Snippets of amazing old footage

Full videos are available for our Members…

DON’T FORGET TO WATCH No. 10 – Paul McPhail performs Juche forwards and backwards

For my 5th degree black belt grading in 1993 I thought it would be a cool idea to perform Juche Tul forwards then backwards for General Choi.

The plan failed miserably as I started the backwards part… I hadn’t even considered the possibility that General Choi would take offence to it. He turned his head and refused to watch. I figured… well… I may as well carry on now and struggled through to the end.

I passed the grading so I guess the General had forgiven me by the day the results were announced.

Here is the footage of the pattern at the grading.

DON’T FORGET TO WATCH No. 9 – General Choi – The Encyclopaedia

This incredible audio footage was captured on cassette tape by Paul McPhail in 1981… as the founder talks about the encyclopaedia long before it is even published.

Listen to the entire recording here.

DON’T FORGET TO WATCH No. 8 – General Choi – A student of moral culture

This is the very special video of General Choi at his last ever full IIC. Here he talks about Taekwon-Do and moral culture and even mentions he himself is a student.

Members can find this footage on the website or in the App entitled General Choi in Jamaica 2001.

DON’T FORGET TO WATCH No. 7 – Grand Master Van Binh

In 2005 a unique seminar was held in Finland, where (then) Masters Tran Trieu Quan and Van Binh Nguyen gave an in-depth look into the whole system of Taekwon-Do. There were participants all over the world; Mariusz Steckiewicz (POL), Kurt Ottesen (CAN), Håkan Magnusson Lang (SWE) and Per Andresen (NOR) few to mention.

Members can find this footage on the website or in the App entitled Self Defence by GM Van Binh

DON’T FORGET TO WATCH No. 6 – The Side Back Strike

TKD Coaching has many hours of footage featuring General Choi Hong Hi instructing. In this clip Mr (now Master) Mark Banicevich asked the General about the angle of the arm for the side back strike. You can see Grand Master Tom McCallum watching on, as he was present at many of Gen Choi’s seminars around the world.

You can find this footage at minute 9:15 of the video entitled GEN. CHOI IIC 1998 PART 5

DON’T FORGET TO WATCH No. 5 – The “Karate” Expert

The documentary from the 1970’s features First Grand Master Rhee Ki Ha as the “Karate Expert”.

You can find this footage at minute 18:14 of the video entitled Old New Zealand TV Clips.

DON’T FORGET TO WATCH No. 4 – I’m Better than you are!

Classic Master Hutton humour. And a classic seminar from the Master’s Master.

You can find this footage at minute 10:17 of the video entitled Master Hutton Seminar.

DON’T FORGET TO WATCH No. 3 – Why are there 6 W-Shape Blocks in Toi-Gye?

A question everyone was always too afraid to ask. Well this brave junior black belt gave it a go back in 1998, and here is General Choi’s response.

You can find this footage at minute 25:41 of the video entitled GEN. CHOI IIC 1998 PART 5

DON’T FORGET TO WATCH No. 2 – First Grand Master Rhee Ki Ha

One of the most well known Taekwon-Do Masters in the World is Grand Master Rhee Hi Ha. He is widely recognised as the ‘Father of British Taekwon-Do’ for introducing this martial art to the United Kingdom since arriving in 1967.

Members can see a public demonstration by him and his members at the UKTA 30^th Anniversary seminar.

You can find this demo at minute 31:30 of the video entitled Old Martial Arts Footage.

DON’T FORGET TO WATCH No. 1 – The Amazing Park Joong Soo

The amazing Park Joong Soo demonstrating tournament rules in the official ITF Film of the early 1970s.

This film probably had a sound track but we have not been able to locate it. The idea was probably to explain all the ITF tournament rules of the time, with Park Joong Soo demonstrating them.

In this snippet watch his amazing speed and technique – especially his lead leg side kick – performed in a way many athletes only developed in more recent years.

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ITF Technical Seminar On-line

In December 2020 the ITF Hosted an On-line Technical Seminar. We had well over 1000 participants from 60 countries take part.

Here is a bit of behind the scenes background… and some new videos to come out of it.

This course came about due to Covid19. Around the world we were starting to get a backlog of people who wanted to grade for higher degrees but couldn’t, due to the requirement to do an IIC. So originally the idea was to do an on-line IIC.

After some discussion it was decided by the Technical Committee and the ITF Board to do a qualifying course for gradings… but it would be different from an IIC (obviously), so wouldn’t be called one.

The plan was for each of the technical committee members to create videos of our subject matter, and use those videos in conjunction with live Q&As. So we all set about doing that – only to find on our first practice that the videos would be too unreliable to use. Depending on the connection, they could be shaky and with bad audio.

So two weeks out, and already 800 registrations, we had to change our plan.

So we each then had to find people to work with, either in person or remotely, to demonstrate the patterns and do corrections with them. Master Judet and GM Lan were able to do that in person, but the rest of us had to work with people in remote locations.

In a way it worked out well as our sessions took on a different feel as we brought in some of the best pattern performers from around the world. I got to work with some world champions from Argentina and it was nice to meet and practice with them on-line.

Leading up to the seminar I have to tell you we were nervous. How would Zoom cope with 1000 participants… and how would we? With the help of the chairman of the Communications Committee we practiced being able to find the people in Zoom, Spotlighting them to full screen and so on. I also used some slides to try and make the most of what Zoom can do.

In the end we were happy with the way it all went. Everyone was so positive and we hardly had anyone drop off over the four hour sessions each day.

So some of the videos I prepared that didn’t end up being used, so I have uploading those for Members to watch.

This videos ended up being quite different from the Live version so should be of value even if you were at the seminar.

TKD April 24, 2021

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Classic IIC : Gen Choi in Jamaica 2001

Over a decade has now passed since the Founder of Taekwon-Do passed away. Every now and then I reflect that most of the people in my classes, even senior black belts, never got to meet and train with General Choi. That is a great pity as he was certainly a legend – an amazing figure and source of incredible knowledge.

In April 2002, practically on his death-bed, Gen Choi travelled to the United States to fulfil his promise to Grand Master CE Sereff to teach a course for his students. That was considered his last IIC. The previous September was the last full course, held in Jamaica shortly after the devastation of 9/11. As you will hear him say at the end of the video, the world was chaotic and people were afraid to travel. But 30 fanatical Taekwon-Do students gathered in Jamaica regardless to learn from the man himself.

TKD December 31, 2015

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Gen Choi instructing

Over two decades have now passed since the Founder of Taekwon-Do passed away. Every now and then I reflect that most of the people in my classes, even senior black belts, never got to meet and train with General Choi. That is a great pity as he was certainly a legend – an amazing figure and source of incredible knowledge.

This footage was shot by myself, Mark Banicevich and Graham Patterson – the three Kiwis at the course. It’s not high quality, but nevertheless it is valuable, historic footage to be cherished.

General Choi always encouraged us to ask questions. In fact before each course, he would approach some seniors privately and encourage them to ask lots of questions at the course. He usually wouldn’t discuss techniques much before that – preferring instead to save that for the seminar.

These videos show some techniques that have since been modified slightly since Gen Choi’s passing. The various organisations around the world have sought to standardise techniques as much as possible so it is natural that decisions had to be made on certain points that were ambiguous. The point here is that over the last decade some of these techniques have been changed so check with your instructor before quoting Gen Choi from this video. And in many cases there was no right or wrong answer on how a technique is to be performed. Gen Choi himself would show different variations at different courses. And he modified techniques over time too.

General Choi was most gracious and generous with his time, and was always careful to repeat his key points so they were clear. Sometimes though he would not quite understand what was being asked and go on a bit of a tangent. It was tricky to try and push for an answer sometimes without being disrespectful, so I would normally just stand and wait for as long as I could comfortably get away with – but sometimes eventually you just had to bow and sit down.

TKD August 2, 2022

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Relaxation : the key to power and performance

Spend any amount of time in a dojang and you will see some guy (and it is more often than not a guy) whose moves look, well, clunky. They have a tense stiffness about them, a forced attempt to generate power. Trust me I know I was that guy (and still am on occasions).

Instructors faced with the clunky guy almost invariably say “try to relax”. Of course as soon as anyone tells you to relax you are likely to find yourself completely unable to do so, in fact, you are likely to actually stiffen up more. Akin to the experience of being told not to think of a pink elephant, the first thing that pops into your mind is a pink elephant.

TKD September 3, 2021

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Dan-Gun Tul

Dan-Gun Tul is the pattern required at yellow belt level. This video features yellow belt Rebecca Chitty alongside ITF Patterns World Champion Miss Melissa Timperley, coached by Master Paul McPhail.

Although this level of critiquing may not be necessary at yellow belt level, it is hoped this video provides helpful tips to improve performance at any level. Some of the points raised by Master McPhail in the video are:

Correct intermediate positions for knifehand guarding block, twin forearm block and knifehand side strike

Correct finished heights and hand positions on various movements

Avoiding turning the fist before the end of the punch

Performing the pattern is Miss Rebeca Chitty, a yellow belt from Paul M Taekwon-Do in Auckland, New Zealand. Performing alongside her is Miss Melissa Timperley, ITF 3rd dan Patterns gold medallist in 2013 from Auckland New Zealand. The video begins with Rebecca performing the pattern alone, followed by an analysis of her pattern compared to Melissa. Then Melissa performs the pattern at the end of the video.

TKD May 22, 2015

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Do-San Tul

Liam Reynolds performing the pattern alone, and then alongside Miss Melissa Timperley.

It is not the intention of these videos to be unnecessarily critical, but more to teach a level of detail that may not be covered in a normal training session. By the use of slow motion we can highlight errors and offer suggestions for improvement.

TKD June 19, 2015

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