From
the Organisers
This years Instructors & Black Belts Camp was a
great success with many of the Regions Instructors and
senior members attending to upskill themselves, both
in their own technical ability to move towards their
own develpment and advancement to a higher grade, and
in teaching methods to help develop the members of the
schools in the South Island. A strategic discussion
was also held with the senior members of the Region
to find what direction the Region wishes to progress.
Thank you to Mr Mark Banicevich, V dan, and Mr Matthew
Breen, V dan, both from Auckland for being the Guest
Instructors for the weekend. Also a big thank you to
the funding bodies, Eureka Trust, New Zealand Community
Trust, Pub Charity and the Southern Trust for providing
funding to help this event happen.
Kris Herbison, IV dan & Natalie Ewen, II
dan
Camp Organisers, Riccarton Taekwon-Do
Camp Report
The weekend of the 14th and 15th of April 2007 was
set down for the South Islands Annual Instructors &
Black Belt Camp at Hanmer Springs.
Mr Banicevich teaching III dan patterns
The weather forecast was terrible with snow predicted
in some areas. A terrible car crash on the southern
motorway bought a sombre feeling to some of the Dunedin
crew on their 495km journey north. Numbers were down
on what was first indicated and there were plans for
more meetings over the two days. There was also a pre
arranged stop at a particular Dress shop in Christchurch.
For a while, I thought I was heading to another Pain
Weekend.
Then we arrived in Hanmer Springs. The weather was
beautiful; the scenery was amazing and we found our
campsite straight away. On top of this, it was confirmed
that Mr Mark Banicevich was there and Mr Matthew Breen
was on his way. Things were definitely looking up. As
people arrived from different places, a few social tipples
were had by most, coupled with ‘good conversation’.
Mr Banicevich and Mr Breen passed around paper and pen
asking us what we wanted to cover during the next two
days and an agenda for the weekend arose from the scribbles.
Soon most people drifted off to bed but a hardy few
stayed on to discuss the finer points of who knows what.
When Saturday morning arrived, everyone was keen to
start training. There was a lot to cover and when you
are about to get instruction from the likes of Mr Banicevich
and Mr Breen time is very precious. The day started
with things like hip movement, sine wave, and acceleration
of the movement. This was done on the spot as we all
came to terms with how it should be done. There was
of course the broader lesson as well, in regards how
to teach it to someone else by doing it on the spot
– correcting it as it is done – then moving
into line drills to practice it correctly. Mr Breen’s
lesson on the tennis ball theory was for me like finding
a lost piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
After this, we moved on to jumping. There was much
to learn about creating float time, doing flying double
/ triple and combination kicks. I even managed a Flying
triple kick myself although some people looked for a
medical alert bracelet on my wrist after I did it. After
the morning session, I could not help but be impressed
with the skills and obvious study that the two instructors
had put into their Art of Taekwon-Do. It was inspiring
and it only got better.
Mr Herbison and Miss Kettings performing jumping
exercises
I cannot recall the exact sequence of events but I
think we covered marketing of Taekwon-Do after lunch.
To be honest, in the back of my mind I have never really
felt committed to the principle of marketing what we
do, to a great extent. I always felt that if what we
did was good enough then people would seek it out, however
with Mr Banicevich and his incredible enthusiasm leading
the charge, everyone got on board. There were some awesome
ideas for getting our name out there and as I write
this, I am remembering the small part I need to play
in this. It is often the case that when things like
this are discussed and ideas put forth, people leave
with great intentions but as time passes it fades into
the background and we fall back into our routines.
Attendees discuss strategy between training sessions
For the rest of the weekend we also covered ground
fighting, self-defence, step sparring, model sparring,
and two on one free sparring. It was a real revelation
to go over what is expected at gradings, especially
with the two on one free sparring. It felt like we were
well behind the times with some of these lessons. Who
could forget that we were also very lucky to get almost
one on one attention with our patterns?
 
Self-defence & Weapons defence (don't attack
someone with a potato masher...)
When all this training was done, I’m sure everyone
wished we could have gone over it all again, but it
was just as pleasing to trade the Do jang for the Hot
springs where we all sat back and melted before the
trip home. This was a great weekend that the organisers
Natalie Ewen and Kris Herbison can be proud of. The
only thing left to say is, I personally am going to
attend more of them.
Neil Kettings, III Dan
Instructor, Dunedin Taekwon-Do |
