos – nice castle, nicer gardens, walk round the pond with hayls falling on our heads – happy time for us.

Seminar started in the evening, there is not much to write, fundamentals explained and practiced to depth. I´ll mention what I remember, because I remember only things that influenced me. Grand master Hwang is a positive person, I won´t forget his „yes yes yes yes“ or „yeeeeees“ with his happy body language when someone managed to correct his movement. And he moved perfectly, small in body-size (maybe that is one of the reasons he teaches like General), but his energy and perfect control were making me (de)motivated. I felt like elephant in dobok. His slow motions never stopped looking like slipping on the ice no matter if on carpet or wooden floor. Who knows master Yoda…he could be his cousin. Rest of practicioners practiced nice, but interesting was, that I was able to find male instructors (IV. Dan or above) whose skills did not look of too high quality (pardon my mean judging), but women instructors were all of high quality. Of course everyone has some strange movements, but overall quality and also their behaviour (regarding my inferior position in tkd hierarchy) were respectable. And when I think about female instructor in Czech republic I also can´t find out someone of poor quality. I am wondering why is it so…? I really enjoyed the seminar because I had opportunity to practice and to be corrected pretty a lot, because when we practiced „traditional“ way of tw. yopcha jirugi in Choong-moo tul I was fortunate enough to jump well and to be remembered by GM. I don´t have personality to sincerely enjoy tkd offiacialities like banquets (tie is really choking me), but I´ve happily enjoyed perfomance of band formed only by taekwondists (I think we have potential to do the same in Czech republic :o) ) and people awarded during the night looked happy. But I enjoyed friendly unofficial chat with my Czech and other friends (led by alfamale – hello Jana), different schools, different views, different stories, but still good connected group.

I hope Ondra will put upload my photos soon, to let you smell the atmosphere.
And if you like taekwondo and you practice for few years, try to visit some seminar with person who was there when taekwondo was created and spreading. DO will grasp you deeper and the chance you will practice for many coming years increases. At least it works this way for me.

Carpe diem

Svíťa (Martin Svitek, III. Dan, Sonkal Praha)