Instructors from the UKTD made the journey up to Edinburgh, Scotland, to attend an eagerly awaited seminar by the legendary ITF Grand Master Park Jong Soo. As a pioneer of Taekwon-Do, Grand Master Park’s roots lie in the Korean Military where Tae Kwon-Do was developed by General Choi. In 1964, he became Korean National Champion, and in 1965 at the request of the Korean Government, he made an extensive tour of many countries as a member of the Goodwill Mission for Tae Kwon-Do, accompanying the late General Choi and demonstrating Taekwon-Do before senior military and governmental members of the countries they visited.

Again in November 1973, GM Park made another world trip to promote Tae Kwon-Do in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Until recently GM Park was the chairman of the technical committee of the ITF and has recently been appointed as sparring and tournament director for the ITF.

The seminar began with a brief introduction to ITF free sparring technique and General Choi’s wishes for the continued development of ITF free sparring. An intense warm up was taken by GM Park, who displayed incredible stamina and flexibility, conducting himself as one would expect from a Taekwon-Do military instructor! After explaining in detail some stretching techniques and body conditioning exercises the seminar moved on to deal with core subjects. GM Park began with stepping and dodging manoeuvres applicable in free sparring. It was clear to all by the way he held himself and demonstrated with such confidence and fluidity that he had a vast wealth of experience behind him.

He then moved onto dodging and countering with hand techniques, multiple hand techniques, as well as unique hip motion for punching techniques. In fact, this hip motion was a theme throughout the seminar with hand, leg and flying techniques. It was hard to match GM Parks demonstration and ease of execution of these techniques. This motion proved to be highly effective in delivering a fast and direct attack, covering distance, whilst keeping most of the body and head away from the opponent.

The seminar also covered blocking techniques with simultaneous counters, multiple counters and defence against multiple attacks. Much time was spent on utilising lateral hip motion with kicking techniques as well as emphasis on lead leg and hand counter attacks. Part of the last day was spent on release movements, joint locking and other ‘self-defence’ techniques.

Overall GM Park shared with us his wealth of knowledge and experience on many aspects of free sparring, defence and attack, according to the wishes of General Choi. We are grateful for his generous tuition, time and energy and to Master Peter Harkess of the UKTC for hosting this spectacular seminar.

David Bogen
4th Degree Black belt
UKTD