1.9.2003 / XIII. Sonkal sportcamp

Photos from Sonkal summer camp

Next training camp (13th in Sonkal history) is behind us. This one, the longest training camp in Sonkal´s history (Sonkal members are getting tougher and tougher, 12 days of trainings are really big challenge for everyone), took place in small village Malé Svatoňovice with wonderful surroundings of Jestřebí mountains. This village is well-known as a birth place of brothers Čapek.

Our bus with more than 40 participants, not only from Czech Republic, arrived to the gates of the local boarding school aro
und 11 o´clock on 16th August. This campus was well-equipped to provide us enough to really enjoy this 12 days doing taekwon-do, sports and relaxing. Except the gymnasium and dining hall with great chef, we may use sauna, tennis courts and swimming pool (which was regarding the fact that end of summer was pretty cold used only by really tough guys….and girls ). Leisure time some of us used by visiting Museum of Čapek brothers, near watch tower or town Trutnov.

Whole camp was divided to two same training parts divided by one free day for relaxation. Trainings were focused on improvement of our physical strength, flexibility and technical abilities. Nice add-up to our trainings was one training dedicated to self-defence and falls, that we doesn´t train so often. Three full cars took lot of equipment to provide us chance to really quality trainings – tatami, wirok and t-ki posts, punching pads, boxing bag and ropes for back flip training Because we have trained two times a day, 2 hours each training and the gymnasium were open for free trainings, our energy and strength at the end of training camp was near to be depleted – so we have dedicated last day to teams´ competition in disciplines which compared our skills like running, jumping etc. Team spirit of every group changed our gymnasium to place full of roar and applause. The only thing we have to improve is, in my opinion, targeting skill of our I. Dan and 1.kup holders, because their trying to hit anything with ball were really funny

Next nice surprise was the participation of Aneta Morávková from Kerberos Prague (junior national team member) and then, of course, our guests from Switzerland, father and daughter with origin from Scotland – Peter and Luayna. Both of them showed not only their martial spirits (they said that they are not used to such a hard trainings as they were in Scotland, but they managed to go through every training) but also their sense of humor - especially Luayna´s encouraging during friendly match in table football Sonkal vs. Local inhabitants was absolutely great . Both of them promised that they will come back next year and will take few friends- we´re really looking forward to this. What makes me happy much more was when Peter told me that after this camp they want to move back to Scotland because of their motivation to train more intensively (Grand master Rhee Ki Ha keeps the quality of practicing here really high).

On Friday (28th August) no one wants to return to Prague and I think that lot of us wanted to stay here for longer. I hope that everyone took a lot from this great training camp and enjoyed this way of finishing summer holidays. I send my compliments to some colored belts holder who showed that Sonkal have enough „resources“ if we speak about talent and motivation.

Thanks to every participant for these 12 days dedicated to taekwon-do with good friends.

See photos here (you can feel good mood of whole camp, can´t you?

See you next year (especially you Peter and Luayna).

Written and traslated by Martin Svitek