 If you like your competition life and high velocity sparring, then don’t come to New Zealand but if you are more of a technical patterns person and want to meet some of the friendliest martial artists in the world, then include New Zealand in your travel itinerary. I had the pleasure of visiting Auckland during this summer and as I couldn’t go for three whole weeks without Tae Kwon Do and as I think I’m bordering on obsessive compulsive levels, I made my way to a local club. As I still had terrible jet lag, I couldn’t work out the confusing Auckland bus service and decided to heroically march up a very steep ex-volcano; so I arrived for my first session red-faced, sweaty and as my water bottle had leaked everywhere, looking as if I was unable to control my bladder. A great first impression. Seriously, if you come, here hire a car.
Fortunately, the New Zealanders were able to see past my hopelessness and gave me a very warm welcome; and get this, when I went to pay my training fees, they said that as I was a guest I could train for free!
The class itself was run very much like any other Tae Kwon Do lesson, not much of a surprise there, but it wasn’t until I’d done a couple of lessons did I start to notice some of the differences to what we’d see from the British system.
Firstly, competitions. There just aren’t very many of them for an adult, about three a year. This would make sense as there are only four million people in New Zealand (but about forty million sheep, thank God no one taught them Tae Kwon Do!) so there just isn’t the population to warrant the amount that we have in the UK but the downside is that they lose out the variety of competition sparring and as a result place much more emphasis on patterns and breaking. Interestingly, I had come just after their World Championships held in Germany, at the same time as ours in Cardiff, and the impression of the medals they had gained were in those events. This is where I think we have the advantage in the UK as colour belts have the opportunity to join squad training sessions and compete in international events, we have much less ‘exclusivity’ in this and as a result, can develop potential in this area earlier.
I also had the opportunity to watch a grading. This did make for interesting viewing both with some useful ideas and a left me with a couple of concerns. Again, the format was very much the same but with some subtle differences, mostly in the syllabus. There is much more of emphasis on self defence, it replaces semi-free sparring. The candidates were graded in smaller groups but what was good was there was a black belt standing at the side calling the techniques, whilst the examiner was free to assess. They were also there to direct the grader to the correct spot, which sounds elementary but if you haven’t graded for a while you forget how nerve wracking it can be when even the simplest direction can throw you off.
I had mixed feelings about the New Zealand mode of patterns, where they concentrate on sign wave I feel compromised on individual style and power. If course, this is absolutely a matter of perspective but when you’ve been taught in a particular manner, it is very difficult to unlearn. Needless to say I managed to embarrass myself as I launched into Joong-Gun, I motored through it putting as much power and hip twist as possible and ending with a blood curdling kihap. As my voice ricocheted around the hall I realised that everyone else had neatly run through their pattern in sync, ending in stating the pattern name. All very pretty but not practical, after all, Tae Kwon Do is a hard martial art and I doubt your attacker is going to be intimidated by the knowledge of your pattern name. “What? Joong-Gun? Oh crap, I’m getting the hell out of here!”
Now for the breaking debate. For a black belt, this is academic but over in New Zealand, the blue belts had to break for their grading. Personally, as a skinny blue belt I doubt I could break much more than a black forest gateaux but with also being an adult in the UK, could I possibly have the choice of trying?
However, my one serious concern was watching the free sparring. I’m sure, I hope, that when they do practise sparring in this club they wear a full sparring kit but surely this must include the grading? The examiner kindly let the blue belts wear their mouth guards, seeing as they were in closer proximity to each other but if I’ve got someone hurtling towards my head in a flying kick, I’d insist on wearing a head guard, or judging by the size of the guy kicking, a modified mattress!
Saying that though, the whole evening was a genuine insight and there was some interesting Tae Kwon Do to watch.
Here’s the delicate area that requires subtle diplomacy and the need to tread carefully. Pity Miss Sledgehammer was at the helm then! Dealing with the upper echelons of ITFNZ was definitely a sweet and sour experience. Within the club itself, it was mostly sweet with the experience of being taught by one of the nicest men I’ve come across in the world of Tae Kwon Do. This mature third Dan introduced himself to me with a name that sounded very similar to Mr Mayage and after I’d got rid of my visions of waxing his car á la Karate Kid, he went to the trouble of learning all of my two step so that he could help me practise. How nice is that? He really was a Tae Kwon Do gentleman who was also a great technician that I learnt some really useful things from.
As for the sour, I truly hope this is the exception to the general view of British Tae Kwon Do but before the grading, I had the opportunity to speak to one of the examiners. He could see from my dobok that I was with the TAGB when he oozed his charming way over to me to chat. After the obligatory discussion about my travel plans, he nicely informed me that the thought British Tae Kwon Do was in poorly fractured state and that (you may want to sit down for this) that the TAGB was “weak internationally.” I really couldn’t believe my ears; he had obviously forgotten the first tenant of Tae Kwon Do, courtesy, and even being a millionth Dan didn’t give him the right to be rude about my country! After I had contained my inner lion, I merely bowed, thanked him and directed him to the TAGB website, where he might want to view the results of the recent World Championships held in Cardiff.
Ignoring that blip though, he really was the only bad apple in my short experience of New Zealand Tae Kwon Do, amongst what was a warmly welcoming and educational Tae Kwon Do holiday. If you have the opportunity to come over the New Zealand, you must bring your dobok with you.
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