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ITFNZ SPARC PEG DANs in EU b4 WC08A group of the SPARC PEG
recipients from ITFNZ are travelling to Europe over the next month
for competition and training prior to the 2008 World Cup in Rome
(October 15-19).
Europe TKD report on camp: The ITFNZ website seems to have "a bit of a rep" round the world when it comes to publishing up-to-the minute commentary (well- maybe up the 'day-or-two'). See the Europe TKD website report on the camp (with a rather impressive list of "Training Staff" CV's !) - giving a link to here AND including the text from our guys :o) So - while keeping the home crowd informed and entertained, they have got themselves a bit of international spotlight.. Our thanks to Carl van Roon for his prolific penmanship (keymanship?), Carolina Dillen for reports and heaps of photos (artistic talent showing through there!), and not to forget the surprise appearance of our kiwi rap reporter/food critic, DJ Thompson : "but - its gotta be good for ya! " It will now be a couple of months gap before the main World Cup trip, unless we can get the guys to give us some recollections of high points :o), (maybe things that would be good to add to our NZ camps) ed:nb Lots more photos in Carolina's Picasaweb albums here
   Moskova Hey hey! I never managed to write a follow-up email to the last one where I mentioned I wanted to fill you all in on what gradings are like for colourbelts in Poland... So I will do that shortly. Right after you know where we are now :) We arrived in Moscow a few hours ago after a bit of a mission. It is currently 7.30pm local time. We caught the early flight (4am) out from Wroclaw this morning into Warsaw where we chilled for around four hours... Flights were all ok, other than the pushy indian family sitting behind Trotts and I. He even got his hair pulled - they obviously weren't impressed with him reclining his set back. Oh, and Aeroflot airways was once again very entertaining. Seats falling apart... Stitches and paint to cover things up... No kidding. Also windows that don't work. Wings that fall off... Ok not the last part but it was a bit of a laugh. I was just glad we only had to fly on that particular plane from Warsaw to Moscow which was around about 2 hours so all good. At least they have big seats to accomodate my lankiness... SO! We are in Moscow now staying at a cool little Inn called the "Kita Inn". Staff here are really friendly cool group. It kinda has the feeling of a hostel but more like a few seperate apartments divided into rooms for guests which is pretty sweet. The only problem was that it took us about an hour and a half from when we left the airport to find the place. And when we did finally arrive our taxi driver took me out of the car alone to search for it but there was no sign and the door was locked... So I began to wonder whether the Kita Inn actually even existed... But we finally managed to get inside due to a friendly neighbour and found the place. The only downside was that the taxi driver tried to have a go at us for only paying 3000 rubles when he had helped us to get inside and find the place... but the dude was driving around looking at his map for like half an hour and going round and round... It is very busy here so no wonder he got a bit irate. Nevertheless, I was glad that the boys were here with me so the angry russian was desuaded from trying to pull a fast one and rip me off. We also had taxi issues at the airport.... First guy that came up to us took ages to quote a price and acted like he didn't know the address. I just reckon he was sizing us up for how much he could rip us off lol. Admittedly, we looked super fresh. We might as well tack big banners saying NON-RUSSIAN to our foreheads as it is. We all kinda got the same feeling with the dodgy quote so walked off to buy some time (even though all these random taxi middle-men were trying to follow us) and then we found another cat who would do it for us for half-price... We took it. Probably could've got it cheaper but by that time I think we all just wanted to get out of there! Alright. Anyhow. It has been fun. And unlike the other countries none of us have even the slightest idea on how to decipher Russian lettering... Ordering lunch today was, well, a bit of a task. I don't get the feeling that there are too many foreigners around. Back to the grading - I know you've been waiting for it. Or maybe not at all. Either way, all I really wanted to say was that the pass / fail ratio is in extreme contrast with our ratio back home. I think we were all pretty shocked to learn the pass rate for the group of blue and red belts we were watching was 25%!! Man... And there were people in this group that I swear could've been blackbelts back home! Master Jedut really is a straight shooter when it comes to gradings, he doesn't seem to beat around the bush at all. That must be why the Polish standards are so high. I guess when they get a blackbelt they must feel like they have really earnt it. Mind you, not to say our blackbelt gradings over two days are easy! By no means. Master Jedut just shoots straight regarding feedback. If you are good enough he says so and if he thinks you can do better he says that too. Perhaps Trott-box said it best when he commented "He's like the Simon Powell of Taekwon-Do" (you know, the nasty english judge from American idol). Other than the mess that I've just delivered to you here nothing else much has happened... I think we're all gonna have a wee kip before heading out for dinner in Moscow central. We also have the day to spend adventuring around the city tomorrow and before moving directly onto Tokyo for the final leg of the saga!~ Until then. Peace out. Carl End of the camp - Carl van Roon . Hi all this may not be the best update as I'm writing this from the town square in Wroclaw (pronounced brotswav or something similar). We fly out from here tomorrow morning at 4am... Through Warsaw and onto Moscow for a night. So, on with the update regarding yesterday. Master Jedut actually took a very humane class for our final session. Most of the Class focused on footwork and developing decent rhythm during exercises. Master Jedut did of course save a few fun exercises to send us on our way including a test of which just involved sitting cross-legged with arms extended at 90 degrees to either side... for what must've been five minutes or so. Master Jedut finished with a talk on the benefits of pushing past your limits. He discussed how training ten days straight without rest isn't ideal under normal circumstances but it really gives you an insight into your own training ethic, giving you something to feel good about at the end of a long haul. So we're chilling out here in the town square discussing our thoughts on the camp. It would seem that given the chance we would all seriously consider doing this again. To finish up, I thought I would describe last night's grading. I'll send this through first though as writing on this tiny keyboard has taken a while and I'm paranoid about losing this wireless connection! CvR ( a different viewpoint - from DJ Thompson :) Food in Poland Hay all,its D.J here, Currently known as 'Boo Boo Bot' - don't ask, that's what happens when you travel, you get a new nick name every trip. Well as M.P (Carl) has explained about the food situation, Im gonna go into it, in a little bit more detail. First with breakfast, you are welcomed to a beautiful sun rise which is so warm, and to match, warm milk with your cereal mmmmmmmm oh I love warm milk. The cereal is full of nuts and rasins with some odd looking black marble things, they are as hard as a marbles, I'm not too sure what it is, but, its gotta be good for ya. With this cereal, you can't forget your vegies - go the cucumbers and tomatoes. Some of you should try it one morning, try a spoon full of cereal put a bit of cucumber in your mouth then wash it down with some warm milk PERFECT! Lunch here is the main meal of the day, so its sort of like having dinner at lunch time. Now this is my refueling part of the day. With lunch we have had a variety of meals, from what I think was pork but tasted a bit like lamb then a bit like beef - I'm not too sure what it was, but - its gotta be good for ya. You get brown rice with most of the meals and a buffet of veges, carrots with some sort of hot mustard sauce and coleslaw which is kinda like soup, well thats the buffet. We have also had meat balls, I am not too sure about the meat, I think I had chicken and beef in mine, there were bits of white meat in it, hay it could be the special ingredient - well thats what I'm gonna call it. With this meal you also get soup. Potato soup, Mushroom soup, Pea soup, Soup with bits of meat in it, and oh yeah heres that little black thing again, its in all the soups, so - its gotta be good for ya. Then here comes my favourite part of the day, Dinner. Now as you all know, Kiwis love their meat, and for dinner thats exactly what you get MEAT!! and the meat sweats hahahaha As you walk into the food bar you are welcomed with a massive smell of MEAT!! There is a wide array of sausages such as Black sausages which are full of blood (not really my liking but Sue loves them) Red sausages which M.P and Juggerman (Luke) devour a whole plate everytime. I liked the Sausages in wraps, kinda like little breakfast sausages, but I gave up on them by the time you open it, its cold. Ham HAm HAM!!! theres another variety of ham and luncheon, I think I counted seven different types of ham and about five diifferent types of luncheon. And for all the vege loving people out there here it comes cucumbers tomatoes and bread!!! We have classified bread as a vege over here as it has carbs. Dinner is about 7pm, its quite early, so around 8:30pm we somehow find ourselves wandering down to this pizza place down the road (hey we've gotta eat) - its gotta be good for ya!!!! Well I hope all is well in NZ and all is not too cold. See you all soon Your food taster Boo Boo Bot Chesht (or something like that!) - means "Hi" Yesterday's training wasn't as tough as I'd expected but still... when you have old school NZ 50 cent coin size blisters on the balls of your feet? Well, even walking down to the dojang can take longer than usual. As I've mentioned before though, the way they warmup here you don't really think "Oh, I have to warmup, I don't really wanna go through all this again... My feet..." etc because you are so preoccupied with the games that suddenly you feel like "Oh. Ok this isn't so bad". Yesterday's training involved more free-sparring drill situations and one of Master Loboda's "inventive" classes that was full of funny self-defense tricks and full of his slapstick style humour. Master Loboda has a very distinctive voice and uses his tone well to encourage and maintain rhythm during exercises when the energy chips are down. This morning's class on the other hand was taken by Master Jedut and involved plenty of leg-control at the beginning and end of class, plyometric exercises jumping over one another and then free sparring drills with the primary aim of learning to effectively manuipulate distance and timing during sparring. Or as Master Jedut would say "Controlling the rhythmic of the fight" :D We got to our scheduled class finish time and it was almost as if everyone let out a mutualistic sigh of relief. And then we carried on for another 20 mins of jumping push-ups, 100 turning each leg, 50 side each leg, 15 downward each leg without putting the leg down. By this stage I think we were all thinking the same thing with every new kick "This will be the last one.... Come on. No big deal. We are almost done..... Ok, THIS one will have to be the last one....." All in all though we are in fine shape. A little sore here and there but generally ok. Mark seems to have damaged his shin a little. DJ has torn off a nice chunk of skin off the bottom of his foot... I think we are all enjoying the blisters and generally feeling like our gluts are going into rebellion against the rest of our body: "Look, you obviously don't know what you are doing so, I'll take over from here..." One more training to go this arvo. The final step will be a colourbelt grading this evening. Lots of kids and adults practicing syllabus material between classes, naps and meals here. I think we are in agreement that it will be interesting to see how much emphasis is given to different areas within gradings compared with home. Until my final camp update take care everyone and hope you are enjoying that cold weather back home :P CVR ( Forgot to add photo link last time. As I said, this link just gives you an idea of where we are. The same gym, location etc. We are not in the photos because this page only contains shots from previous, smaller camps. Hopefully they will post some from this camp soon! www.itfeurope.org/NL2008-02-17.html Cheers - Carl ) Dzien dobre Had another intense day of training here. Back into the eat, sleep, train cycle. Just finished dinner - we had a big photo op session outside on the field with photos of the entire army here as well as various national team shots. I only felt a little sunstroked by the end of it :) Speaking of dinner, DJ has agreed to post up a summary of his feelings on the Polish menu we've been served during this time. Really, it has been great food for training. All the right stuff... just a little quirky at times I guess. But I'm not fussy. Mostly. The blood sausage doesn't do it for me but raw radishes for breakfast? All good... Anyhow I'll leave the explanation of the food to DJ. Today we spent a lot more time on sparring in the afternoon session which was cool. Generally everyone has very good control which makes for an enjoyable yet hard-working / competitive environment. This afternoon I got to spar many a round with one Polish fighter from my weight division (under 80kg) who has come 2nd and 3rd in this years national championship tournaments to the likes of Daniel Dziala (3x world champ in my weight division). So, needless to say I got a lot out of it. Having the freedom to try out different things on a new opponent who knows how to put the pressure on without having to worry to much about points scoring is liberating. The morning session involved a long haul of fundamental movements that went on continuously for about an hour and finished with a whole bunch of leg control exercises. One exercise for example was 100 consecutive turning kicks against a kick shield without a break. Then Master Jedut: "Ok good. Now 200".... 5 mins later with our heads hanging down and clutching our gluts "Ok. Dobje. 100 more to finish". I don't remember ever doing 800 consecutive turning kicks in a row. Reminds me of what it first felt like to do consecutive kicking... I feel like a beginner again... Which of course is nice. That is what it is all about. Reaching over those plateaus that seem to exist but we all really just construct for ourselves beacause we can't see past our perceived limitations. Or something like that... :P I think the others have bailed on blood sausages, gherkins, radishes and potato soup and have opted to head for the Pizzeria down the road. I don't blame them. I guess you could get a bit tired of the same food but really I've been pleasantly suprised by the food here. Just a couple more days to go. It has gone quickly. I was just saying to one of the others "imagine if you trained / lived like this everyday of your life"... The conversation carried on as we hypothesised how that might have been the very case for the North Koreans of pre-2003... Seriously, some of the leg control exercises today involving multiple kicks (e.g. two downward kicks backwards per slide with perfect balance across the hall) had us truly stumped. Even Trotts found it very challenging. The jugger-brothers and I could barely move. Master Jedut explained to us that these were some of the exercises introduced to Poland by visiting North Korean instructors in 1982! I wasn't even a glint in my fathers eye. Haha We got some training to do. Catch up again soon. And congratulations to all those who competed in the Auckland North Regionals on the weekend... CVR ps: While I hope to upload some shots of us from camp (I forgot the USB cable necessary for the operation from my camera) here is a link to the European Taekwon-Do website that shows you just a little of the hall and surrounding where we are training. I think the shots are from other years but you get the idea. (Um - hopefully Carl will actually include the link next epsiode :) I will endeavour to get you some shots! Cheers Evening all, I think Mark in particular is enjoying being able to work with lighter,
quicker guys around his size. As I am with some of the larger / taller
ones. There are a couple with whom I am well matched but still have good
control in spite of our friendly competiveness which is sweet.
END OF THIRD DAY Hi guys,
Just finished our afternoon session.
This morning Master jedut took us for a grueling strength and conditioning
session that involved high intensity plyometric exercises alternated
with stretching and isometric holding of squats etc before moving onto
a full hour of power kicking against kicking shields. We went through
all sorts of power kicks thrown in creative ways which tested our endurance,
power and control... but most of all, our spirit.
All I kept thinking was "Harder! Harder! Keep going... we get a day
off tomorrow to hit Prague!" ;) No not really *cough* I was actually
completed motivated and wouldn't have saved any energy if I knew we were
still training the next day too... Not.
Some of us are struggling a little with minor injuries / niggles but
nothing too major yet. A few people with some joint pain and sore feet
mostly.
The afternoon session was at a more leisurely pace - by this camp's
standards at least so i left us spent but still able to walk.
It is easy to warmup here with the wide variety of games and interesting
exercises rather than slog it out with the same old star jumps or joggin
around the hall... ZZZZ. <Carl with his unmotivated, unattentive face>
After the high pace warmup we geared up for work on our hands for
sparring with several point sparring scenarios in which each partner
had to take on a specific role and come out with the first point. This
was great fun and involved a rotation around the hall that let us work
out with those who we hadn't had the chance to train with yet.
But don't think we got off that easily... Master Jedut finished with
a "fun" pyramid of jumping punches (four per jump) for five continuous
jumps followed by 10 push-ups, followed by four jumping punch sets of
five, followed by 9 push-ups... you get the point. I haven't felt so
weak as when we got to the last 2 and 1 push-ups which he made three
finger and two finger push-ups... I could barely move as it was.
Just come back from that session now. To my left on the next two computers
(there are only three here so NZ is kinda hogging cyberspace) are DJ
and Luke. Fondly known around these parts as the "Jugger-brothers".
I wouldn't wanna sit in these chairs after us either. We all look
like we've come out of a pool. Of sweat.
Well, I think that is pretty much it. I think I will spend my last
ounce of strength on some patterns consultancy tonight with Master jedut
if I get the chance to work with him.
Trotts was up chatting with the Irish micro Luke last night and Master
Jedut walked in the door (at 1am).
Master Jedut: "Oh, hey! You have been waiting to do some training
yes? Come on - let's go..."
Trotts: "Uh. No, no you need your rest sir..." (good cover Trottbot)
I should mention this is all after his Slovakian trip that I mentioned
in yesterday's update...only he got lost two times on the way there and
two times on the way back! Poor guy. Poor incredibly freakishly dedicated
guy :) Very inspirational.
Other than that guys we pretty much eat and sleep when we are not
training. Several hours rest feels like a short break... So for those
that know how I eat, imagine that times two and you get the idea. I NEED
ENERGY! FEED ME!! RAHHH!!! haha.
Speaking of that - it is dinner time. Forget this update stuff!
Laters
Carlo
END OF SECOND DAY Evening all
Coming to the end of our second day. But before I talk about today
I will fill you in on what happened on the second half of the first day.
After lunch we had a great pad work session involving some challenging
footwork and kicking combinations in relation to our partner's movement.
Learning to throw techniques from unusual angles and positions of vulnerability
was the flavour of the day. We all learnt a lot from this session which
was also taken by Master Jedut.
Every evening at camp there is a self-defense class held by a special
forces officer and 3rd Dan ITF blackbelt who teaches some nasty techniques
for close quarter situations. During this time and late into the evening
or should I say following morning there is time for 1 on 1 trainings
to be done with an instructor of your choice. As long as you manage to
make it to the front of the line that is.
Last night Mark waited until 11pm to work with Master Jedut. Now I
know why he has the nickname Jedi from his Polish National team students...
the man has neverending passion for teaching. After taking Mark well
past midnight he hit the sack and woke up for a 4hour drive to Slovakia
to take a grading, four hour drive back and he should be due in just
about now, on the second evening. He even said he would teach anyone
who was waiting at 1am when he expected to arrive!
So today we had two great sessions:
The first was with Master Loboda, yes the boss of all bosses, who
took us through various crazy plyometric exercises and warmup games that
kept us on our toes never knowing what was coming next. He spent the
majority of the class on sparring drills that picked up from where Master
Jedut left off on the first day. With emphasis on relating to one's opponent
effectively with footwork and feeling the rhythm of partner-work sequences.
This session really got me thinking about a lot of things which I hope
to put to good use during our build up to the World Cup in 4 months.
The second session was taken by Suska, yes Mr. 4th Degree 3 x world
Champ extraordinaire. I don't think I have ever seen somebody with leg-control
move quite like him. The class would often spontaneously explode into
rounds of applause with awe at the effortless control of consecutive
kicks thrown with perfect balance. Truly amazing and very inspiring to
us all. All of us kept going on about how good a session it was afterwards.
I think we were all just glad it was over! Oh did he work us... I understand
why he was described in the camp information hand out as having the highest
technical ability in the history of Polish TKD.
Carolina is looking over my shoulder now watching me write this. She
has just got back from a 1 on 1 session with Suska on her 1st degree
patterns. Awesome.
And now I'm being informed that Suska has been to every single Polish
Championship since they began twenty one years ago. He started when he
was twelve and trained for a year and half before he even graded to his
first colourbelt. So don't think you have to start when you are in diapers
to reach the top guys!
Anyway back to the session, glancing at my team-mates gave away that
they were feeling as I was. Particularly Trotts who was brought up to
demonstrate at least every second technique. They seem to enjoy doing
that to him... And we did too :) The shear volume of leg control exercises
and repetition done in the session over around and hour and a half was
incredible and is testament to the phrase perfect practice makes perfect.
Really really inspiring stuff in a very satisfying session.
Tomorrow we have another days training. Not sure what yet but that's
just the way it goes here ;) And then... we get a day off to go to Prague
on Friday!
Yay yea----! That's for you Erica :)
Peace out
CVR
Morning (evening for you all)
We've just completed our first training with Master Jedut (head coach
of the Polish National team and all around technical wizz and motivational
legend).
The session involved some very creative games, warm-up exercises and
then A LOT of leg control... Things were getting pretty freaky by the
time we were doing 6 or 7 kicks off one leg from jumping, spinning to
posing without lowering leg... Watching some of the redbelts behind me
left me feeling a little wanting with regards to my leg control...Let's
just say they didn't seem fazed by pumping out multiple sets of 70 perfect
consecutive high turning / side / reverse hooking - turning kicks (as
in head height without putting the leg down) without so much as blinking.
Mark was working particularly hard, being up front with his stripes
and all he must've been pulled up to demonstrate half of the leg-control
exercises / combinations by Master Jedut... Sucker ;) That's why I stayed
1st dan for 7 years matey.
Just for a little background Master Jedut has consistently produced
generation after generation of world champions, primarily in patterns
and sparring. He is also the coach of Jaroslaw Suska (3 time 4th Dan
patterns world champion and something like 14 time European champion)
- for those who don't know, just type in "Suska moon moo" to you-tube
and you'll see why he is the man :)
So it was a cool experience for Mark (Suska's number one contender)
to be coached by the man who helped Suska reach his exceptional standards
in patterns. Nice.
After lunch this afternoon we have a competition sparring specific
session. Every evening throughout the camp there is a choice of self-defense
with a expert in the area or 1 on 1 consultation availiable.
Catch up with ya later this evening (your morning) or possibly tomorrow
morning (your evening)...
Until then.
Carlo
Dzien dobry nowa zeland, We have arrived in Poland after another massive couple of days. After our marathon day of exploring Venice we returned and crashed back in Jesolo at our hotel. The following day (sunday) we packed up our bags, checked out of the hotel and made a trip to Acqualandia: one of the most famous water-parks in Europe which boasts the highest / steepest drop on a hydroslide in the world (or so the brochures say). Luke, DJ and myself opted to go first but by the time we were up ten stories plus we were all trying to play it cool but obviously a little apprehensive (as evidenced by Luke having to pry my shaking hands from the handrail on the final slight of stairs...) *Cough* I mean... <voice breaking> I'm sweet... Bro. I just.. Tripped." :D It was high enough to feel the tower shaking a little from side to side. Which was fun. And so was being airborne for what feels like a few seconds... Hopefully I'll send you through a picture of that. A real sweet rush that kinda left the other slides feeling a little lame was the only down side... So after our sunburning experience at Acqualandia with it's wave pools and crazy basketballing trampoline slam dunk shows we trekked back into venice from Jesolo (where our hotel was situated) by bus, taxi, water taxi boat, and finally into a couple of taxi drivers who weren't afraid to get a little "fast and the furious" while we were on the motorway out to catch our 10.25pm flight back to London. Murphy's law of course though, we turn up and the flight is delayed anyway... We made it into London around 1am local time and immediately checked into our transit hotel courtesy of the excellent planning skills of Miss Dillen ;) DJ was crashed and spread eagled before I could even get my shoes off - a reflection on how the 4 hours of sleep or so that we managed to get before our early morning flight was much needed by all. Our flight was fairly uneventful, just hard to sleep as the chairs don't recline on the most budget of British airlines "Ryanair"... still, we arrived in Poland in a cheerful mood and were happy to note the temperature was far more like summer at home at around 26 or 27 degrees C. After spending a few hours in Wroclaw (in the South West of Poland near the border with Czech Republic) we jumped on ANOTHER bus off to the smaller town of Nowa Ruda which is where I am writing this from. Nowa ruda is really tiny - we're talking the size of a small - average size rural town along state highway 1 back home... Luke and DJ in particular have received quite a lot of attention on account of their unusual looks relative to the locals and other camp partcipants. The last leg of the trip took around 2 hours and left us relieved that we wouldn't be living out of our suitcases for the next ten days. So far we have been introduced to Master Loboda (the head of the AETF: All Europe Taekwon-Do Federation) and all around nice guy. He even has a t-shirt with text in a bold white font on a black background that translates as "THE BOSS OF ALL BOSSES" We've been informed that there are 9 countries represented here at camp including Poland itself and while not all participants have arrived there should be around 200 - 300 people in total. So far I think I've seen around 200 from countries such as Ireland, Belgium, Poland and ourselves... Tomorrow morning is our first training session. We have been divided into four groups in total. A junior group and three adult groups divided into lower gup grades, higher gup grades and blackbelts. Other than that we just smile, nod and wave so the plan for each day is still largely a suprise for us. I'm really looking forward to it :) Everybody here has been so friendly, welcoming and helpful... I'll drop ya'll another update tomorrow post morning and afternoon trainings to let you know how it went. Until then... ZZZZZZZZZZZ Carl VR Hi there everyone - Ciao It is around midnight here so I apologise if this update is a little lame with regards to content / length... We've just returned from a huge self-guided marathon tour of a day exploring Venice and it has to be one of the most unique places I have ever had the opportunity to visit. From the bell-tower in the square near San Marco's Basilica (a beautiful cathedral with a ceiling covered in golden leaf) you can see the entire Island city of Venice. We ventured through most of the central city and back from Coast to Coast... And for those that haven't been it really is just like in the movies. And not quite as smelly as some people have lead me to believe. Either that or my armpits were just getting a bit overpoweringly feral by that stage so I was immune to the smell of fetid sewerage. One or the other :D Haha So we passed on the 100 euro (200 NZD) gondola (boat) ride around the canals of Venice which while it sounded ideal was a little out of our price range... Carolina will be uploading some photos to go along with this update so while I won't spend much time explaining things I hope the shots we send through do a bit of the talking for me... Tomorrow we are back off to London in the evening in transit to Poland for the start of our ten day training experience. Pretty much over the jetlag now so really looking forward to it. At least the vertigo doesn't make me Take care and peace out Ciao Carlo
Ciao noueva zelanda Writing this email I am sweating like crazy... Man is it hot.... And it's still early in the morning... It's gonna get even hotter. Anyway - enough of my sweating descriptions. I'm sure you've had enough of that. Back in London after a creative and energetic class with Mr. Tom Dennis we crawled our way back to rest up for our flight out of London to Venice that was scheduled the next morning... Mr. Dennis class involved some great Taekwon-Do specific strength and conditioning drills in a very Polish inspired style. A lot of challenging drills involving intricate footwork to setup solid counters such as switch turning and back kicks. Looking forward to more of the same once we arrive in Polska. The class had a good pace, very little waiting around with a good aura about it. We were all a little worse for wear during certain drills trying to impress those around us - I really didn't think the jet-leg would effect us that much but there was more than a few times that I caught fatigued glances of my team-mates that looked the way I felt... Still, afterwards we were all in very good spirits after dusting out the cobwebs. So, yesterday we spent pretty much the entire day in transit once again, making our way from bus to train to plane to bus to other bus and finally... to our, get this... Beachfront hotel. Jealous? Thought so ;) Sorry I can't load up any photos as of yet I don't have a suitable USB cable but hopefully one of the other guys can suss something out from the material they have got. We're staying in a spot about 50km from Venice itself on the beach front of Jesolo (pronounced "yea-so-low"). And for your sweat update - I think DJ was scaring more than a few customers when the sweat on his neck was running like a tap during dinner last night - Pizza and Pasta at a local family restaurant. Today we're just chilling out - still struggling a little to overcome jet-lag vertigo considering last night was the first time we've slept in a proper bed for half a week :D I guess our accomodation makes up for that though. Btw - for those who are not aware, our tournament here in Italy was cancelled... We are gutted and were hoping that things would pull through and we would still be able to compete but it didn't work out... We don't know what has happened but it must've been pretty drastic. All good I guess. From the sounds of the torture stories I've heard we're gonna need everybit of R&R we can get before they grind us into our sparring boots at the ten day Polish training camp... Tomorrow we will venture into the heart of Venice, which I am really looking forward to and then the following day we may visit one of Europe's biggest water fun parks "Aqualandia" (water land... right?) Until next time folks - take care and ciao bella / bello from Italia. Carlo
6pm London time.
Good morning New Zealand!
Carl VR here in London...
To fill you in on the saga so far.
The four of us (myself, Mark Trotter, Luke Thompson and DJ Thompson)
arrived here last night at around 1am local time after 36 plus combined
hours of flying and airport transit... I had wanted to drop a quick first
update from Shermetyevo airport in Moscow on the way through but language
issues saw my efforts to access the airport wifi services thrawted :(
We all agreed that our experience at Moscow was of the 70s influenced
retro variety and left us feeling like we had gone back in time to the
coldwar period... Trust me. I think you'll understand once you see some
of our photos...
Ms. Carolina Dillen meet us at the airport at Heathrow much to our
relief and quickly guided us back to her friend's place where we happily
crashed last night.
This morning we woke early and got straight out into London to see
all the main sights - Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the river Thames,
Westminster Abbey, Big Ben Tower, the houses of Parliament etc... it
was a stunning whirlwind tour.
We also managed an afternoon journey out to the covent garden markets
before sucumbing to a severe bout of Threethirtyitis which left us feeling
a little inebriated by the time we managed to get back to base to chill
out.
Which is where we are now.
In about five minutes we're off to train with Mr Tom Dennis, 6th degree
and English National Squad Head Coach. Carolina has already described
the "intensity" at which Mr Dennis holds his trainings... which sounded,
well - fun. Just ask Carolina about the tennis ball sized blisters on
her feet next time you see her :)
Mr. Dennis: "So guys, not sure how you normally do things back in
New Zealand? How does 400 turning kicks, 400 side kicks and 400 back
kicks (each leg) sound. For a warm-up?"
I can just see my face...
"Oh yeah. Only 400? *gulp* Pwfft. <Scoffing at 400 with a dismissively
cool face> Back home we like to do 600 but yeah, we are a little jet-lagged
so 400 is cool..."
So, we are looking forward to meeting up with members of the English
team (which we met at the Canadian Worlds and also at the US Martial
Arts Open last year) as well as ex-NZ team member Suzanne Main and past
grand world champion himself - the NZ bred grand poo ba meat patty Graham
Patterson :D
We'll let ya'll know how it goes.
Until then over and out from London with Carl VR and the European
tour crew.
CVR
LATEST NEWSCONGRATULATIONS to Carolina Dillen who took out first place in patterns, sparing and was awarded Best Over-all Black belt at the International tournament in the Czech Republic on Thursday! More news too come soon. This is a great start to the year from one of our SPARC carded athletes! From Carolina Dillen - 1st Dan - Impact Taekwon-Do ClubHi Everyone, As some of you may already know, a small group of us (Mark Trotter, Luke Thompson, DJ Thompson, Carl van Roon and myself) are spending some time training in Europe this winter in preparation for the World Cup in October. I left a bit before the rest of the group and have been in London just over a week now, training with the English Coach, Mr. Tom Denis. Mr Dennis was my instructor in 2004 when I lived in London and its been really awesome to train under him again. He has three clubs which means there is training every night of the week. Currently his team are preparing for a team events competition in Spain next week, so there's extra training on Saturday and Sunday as well! The training atmosphere is really fun and friendly and at the same time everyone works very hard. Tom is a great coach, with a good eye for detail and even though he comes across as laid back, when he tells you to do 400 kicks as fast as you can, you do it! (and with each leg).  Fellow Kiwis Graham Patterson (5th Dan) and Suzanne Main (4th Dan) are here as well. They have been living in London for about a year now and its been cool catching up with them and definitely nice to hear a kiwi accent now and again!  Our original plans were to compete at the Veneto Open in Italy on the 28th and 29th of June and fly out to the Polish Summer Camp the following day. Unfortunately at the last minute this tournament was cancelled. There is not much we can do about that! The main focus of the trip will be the Polish Summer Camp, which lasts for 10 days. I have been to a few of these camps before and boy are they something. There are three training sessions for seniors a day (more if you want to join the junior class which in my opinion is sometimes harder than the senior class!) taken by some of the top coaches and competitors in the world. In between sessions there's plenty of time to meet people from other countries, watch some of the hundreds of Taekwon-Do videos available, go swimming or enjoy the other camp facilities...that is if you can still move. I've been told in the middle of the camp we will also have the option of a day trip to Prague for sightseeing. The rest of the group from NZ arrive on Tuesday the 24th of June. In the meantime, I am flying out to Brno in the Czech Republic on Thursday for a tournament (I have no idea what to expect!) and returning via a short road trip through Eastern Europe to meet the guys on Tuesday in London. We hope to keep you updated as best we can (as long as there is internet available) and promise to bring back the latest training ideas from Europe. Best wishes, Carolina Dillen 1st Dan - Impact Taekwon-Do Club |
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