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My Impressions of the 9^th ITF World Championship in Acapulco Mexico July 29th 2006

By Mrs Sian Moran

The 9th International Tang Soo Do Federation World Championships was hosted by Mexico and was held in the beautiful and famous bay at Acapulco. Masters and students attended from all over the world including Mexico, Panama, USA, Germany, Portugal and UK.

The Championships started on Friday July 28^th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel with a referee and judge re-certification, followed by seminars for Masters, Dan grades and colour belts. Master Kelly, assisted by other Masters, expertly taught Dan grades 4 of our new self defence techniques and Pyung Ahn Il Soo Sik 1-3, all under the ever watchful eyes of Choong Jae Nim, Grandmaster Chun Sik Kim. For most of the weekend all proceedings were conducted bilingually in English and Spanish. Practicing in pairs at the seminar this was not possible, so I found myself practicing my Spanish, trying to translate instructions for my Mexican partner Arecelia Mendietta from Mexico.

Following the awarding of certificates of attendance, the afternoon continued with the impressive Team hyung (forms) and exciting team sparring elimination rounds. The day ended with a sumptuous banquet at which Choong Jae Nim’s great friend Grandmaster Chun E Kim, founder of the Tae Kwon Do Times, was special guest of honour.

It’s easy for us students to take our Tang Soo Do classes, seminars and Tournaments for granted. They can only take place because of the tireless dedication and sacrifice, not only by Choong Jae Nim Chun Sik Kim and Bo Choong Jae Nim Master Joe Goss, but also by the members of Technical Advisory Committee of the Federation and all the Masters and instructors. After dinner, Choong Jae Nim presented awards to several Masters and instructors for their dedication, support and loyalty to the International Tang Soo Do Federation and for their Tang Soo Do spirit and humility. Master Adrian Mendietta and Master Toledo from Mexico were presented with awards in grateful thanks and recognition for working so hard along with their team of instructors in planning and organizing what was to be a wonderfully successful Championship. Special thanks were also expressed to Corona who sponsored the event and provided some eye-catching colourful banners that lined the tournament halls.

The wonderful banquet on Friday night at the Hyatt Regency Hotel made it hard to get up at 6am the following day to make our way to the Convention Centre where the second part of the tournament was being held.

Choong Jae Nim presided over the opening ceremony which started at 9am with over 800 competitors lined up in grade order, filling the entire floor of the centre, to salute the flags and listen to the South Korean and Mexican National anthems.

The first competition was the Masters Hyung division. This was one of the highlights of my day, since I rarely see masters compete and I had the opportunity to witness some awesome performances of advanced hyung that included Sip Sam and Jion. I found it hard to choose between them, but the judges awarded 1^st place to Master Marion Gregor of Pittsburgh, second place to Master Joe Fitzgerald of Chicago and 3^rd place to Master Chris DuFour of Pensacola Florida.

It was then the turn of the Dan grades to impress with their hyung and to try and follow the standard that the Masters had set before some joined their ring teams to judge or enjoy watching the colour belt hyung categories.

Hyung were followed by a demonstration by Master Marion Gregor of Tang Soo Do techniques and some normal everyday items such as a magazine can be used for personal self defence against an attacking assailant such as Master Bruno. We were also treated to an expert display by a Mexican student of a sword form and 2 Mexican instructors performing a synchronized creative form that is not normally practiced in Traditional Tang Soo Do.

Competition resumed in the colour belt categories with breaking (wood destruction), sparring and weapons. I saw some unusual and fascinating breaking techniques attempted, in the adult female categories; most of all the winning performance in the female adult Dan grade category of Kyo Sa Annette Salles of Germany. Her 3 station break included a free hand break and finished with an E Dan Yup chagi over 3 people bent at the waist and it certainly gave me something to aspire to achieve in the future.

What made the most impression for me was the enthusiasm, attitude and above all the wonderful Tang Soo Do spirit shown most of all by the Mexican students. They dominated some of categories since of the 12 students competing in the under 7 year old white and yellow belts sparring and one of the green belt junior hyung, all were Mexican students. Although there were students and teams from Puebla and Mexico D.F they supported each other as one large Mexican Tang Soo Do family. They created a fantastic noisy but very special atmosphere most of all at the end of the tournament during the climax of the day during the grand champion and team finals.

With their Tang Soo Do spirit and awesome skill it was little wonder that the Mexican students dominated the Dan grade sparring categories. Luz Maria Teran and Ricardo Pacheco winning their respective adult dan grade sparring categories, going on to win both the women’s and men’s grand champion trophy, a fantastic large bronze coloured Mexican eagle. Immediately after winning the grand champion sparring Ricardo Pacheco was back in the ring to captain his Mexican team mates – Tranquillino Santiago, Victor Pacheco, Virgilio Nuñez and Carlos Vasques to a well deserved win in the team sparring championship as well. The women’s team sparring was a hard fought battle between 2 USA teams, but it was the Detroit PKSA team which eventually came out on top.

Detroit PKSA Dan grade students performed to their usual excellent standards in the forms making a clean sweep of the grand champion individual and team forms. Kyle Martin won senior forms grand champion and Kevin Kowalczic won junior forms grand champion. Together with a 3^rd student Andrea Logan, they then made it a treble by winning the team form grand champion trophy.

They say time flies when your having fun, so I was surprised to find that when the tournament finally finished that it was10.30pm. Choong Jae Nim was very pleased with the Tang Soo Do spirit and attitude and of the very high standard of all competitors throughout the day. He expressed his sincere thanks to Master Mendietta, Master Toledo and their students and all the other Masters and instructors and also Corona, all of whom had worked hard to ensure that it was the most successful tournament to date. I’m sure everyone would agree that this tournament has set a precedent for the next World Championships, in Korea in 2008.