Sparring in the Office

Currently, the taekwondo scenario in Malaysia has becoming more like a soap opera where power struggle is taking place as to which organization has the legal right to be the national association. There are infighting between the administrators that the athletes and the sport have suffered as the repercussion. This scenario has been taking place for the past 4 years and up to now, thing is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.

From what I understand is that the clubs want to have voting rights which in my humble opinion what give them the right to vote? They are just clubs and they do not belong in the national structure. The national association is made up of states just like the country. It does not made up from the cities or towns which equivalent to the clubs. They decision makers need to understand this. Look at the big picture, where do clubs belong in the national structure? Once this can be answered then the problem can be resolved, otherwise, it will go on and on.

This 'drama' has to be solved ASAP before the sport or the art take a further dive into oblivion.

World Championship

The World Taekwondo Championship 2009 come and gone and once again our Malaysia's athletes came back empty-handed. Our best achievement thus far in the world championship since its inception is only a bronze medal.

In Malaysia, Taekwondo is the most widely practice martial art in the country and yet we are unable to produce a world champion while in wushu, we managed to have a couple of world champion although it is not widely available in Malaysia.

My question is why? Where does it go wrong? Are we clouded by arrogance of merely being the most popular martial art sports in the country or are we just incapable in producing a world champion?

Injury

Last friday I took one of my students to see a doctor as he had somehow injured his wrist. From the inital diagnosis, it is suspected that he had a torn ligament. However, the injury was not from taekwondo training but from his own gym training. According to him that the injury was already quite sometimes and it has not been showing any improvement hence I took him to see a sports physician. Anyhow, he had been given some anti-inflammation drugs, cream and bandage to immobilize his wrist movement and we'll wait and see how it turns out.

Current Training Program

The final grading of the year is coming and our training now is focusing on preparing the students for the grading. The junior and black belt grading will be held on the same date, one being in the morning and the other in ther afternoon.

I have started coaching them their poomsae early and they are progressing well and now we have more time to work on other components such as their kicks, hansinsol and kyorugi.

As for the balck belt, currently we are working a lot on their kyukpa or breaking techniques. Not only they have to break the board, it has to be in a proper sequence. The rationale is that if they are confronted in a situation, they have to find the best and fastest way to bring their assailants down. So last week we started working on the formation and sequence of the movements.

We will continue to work on all these before going into a trial grading in another month time.

How?

Yesterday class was really calm. Everybody was training well yesterday except a few outcasts who did not put theri heart into training. They might as well don't train at all. What's the point of them attending classes if they are not interested in training itself? At the end of the day, it is them who will end up at the losing side.

However, it is also a challenge for me to get them to be interested in training. I have to figure out a way or a method to get them to 'bring' their heart into training. This is the real challenge. To motivate them, entice them, interest them and to get them to train.

How do I do that???