1.10.2012 / International course with GM Choi Jung-hwa3 coments

Son of taekwondo founder in Czech Republic

Five mighty (because you had to wake up at about 5 A.M.) members of Sonkal travelled on Saturday 22/9 to Znojmo. Their federation organized
seminar with son of founder of Taekwon-do - Choi Jung Hwa.

It was about two hours to get there without any problems, so we arrived in time to warm-up a little.
I assume there were about 200 participants from Italy, Germany, Croatia, Ireland, Czech republic....and much more I do not remember. Seminar started at 10 o´clock with stretching led by master from Slovakia, it was fast and furious.

Seminar itself was more lecture than training. We exercised some technique and grand master Choi corrected all mistakes and aspects of movement to depth. First technique - fundamental annun so ap joomok jirugi (sitting stance forefist front punch) was corrected to even instructors, because most of us retracted shoulder at the end of punch what made it look sharper, but in reality decreased power. In apcha busigi (front kick) Choi Jung Hwa preffered to train with step forward with begginers to really use our mass.

We practiced patterns afterwards. We did one pattern, than sat around grandmaster who chose 3-5 volunteers and corrected them like when you dismantle engine and then put it back together with much better function.

We did some pad kicking at the end with same focus like before - use whole your body, mass and kick with as much power as possible.

Pros and cons of the seminar in my point of view:
I was a bit disappointed from organization part, for example last half an hour we (up to black stripe) just stood there watching training of higher belts, eventhough there were 4 masters in the dojang. Translation was not of high quality. Long speeches of GM Choi were translated into one or two sentences, fortunately Mr. Zámečník and one of Znojmo students than helped with translation.
And now positive things - I was excited from GM Choi´s ideas and his approach to teaching. His legacy of pushing others in front of you to improve everyone instead of trying to be keep before others was unforgettable.

Jan Dvořáček