14.11.2016 / Czech national championship

The Championship through the Coach´s Eyes

After a few years, this time the Championship of the Czech Republic was held in sport hall Vodova in Brno during days 11th to 13th of November. I dare say that nothing changed in this hall even after a few years and some of us recalled some memories of that time when I myself was competing. We remembered how we spoiled our self-defence sketch…
But stop talking about old good times. Now it´s about the time I should tell you something about the current contestants and their successes and failures.

Leaving behind tiny snags we did not notice any of big delays during the trip to Brno and so we managed to register our competitors in time. It was first time we could enjoy the role of coaches and not of the auxiliaries at the registration of competitors of other schools. Some administrative innovations were awaiting us. We coped with them very well and then we could accommodate ourselves in the City Brno hotel which is really known to us. The quality of accommodation was as we expected so there was no disappointment. Only one thing I heard of was that some of the accommodated did not have warm water in their rooms.

Saturday morning belonged to our junior and pupil females and males. I have to say that I was really satisfied with the team of pupil male of our school. During our autumn school they were unable to march in the same rhythm more than two steps. But at the competition they managed to stand out from the other teams and they gained the third place. The complete overview of our pupils and juniors you can find here. But I warn you that it is a very long list. Most of all I would like to congratulate all of medal holders of Championship and especially those who won the top titles, the titles of the absolute masters of the Czech Republic:

• Kateřina Vítečková – Junior female B
• Tereza Štekerová – Junior female A
• Jiří Novák – Jinior male A

The other day, which was Sunday, belonged to senior and veteran competitors. In senior category is always very difficult to break through much less to retain your success from previous years. So I did not expect so many successes as the day before. Match after match which I had the honor to see, I was satisfied with the quality of our competitors. Our preparation that our contestants experienced was planned well, had a sense and came up with fruits. Our seniors and veterans gained the winner steps and the name of our school was announced more often than usual in this category. The complete overview of our seniors and veterans you can find here. I congratulate all of the senior and veteran medal holders of the Championship and especially those who gained the titles of absolute maters of the Czech Republic:

• Jiří Faltin – Veteran
• Jana Kovářová – Senior female A
• Tomáš Vodička – Senior male A

Unfortunately during the Sunday competition we experienced also an injury. We wish Jiří Huml to get well soon.

I also have to appreciate the performances of our teams, who gained many valuable medals. Our teams won these places:

• Pattern team senior males 1st place
• Power breaking team senior females 1st place
• Patter team junior females 2nd place
• Special techniques team junior females 3rd place
• Pattern team pupil team males 3rd place
• Special techniques team senior females 3rd place
• Sparring team senior females 3rd place

In the disciple of self-defence our school overruled both groups and won these places:

• Self-defence 1 defender against 2 attackers – 1st place
• Self-defence 1 defender against 3 attackers – 1st place

During my coaching on Sunday I started summarizing in my head the successes of our contestants and I began realizing that our school SONKAL was going to appear among the three best schools of the Championship. After all of the convincing performances I started thinking about the highest place and my wish was heard. Thanks to enormous effort and drudgery of all our contestants, the school Taekwon-Do ITF Sonkal Praha won the first place on the scale of schools overall and gained the Cup of the most successful school of the Championship of the Czech Republic 2016. I have to thank our student, who directly or indirectly contributed to winning this title.

I´d like to appreciate the attitude of parents, who helped us to drive our contestants to this competition. We´d like to thank especially Mrs. Černá-Veškrnová, Mr. Zelenka, Mr. Hrstka, Mr. and Mrs. Novákovi, Mr. and Mrs. Štekerovi and Mr. and Mrs. Machovi. We really appreciate your interest and help.

Pupils of Sonkal, you did very good job but now it depends on you to, at least, retain your highest titles next year.