Well, it’s Saturday morning here in Seoul, and I slept in until 8AM, which was a wild change of pace from the 5AM exercises I have been doing all week to prepare for the days activities. As I sit in the Club Lounge I will do my best to describe not just the training and activities but also the surroundings, the people and the overall vibe.
After Delta lost both my bags I found myself showing up for orientation in jeans and a blazer, which was actually a bit overdressed. The orientation was mildly challenging because we were all told to just sit and didn’t really understand what to do – but within 90 minutes I was handed a textbook (which is not for sale individually), a program schedule, a nice white Polo shirt, and ordered to return to Classroom #1 by 8:30AM the next day.
I took the next hour to wander around the main gym. It is smaller than most field houses on university campuses, and the actual training area is about the size of the regulation basketball court, with no heating or AC – just big open windows. Totally unattended and vacant, I wandered around the second level and then on the main floor – thinking of Park Chung Ho, our team trainer in College, and his world championship win in 1975 on that very same spot.
That was the last of the quiet, introspectful times for the week. We started with a roll call the next day with instructions that tardiness will not be permitted, and if you miss a day for any reason you fail. Period. A second program schedule was handed out which detailed mornings in the classroom, and afternoons in the gym. It was a formal environment, when a teacher or director entered the room everyone stood and came to attention.
Each day we did mornings in the classroom, with lunch at the KKW Cantina – buffet style, 5000 Won (about 4 bucks) and actually pretty decent food. The information is far to voluminous to even attempt to disseminate here, but I will do a few of my personal highpoints.
The first lecture was a Kukkiwon update and respect and traditions lecture by Park, Jong-Bum . It was done in Korean and translated by a young man who is fluent in English and Korean – with decent Chinese skills too. He covered current updates on Kukkiwon and loads of culture things – including handshake procedures.
Our other lecturers included “CT” Son – who was a lively, hysterical entertaining speaker – who discussed behavioral conditioning and teaching method, Lee Hyung-Sun who discussed promotion regulations, Jun, Ik-Pil who discussed competition rule changes, Kim Jung-Won who discussed prehospital management, Kwak Taek-Yong (star who knocked out the big guy on “Human Weapon”) covered demonstration training, and lastly Ha, Woong-Young who covered Taekwondo history.
Random things I learned from the lecturers:
* Connection between Okinawan culture and Korean culture – this was insightful.
* How to effectively “slap-away” a handshake. 
* The entire head including the back of the head is now a legal competition target.
* How to get posthumous rank advancement.
* How to teach running triple kicks and cool demonstration training ideas.
* There (as of April 2010) are 7,657,651 Dan Holders worldwide (218,000 in the US).
* There are 35,299 certified instructors, only 1375 non-Korean.
* There are 204 nations that currently practice Taekwondo
* The (03) in front of the Kukkiwon number means that there isn’t a national body
that is required to apply for your promotions – that a “requestor” (i.e. Master)
can promote you. Some nations (Korea) require the NGB to do the promotion
applications.
The physical training was very intense. I am glad I brought a fresh uniform for each day since each night they looked like I jumped in a swimming pool, and were about as dirty as imaginable. It was both physically as well as mentally challenging, although the feeling of being just one in the crowd of 50 (I was in group one due to rank) doing intense training was very enjoyable.
I made numerous contacts, and loads of friends. There were only four USA participants, and the other three lived in Korea. Among them Craig Rueter, an English Professor at Kyung Hee University and Dan Miles, who works for the DOD. I also made loads of international friends – too numerous to list here.
From an organizational prospective the main thing I walked away with was that although we have all had some sketchy dealings with Korean Master Instructors in the past, I can assure you that the top level of the organization is sincere and wants the best for all students. They are hard-core focused on spreading the art for the betterment of the student.
Now we will see if I can get re-adjusted to the time change! Good day.. or good night as it may be.
Kukkiwon, WTA and WTF officials
