OTC visits Korea November 2007

     In October 2007 Master Usman, head of the London Taekwondo Academy kindly invited the managing director of ‘OTC’ to accompany him and his team of instructors to South Korea to watch them take part in the 2007 World Taekwondo Hanmadang, witness them train and learn new techniques through Korean Masters at the Kukkiwon Centre of Excellence for Taekwondo and to embrace the spirit of Taekwondo in its home environment.

     Upon arrival in Korea and after nearly twenty hours of travelling we settled in to our accommodation in Suwon 40km outside Seoul the southern capital graciously provided by the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF). This was provided to show their appreciation of the hard work that the London Taekwondo Academy (LTA) has and continues to put in back in the United Kingdom.

     During the first part of our stay in Korea we visited the ‘World Taekwondo Hanmadang 2007’ competition which was first held in 1992 and has run annually ever since in order to spread Taekwondo and its spirit to people invested in the art and sport. This lasts several days and consists of competitors from all around the world coming to demonstrate their abilities in set forms, board breaking and choreographed group martial arts displays. OTC Director Liam Cahill said, “I have been to a number of competitions in the UK but have never seen such ability as there was in the Hanmadang competition. The competitors showed such focus and determination in their art – It was really impressive.”

     At the start of the competition there was a full opening ceremony to mark the occasion. This included traditional dancing and bands playing music all with a modern and enthusiastic feel. The opening ceremony demonstrated the immense amount of effort incorporated in the competition, starting with the Korean dancers in their colourful yet traditional dress holding large fans all intricately decorated.

     At the end of the opening Ceremony all of the competitors were invited to the main floor to represent their countries, in all there were more than 30 countries represented at the event. Managing Director Liam Cahill said, “For me this was the best part of the opening ceremony. To see people from all around the world united by Taekwondo was truly amazing. Seeing so many people proudly representing their countries was wonderful. There was so much pride at this point in the ceremony – you could feel it in the air. Witnessing it spoke volumes to me as to what OTC is all about! Master Usman asked if I wanted to go onto the main floor and represent the UK. At first I was so proud and really wanted to go up and stand shoulder to shoulder others from the UK, but when I thought about it I decided not too. For me representing my country would be an honour - but one that should be earned, one I will happily take up when I have achieved my black belt.. Hopefully soon.”(He chuckles)            

     The competition was fast paced with demonstrations taking place simultaneously on the main floor broken up into three sections with choreographed demonstrations involving dance and martial arts taking place in the centre and demonstrations of multiple board breaking/self-defence and forms on the outer two sections. While around the outside of the arena individual board breaking was taking place. Throughout the spirit of the competitors was high and those there to represent their universities was even higher. Whenever a university was competing whether in an individual competition or as a group there was always the rest of the university chanting and cheering them on from the stands. Managing Director Liam Cahill said, “It was unbelievable, the spirit and positive vibe that those watching brought to the competition was something I had never seen before. They really wanted their teammates to do the best they could and wanted to let everyone else in the arena know that their team-mate was on the floor competing. It was almost a show of defiance fuelled by pride from each university telling everyone that they were the best and there to win by being as loud as possible! This team spirit is something that OTC has only touched the tip of. It is something that needs to be instilled in every student if we are to become as much of a success as the Korean teams!”

     Members of the LTA were so impressed by the chanting of the students from the Korean universities that in the spirit of the occasion they created their own chant to encourage their fellow team-mates, this was noticed by the Korean teams too and in the fun of the moment clapped up on as we chanted. (Click this link to see the footage).  The accommodation was comfortable for our stay in Suwon and while there we were able to experience what the area had to offer. Suwon was consistent with a small suburb/town not to dissimilar to those in the UK in that it had a large residential populace with access to restaurants and local chain stores. Everything you can buy in the UK was available there, sadly to a greater degree than you would hope for. In the night bars and clubs become alive and although there was a hustle about the place you didn’t feel concerned to be out late at night although all of the group did stay together in order to remain safe, the people and staff were friendly and polite. The main entertainment in Korean for people in their late teens, early twenties was either Karaoke or listening to young groups or singers and watching dancers perform in the clubs. Between the people in the club there was a great deal of interaction and although there was a definite issue with the language barrier, people still remained friendly and attempted to make conversation.