Taekwondo

When I first came to Korea, in the autumn of 2006 I was excited about the prospect of learning all about a new culture. I was excited about the language, the food, the people and while I knew a little bit about Korea I was also excited about all the things I didn’t know. One of things I knew something about was martial arts and whilst I hadn’t heard of 씨름 or 택견 at that time I had heard about taekwondo.

Taekwondo is practised all around the world and no matter what country you live in, what race you are, the colour of your skin or what religion you practise, practitioners of taekwondo can be found nearby. Korea however is the home of taekwondo and it is here that the art is at its purest.

My school, 아중상무, focuses more on poomse, the patterns of movements that form not only the basis of taekwondo grading but a more controlled application of the myriad kicks, punches and blocks that form the foundation of taekwondo. In Korea poomse is important, maybe some schools prioritise sparring but poomse still features heavily. In countries outside Korea, including the UK, sparring seems to dominate the majority of class time and poomse seems to be an after thought. Maybe this has a lot to do with the Olympics and the fame and fortune that seems to come with an Olympic gold but whatever the reason I think people are missing out a vital part of taekwondo if they overlook poomse. A simple way to address this would be for the International Olympic Committee to include poomse in the Olympics!

My girlfriend and I were introduced to our teacher and his school by a mutual acquaintance and ever since that first day I have been well and truly hooked but not only because of the reasons so many millions of others also get hooked. Taekwondo is more than just a martial art, it is more than kicking and punching, more than blocking and breaking boards. It is more than poomse and sparring. This may sound like a cliche but taekwondo is a way of life, it teaches humility, tolerance, dedication and it encourages an indomitable spirit, all of which are qualities that can help in other areas of your life.

Along with these qualities, taekwondo has also opened the door on Korean culture, a door that for many visitors stays well and truly shut. My master, 전정술 관장님has been, and continues to be inspirational and educational, from the class room to the restaurant. A few days ago he introduced Christina and I to 바지락 갈국수 at a new restaurant after our class. We often eat lunch together and we are also invited to attend all kinds of events with him. It is these acts of generosity and kindness that for me at least are the essence of taekwondo. The learning and the teacher / student relationship doesn’t end when the class finishes, or at least it shouldn’t.

The 4th World Taekwondo Culture Expo will have just finished by the time you read this but it was here that we, Christina and I were invited by our teacher to participate in a poomse competition with people from all over the world. We have been invited to all 4 Expos so far and even if we aren’t living in Korea when the next one comes around I am sure I will make the trip back to Korea for it.

If I were to give advice to newcomers to Korea I would, amongst other things, advise them to get involved with something traditionally Korean, ideally taekwondo. A whole new Korea can be unlocked and opened up to you if you do. But I must also add a world of caution, you are unlikely to get a teacher of the calibre of 전정술 관장님 but there are plenty of great teachers out there and being a non-Korean will only get you so far, you must show dedication and commitment to stand a chance of being invited into the Korea that I know. 


Originally published in Korean by the Jeonbuk Ilbo newspaper and translated by Bobin Jung

Rob McGovern, July 2010

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2006년 가을, 내가 처음 한국에 왔을 때 나는 새로운 문화를 배운다는 기대에 굉장히 들떠있었다. 당시 나는 한국에 대해 조금밖에 알지 못했기 때문에 언어나 음식, 사람들을 포함한 모든 것들이 나를 흥미롭게 했다. 내가 알고 있던 것 중 하나는 한국의 전통 무술이었는데, 그 당시 씨름이나 택견은 들어보지 못했지만 태권도에 대해서는 들어본 적이 있었다.

태권도는 오늘날 전 세계에서 행해지고 있다. 어느 나라에 살고 있든지, 어떤 인종이든지, 어떤 색의 피부와 종교를 갖고 있든지간에, 태권도를 수련하는 사람을 주위에서 쉽게 찾을 수 있을 것이다. 한국은 태권도의 고향이며, 그 기술이 가장 완전한 곳이다.

내가 다니는 도장인 '아중상무'에서는 특히 품새를 중시여긴다. 품새는 태권도의 기초를 형성하는 절제된 수많은 발차기와 주먹 지르기, 막기의 적용이 함께 이루어내는 움직임의 양식을 말하는데 태권도의 등급을 매기는 데 있어서 기본 토대다. 몇몇 학원에서는 대련하는 것을 우선시 하기도 하지만, 한국의 태권도에서 품새는 중요하다.

그러나 영국을 포함한 다른 나라에서는, 대련하는 것이 수련시간의 대부분을 차지하고, 품새는 그 다음인 듯하다. 아마 이는 올림픽과 올림픽 금메달이 가져다주는 명성과 부와 많은 관련이 있는 듯 하지만, 그 이유가 무엇이던지간에 만약 그들이 품새를 간과한다면, 그들은 태권도에서 결정적으로 중요한 부분을 놓치고 있는 것이라고 생각한다. 품새의 중요성을 알리는 간단한 방법은 아마 국제올림픽위원회가 올림픽에서 품새를 포함한다고 선언하는 것일 것이다.

여자친구와 내가 지인의 소개로 태권도를 배우기 시작한 첫 날 이래로 나는 진심으로 태권도에 빠져버렸다. 태권도는 단순한 무술, 그저 차고 주먹을 지르고 막고 판자를 격파하는 것, 그 이상이다.

나의 스승인 전정술 관장은 수련시간 이외에도 나에게 감동을 준다. 며칠 전, 그는 수련이 끝난 후 나에게 새로운 바지락 칼국수 음식점을 소개시켜주기도 했다. 우리는 종종 같이 점심을 먹거나 그와 함께 각종 행사들에 참가하기도 한다. 최소한 나는 이런 관용과 친절함을 실천하는 것들이 태권도의 본질이라고 생각한다.

최근 '제4회 세계 태권도 문화엑스포'가 전주와 무주에서 열린 열렸다. 나는 관장님의 초대로 엑스포에 참가, 전 세계에서 온 사람들과 함께 품새 겨루기에 참가했다. 나는 지금까지 4번의 엑스포에 전부 초대받았다. 혹시 다음 번 엑스포가 열릴 때에 내가 한국에 살고 있지 않더라도 그 시기에는 꼭 다시 한국에 돌아올 예정이다.

내가 만약 한국에 처음 오는 사람들에게 조언을 해준다면, 다른 것들 보다도, 전통적이고 한국적인 것을 수반하는 것, 한마디로 이에 제 격인 태권도를 배워보라고 말해주고 싶다. 태권도를 배우면 완전히 새로운 한국이 당신 앞에 나타날 것이다. 그렇지만 한가지 주의사항을 덧붙이자면, 태권도를 배울 때 당신이 '외국인'임을 고집해서는 안된다는 것이다. 당신이 진심으로 내가 알고 있는 진짜 한국에 대해 느끼고 싶다면, 당신 역시 한국에 대해 당신의 헌신을 보여줘야 할 것이다.

* 롭 맥거번(Rob McGovern)은 웨일즈에서 온 프리랜서 작가다. 2006년 처음 한국에 와 현재 전주에 살고 있는데, 한국음식과 문화를 사랑해 태권도도 열심히 배우고 있다. '롭 맥거번의 전주야 놀자!'는 그를 감동시키고 때로는 흥분시키는 전주와 전라북도 이야기다. 번역은 정보빈씨가 맡았다.

First published by the Jeonbuk Ilbo newspaper and translated by 정보빈.

Testing at Gimje

Beijing Olympics and Tae kwon do

As the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing summer Olympics games plays out and Boris Johnson, the incompetent nincompoop, gets ready to receive the Olympic flag and start the countdown to London 2012, I have been reflecting on the Olympics and in particular taekwondo. 

The games have been a huge success for China and Beijing, as well as for me personally. I have found myself glued to the TV or computer screen watching sports I would have formerly considered not worthy of my time. Judo has found a place in my heart, as has badminton, weightlifting and even handball and although I won’t watch them with any real gusto after the Olympics has finished, I will look forward to them in four years time. Even baseball (which has been dropped for London 2012) had me enthralled as Korea marched to the gold medal, crushing all in their path, which included the USA, Japan and Cuba twice! 

As a Welsh person I sometimes find it hard to watch and support team GB, after all most of the athletes are from another country and Wales isn’t represented on the union flag. The Olympics is a time when England swallow up the best athletes from Wales and Scotland and call the whole thing team GB, which to the rest of the world means England anyway. I don’t NOT support team GB, I mean I would prefer them to win over almost any other nation I just feel a large amount of impartiality when it comes to them. I am not proud of how I feel but I am not apologetic either. It is the way I feel and I make no excuses for that.

I have however found myself cheering for Korea, my temporary home. I could not have been more pleased when Korea completed a clean sweep of gold medals in the taekwondo, winning the maximum 4 gold they were allowed to compete for. In the same way I was almost jumping for joy when Jang Mi Ran was weight lifting her way to Olympic gold, breaking several world and Olympic records in the process. The same goes for Choi Min Ho in the judo, the men’s and women’s archery teams and the other athletes from team Korea. Maybe I will feel different in four years time if I am in the UK at the time of the Olympics. 

Taekwondo took pride of place for me and was the event I look forward to the most. As a practitioner of tae kwon do (shamefully mispronounced ‘Tai know do’ by many including British bronze medalist Sarah Stevenson) and as a resident in Korea, the home of taekwondo, I eagerly anticipated the taekwondo and really hoped for Korean victories, even if they came at the expense of team GB.  My teacher, an 8^th Dan master who has dedicated his life to taekwondo, has probably been the most influential force in this change or realignment of allegiances. His life has always been and is still dedicated to teaching and promoting taekwondo and I know how much it would mean to him for Korea to sweep the board.

This Olympics marks the third consecutive games that taekwondo has been an official medal sport and thankfully it has been confirmed on the roster for London 2012. Taekwondo is the most widely practised marital art on the planet but it has plenty of critics. People often say that it is boring because fighters, reluctant to lunge at their opponents for fear of a counter attack, often stand and wait for their opponent to make a move. This has been addressed and a penalty system is in place for fighters unwilling to fight. I have to admit to being bored during occasional bouts when fighters are over cautious, but then if you had been kicked several times you might be cautious too.  

Taekwondo isn’t immune to controversy either and Beijing has proved to be no exception. Before the games had even begun a quota system was introduced limiting each NOC (national Olympic committee) to 4 fighters, a move which prompted groans from Korea as it is believed to be a way to limit Korea sweeping the board and winning the majority of medals. They currently stand on top of the Olympic taekwondo medal table by winning three gold and one silver at Sydney in 2000, two gold and two bronze in Athens in 2004 and four gold out of a maximum of four competitors in Beijing. The official line is that this move is intended to allow a majority of NOCs to participate but the WTF admitted that some of the better athletes in the world may miss out. 

The scoring system has also come in for criticism this time around and while it is no surprise it is a little bit sad. Spectators and competitors have complained that the scoring system is fundamentally flawed. Currently judges sit at each of the four corners of the competition area and score as they see fit. Sometimes judges will be unsighted; hence the others, and sometimes they will deem a kick to have not been accurate enough or powerful enough or won’t score it for another reason. As you can imagine some of the losers of matches were a little upset that a kick had not been scored or that a foul had been awarded or not awarded, ad infinitum. Often these complaints are fed to the waiting media who lap it up, spin it around and publish it as a travesty of justice. Two British taekwondo jins were involved in just this kind of controversy. Aaron Cook, a 17 year old from Doncaster talked about the standard of judging and even went so far as to claim that on any other day a fight he lost 4-1 he would have won by 5 points. He went on to say that he understood that the crowd would be behind the Chinese fighter, Guo Zhu, but he didn’t expect the scoring to be as bad as it was. Aside from the downright disrespectful implication that the judges would be swayed by a crowd, it was interesting to note that were Japanese, Ukrainian, Indonesian and Portuguese. Whilst it has been said that some judges are not properly qualified and are put in to promote globalism in taekwondo I still find it sad that they are so openly cristicised. 

More controversy involved Sarah Stevenson and another Chinese fighter, Zhong Chen, who won their fight. Team GB protested and after viewing video evidence the decision was overturned and Stevenson was put through to the semi, at the expense of Chen. The Chinese team were very gracious apparently but the Chinese crowd would not forgive the Brits for pulling Chen and they booed and finally cheered when she went down in the semi. 

The worst incident of controversy involved Cuban, Angel Valodia Matos. He was disqualified for taking more than the one minute allowed for dealing with injuries. It is a very harsh rule and seemingly inflexible but rules are rules. Unfortunately his response was to kick the referee, Swedish Chakir Chelbat, to the head, apparently drawing blood; he then proceeded to push another referee.

There were other examples of bad sporting behaviour, notably from the, I hope ironically titled, ‘First family of Taekwondo’ the Lopez family from the USA. Diana Lopez, who arrived in Beijing courtesy of a controversial points win which is still the centre of an internet campaign, ended up winning a bronze medal. As she stood on the podium, ashen faced, she held up her medal, looked at it with what I can only call disdain, before letting it drop to her chest. Another Lopez, her brother Mark, trotted into the arena, bobbing his head like an arrogant rap star before getting beaten, after which he defiantly trotted back out again in a similar fashion before lodging a complaint. 

Whilst I can only try to understand that they have trained very hard for a very long time to get to Beijing and the thought of being so close and missing out must be hard to take, they really need to try and remember what the Olympics signifies and what it means and, as taekwondo ambassadors they need to reconnect with some of the tenants of the sport they obviously love. ‘Chong Shin’, which means sportsmanship or fair play, has been sadly lacking from some athletes during these games and I am sometimes ashamed that they are associated with taekwondo. I hate that taekwondo, a sport I love, is treated, along with the judges, philosophy and tradition with such disdain. It has been said that these practitioners practise the sport of taekwondo and not the art. It is claimed that some of these Olympic athletes are promoted rapidly through the ranks up to competition level and they really do not have a grounding in the art, which is a shame but might just explain some of the behaviour we have seen.

As I have mentioned taekwondo has been confirmed as a sport for the 2012 games in London and the WTF have announced plans to introduce an electronic scoring system next year, in preparation for the games and to try and eradicate some of this ill feeling that goes around at every major championship. This should appease some but others will no doubt be unhappy about something else, the electronic scoring system maybe? Maybe the answer is to simply make sure the judges are of the highest quality, maybe have a separate panel scoring the fight, which would be consulted if the judges disagree or have the fight over a few more rounds and score it like a boxing match with points awarded for round victories, not individual hits.   

My personal suggestion to make taekwondo more interesting and more appealing to a wider audience is to introduce poomse. These rhythmic forms are not only an essential part of taekwondo but are a necessary part of any belt grading. At the opening of the Seoul summer games in 1988 a mass poomse style demonstration was held to introduce taekwondo as a demonstration sport. Poomse would introduce another element to the sport, it would give practitioners an opportunity to show another integral but often overlooked part of taekwondo and it would allow the world to see that taekwondo is more than just what the world currently see at the Olympics. Poomse would demonstrate a wide variety of kicks, strikes and blocks as well as showing the graceful and controlled movements that are absent from sparring competition. 

Poomse is currently showcased as an individual and team event all over the world at regular tournaments and could easily be part of a team competition with or without sparring, much like table tennis and badminton are at the Olympics. If we can have gymnastics with a ball and a ribbon, synchronised swimming, two kinds of volleyball, softball and BMX, the why not poomse? 

Above all an for the sport to survive as an Olympic event some of the taekwondo spirit needs to be reintroduced to the competitors, otherwise London 2012 may well be the last the world sees of taekwondo. There are other sports that would jump at the chance to showcase on the biggest of sporting stages. 

Maybe electronic scoring is a start but above all these medal and glory hungry fighters need to remember what makes taekwondo unique and why it is the most popular martial art in the world. 

Taekwondo in Korea

The alarm woke me into a panic but I couldn’t move to stop it. My mind was racing, unsure of what was happening but my limbs were unresponsive. The alarm clock was making the kind of unbearable noise a baby makes when it cries, the kind of noise that demands attention. But I couldn’t move. My limbs wouldn’t budge. They felt heavy, like the seized up cogs of a long abandoned machine. I creaked and groaned with even the smallest movement toward the now screaming alarm. The pain from my muscles and joints was as unbearable as the din being produced by the alarm clock and I knew if I didn’t get up and stop it now it wouldn’t stop. Every six or nine minutes the racket would begin anew but now I knew it would be coming.

I managed to reach out and grab the clock with the kind of effort that is usually reserved for life or death situations, but the exertion was too much for my battered and bruised body and I collapsed back into the warm indent in the bed where my body had been recovering for the last nine hours. Now I had to get up and go through the ordeal again with my rusted cog like limbs and the solid masses that were my formerly supple but underused muscles.

I have lived in Korea, the land of the morning calm (which seems to be a touch ironic when you first start practicing taekwondo), for just over 13 months and have been studying taekwondo for six of those months. My muscles and joints are slowly learning that, along with the rest of my body and mind, they have to adapt to a new way of life.  They have to unlearn a lifetime of walking, running and jumping in favour of kicking, twisting and stretching and it’s hard work.

The seized up cogs are getting oiled but time and taekwondo wait for no man and so I have been forced to slip in extra stretching on the roof of my apartment (in full view of hundreds of Koreans who live in the towering blocks of apartments that surround my place) in order to not embarrass myself, my teacher or the way of life that taekwondo is for so many Koreans and non-Koreans around the world. 

Taekwondo truly is a way of life in Korea. There seems to be a dojang in every building, kids in their doboks run everywhere and at certain times of the day the roads are jammed with minibuses from taekwondo schools picking up and dropping off students all over the country.

I don’t wear my dobok in public, not for my own self conscious reasons you understand but for the safety of the Korean people. Some are so fascinated with my white face that the merest glimpse of me in a dobok would surely be too much for some of them to process and I fear there would be children and adults alike lying motionless in the road after their brains had just short circuited.

My teacher is an eighth dan master and lives for taekwondo. He is also a devout Christian. He recently asked me and the three other foreigners in our morning class, if we would put on a taekwondo demonstration at his church, to which we said yes. There are regular taekwondo demonstrations and events all over the country and they can often be found in churches as well as the more traditional sports centres. The Korean army and the police force are both trained to 1^st and 2^nd dan levels respectively and Korean universities have taekwondo departments and professors of taekwondo. 

Taekwondo has proved vital for me, as a way to keep fit and defend myself and as a sport, but most importantly as a window into Korea and its people and culture. Immersion is often touted as being the key to enjoying, appreciating and understanding a new and different culture and immersion can come in many guises. For some it’s the food, eating new things or taking part in strange ceremonies, for some it’s the language and for others it’s participating in some kind of traditional activity. For me it has been all three but taekwondo in particular seems to have grabbed me around the lapels and after the first hour it demanded I go back for more limb bending and muscle stretching. Taekwondo is much more than just stretching, kicking and punching however. It is more than just the physical; it’s the social, the spiritual and the communal. When you put on a dobok, you enter into a martial arts family and in my experience the family welcomes you with open arms.

When the iron fist of my teacher, Jeon Jeong Sul, Kwang Jang Nim, opened up it invited me into a world seen by few travellers or even lifelong taekwondo practitioners. I was invited to see and participate in the very essence of Korea. The ritualistic and communal eating habits of Koreans may be well documented but they were well and truly transcended when the two guests at an annual meeting of regional taekwondo masters were myself and another young, white, western taekwondo beginner. We were invited to see behind the curtain, to see the internal workings of the machine and to be able to interact with the masters that keep this taekwondo machine moving. 

These meetings are frequently held at restaurants (or at the very least include a sizable lunch break) and that day was a beautiful summer day. The restaurant was next to a flowing river on the out skirts of a city called Jinan. We drove through the countryside and around mountains, past small farms and even smaller dwellings. We turned off a small road onto another road which was more of a track than a road. There was a large house in front of us as we crossed the bridge over the river, which turned out to be a guest house. Next to the house was, what looked like a tennis court; there were men playing a game called ‘cheok-ku’ on it. Cheok-ku literally translates to foot-ball and is like doubles tennis but with feet instead of rackets and a football instead of a tennis ball. The mini bus parked up and the assembled masters disembarked. The seating area was a raised platform under a kind of awning, the river on one side and a wall of trees on the other. The ambience was a combination of Korean chatter, the river swishing by in the background and the main course yapping in an annex.

The steaming bowls of poshintang arrived after a debate amongst the masters, presumably some were saying we shouldn’t have it and others were saying we didn’t understand what we were getting ourselves into; the repetition of ”kwen-channa? (OK?)” was testament to this. As the bowls were laid down, all eyes turned to us, there were jokes made and laughs exchanged but it was all done with the kindness of parents joking with their children. Along with the world famous kimchi, poshintang is said to be very good for your health and is eaten more during hot weather as it is said to have qualities that can help to keep you cool during Korea’s exceptionally hot summers.

Not everyone likes poshintang (the often vilified dog meat soup) and so at lunch a chopped up chicken was offered too. The lure of a cultural experience and the addition of some brownie points from the assembled Kwan Jang Nims was too great an opportunity to pass up. The meat, minus the soup, was also served up with a kind of dipping sauce. I added to my taekwondo street cred again by drinking the obligatory two shots of soju that were offered to me.

As I went to bed that night thinking about how lucky I have been so far during my stay in Korea and how many amazing things I have experienced as a direct result of my practicing taekwondo I could only imagine the amazing things that were in store.  The creaking limbs and aching muscles haven’t gone away yet but as I inch toward my 1^st dan the pain becomes more bearable.  I have realised that the path to taekwondo ‘enlightenment’ is a long one and getting from white to black only represents walking to the garden gate from the front door. The real journey can only begin when you’re at the gate but it’s a journey I look forward to.  I have realised that I am participating in a pilgrimage to the land where taekwondo was born and where it is at it’s purest and I can only hope that taekwondo practitioners around the world have found as much kindness and friendship through taekwondo as I all ready have. A journey to the land of the morning calm to see the art practiced in full, glorious technicolour should be on the wish list of every taekwondo practitioner.