Mar
26
2008
2008 Australian Nationals – Homebush, Sydney 4th – 6th Sept 08
The 2008 Australian Taekwondo National Championships has been awarded to Sydney. The venue is the Homebush Stadium which was the venue for the taekwondo at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. It is within the Sydney Olympic Park precinct.
The schedule is as follows:
| Thursday | 4th September | Technical Events |
| Friday | 5th September | Colour Belts Sparring |
| Saturday | 6th September | Black Belt Sparring |
The information package and application form can be downloaded and viewed here.
Students wishing to participate will need to consider training with the WA State Squad. Click here for more details regarding the WA State Squad Training sessions.
Tags: national tournament
Mixed bag of results for sparring at the 2008 WA State Taekwondo Championships | Taekwondo: ATA Western Australia says:
June 8th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
[...] believe all place getters (and all black belt entrants) are qualified for the Nationals to be held in Sydney this year. If you are interested, please let your instructor know immediately and get your flights [...]
Roy Khoh says:
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:10 am
From attending the last few Australian Nationals, I can say that the “technical event” (or Poomsae) day is DEFINITELY an ALL DAY event.
I’m trying to remember, and I think the last 3 years, I went to the event as scheduled at around 8:30am for registration … and I think, on average, I finished the day around 10:30pm at night!!!
Definitely happened in Hobart for 2005 Australian Nationals.
Definitely happened in Adelaide for 2006 Australian Nationals.
I just cannot quite remember how it went in Adelaide for 2007 Australian Nationals – although I CAN remember still being there around 6:30pm.
Sparring days are generally pretty good. I can’t remember whether it was an Australian National Championship or another tournament, when there were still fighters waiting to fight their final match around midnight. From memory – the Nationals have kept the sparring side pretty close to schedule, though.
Roy Khoh says:
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:14 am
Homebush was the venue for my first ever Australian National Taekwondo Championships back in 1993. This was when the area wasn’t known as “Olympic Park”.
It was so much fun – seeing and visiting Sydney; the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and staying in Kings Cross!!! A wonderful experience for a young teenage boy
simplelogik says:
July 7th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Darn!! Seems that TA had taken creative and creative with music off the Nationals program (thank gawd for that
). Hopefully it’ll finish early. Hopefully the next thing they would do is amalgamate all the black belt divisions together to be the same as World Championships format.
Grasshopper Shane says:
July 7th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Greetings Earthlings,
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that as we move forward in our quest for higher belts, more refined poomsae, the perfect roundhouse, or tournament gold, we seem to have lost some sight of our most basic protocols.
…
[edit]
This comment has been moved to a forum topic here. Entitled “Where’s the ETIQUETTE gone?”
Roy Khoh says:
July 7th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I think it would be unfair to have the black belts amalgamated in the poomsae competition.
Simply because of the knowledge required in competing against different Dan levels. Can you imagine a new black belt 1st dan entering Nationals if they had to compete with 5th dans and such? Not only that, they would probably need to learn their new pattern (Keumgang) and then all the other ones that are required if it was all amalgamated (Taebaek, Pyongwon, Sipjin and possibly more depending on age).
Sparring is different. There’s very little technical skill required in that. Great timing, agility, physical ability, fitness, speed and strength are essential for sparring. You don’t even need to be accurate (yes it is very helpful to be accurate, though).
If you are twice as strong as your opponent in the sparring ring, you can absolutely SMASH them. Doesn’t matter if they block and you don’t score, yet. When they’re tired, then you SMASH THEM EVEN MORE, that’s when their guard is probably down and they’re too tired to block or too scared to block because it’d hurt their arm.
Poomsae is rather different to sparring. Accuracy is VERY IMPORTANT!!! Fitness is not required. You don’t need to have great speed or strength (yes it is very helpful to have, though). Timing is absolutely essential – plus the addition of flexibility. Then you need a mind to remember stuff in sequence
Simplelogick, you should know this one, I think you struggled to learn and memorise sipjin back in 2006. That cost you the one and only spot for the World Championships that year.
Roy Khoh says:
July 7th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Grasshopper Shane: your comment was so good I thought it best be served as a forum topic.
I moved it so that you can view it here.
simplelogik says:
July 9th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
In term of fairness, one could equally argue that it’s not fair for a newly red belt who just received their black belt and go to the Nationals and face someone in the caliber of Lauren Burns or Paul Lyons. That wouldn’t be fair, but then it’s a choice that we all have to make when we want to compete at Nationals level (it should be difficult). We either have the desire to improve our skill or we don’t compete. Having multiple divisions just dilute the standard of competition. In sparring, you have to be REALLY good to be Nationals champion and all the hard work that you put in will earn you ONE medal, you’ll face tougher oppositions and most of all, there’s an element of danger that you’ll get hurt. In poomsae, you can win as many as 4-6 gold medals without breaking into a sweat, all you have to do is enter multiple diluted divisions and that’ll guarantee you a medal, as long as you pay your entry fee. So for less effort you’ll get a greater return .. I would rather lose and learn to improve than coming home with 5 GOLDs without opponents.
Having said that, I do think it’s important to have a progression at junior level, so separating the juniors by belt and age is fine as they’re still developing their skill. I just don’t think it’s necessary at black belt level. I believe that when it comes to an Open division, it should be OPEN .. not opened by rank and age. You don’t see the segregation in gymnastic, diving, ice skating .. or any other sports .. and WTF tkd is a sport. But the most compelling argument would be .. why does the national body have the selections and Nationals as separate events (different divisions), shouldn’t the two events have the same division format ?? Winning the Nationals should be a prestigious accolade, but right now I don’t think that’s the case.
As for the technicality of poomsae, I find that being technically correct is not difficult at all. The movement we do are so simple that it doesn’t take a great skill to master. What I find difficult is applying power and precision to the movements is a challenge for me. But that’s just my thought, it might not be the case for other people. At the World Championships it was IMPOSSIBLE to distinguish the differences between most of the patterns. The only pattern that you can see the differences in, is pyongwon due to level of difficulties.
Hahahaha .. me forgetting my pattern doesn’t reflect the level of difficulties or me struggling to learn the pattern .. I think it’s got something to do with my lack of memory retention or easily distracted
.. I still forget my pattern even at training these days!! Actually, you’ll be surprise so see how many people forgot their patterns at the World Championships 
.. BTW, in the 2006 selection Mark John was definitely a better player than me, not because I stuffed up and lost. He beat me in every heat, including all the ones that I didn’t forget ..
Roy Khoh says:
July 14th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
I agree.
To increase standards and skills, you need to go up against better opponents. Get tested amonst the best, rather than amongst the rest.
Amalgamating divisions has its benefits. I hear comments about my own poomsae competition display. Since entering the selections in 2006 (that yourself and Aleisha entered also) I’ve had numerous comments and praise for how my techniques and patterns look so much better.
It was a daunting task, to go up against higher dans. I was only 2nd Dan Black Belt at the time, and I had to go up against fellow West Australian, Harry Kim – 4th Dan. The 3 individuals who beat us were 1st, 4th and 3rd Dan.
The following year, there were less competitors in my division (I think some just didn’t think they could make it), and I lost out to two 4th Dans. The year you (Richard) won your place for the World Championship.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t mention anything about difficulty – although it might have been inferred (unintentionally). I view most everything as SIMPLE! Just not necessarily EASY!
It might be simple and easy for a more experienced practitioner to do a certain technical skill, a certain timely counter-attack or any combination of both. However, for others it takes time to reach the same level, and then to surpass it.
The unfortunate thing about all this is, there are those in the world who like challenges and then there are those in the world who like rewards. Some enter into challenges and get rewarded – they continue engaging in those challenges. Some enter into challenges and are not so greatly rewarded – their interest diminishes and they have 2nd thoughts about similar challenges.
I’ll leave it at that for you to ponder over.
WA State Squad training commences | Taekwondo: ATA Western Australia says:
July 29th, 2008 at 6:46 am
[...] training has been organised for sparring and poomsae players heading to the 2008 Australian Nationals. There is a minimum attendance requirement imposed by our state governing body (Taekwondo Western [...]
South West Bunbury Invitational Tournament a Challenge | Taekwondo: ATA Western Australia says:
August 9th, 2008 at 12:46 am
[...] so they did not journey down south to Bunbury for the tournament. Being 4 weeks away from the Nationals in Sydney – this was a well timed tournament so that players can gain more insight to improve and have enough [...]