Hi there, nice to meet you. My name is Kirstine Powhiro and I have created this blog to talk to you about Rhee TaeKwonDo Australia.
But first thing's first, let me tell you more about myself.
I'm currently nineteen years old, born in New Zealand and am now living in a city called Cairns, located in Queensland Australia.
My TaeKwonDo journey started in 2009 when I was twelve and living in a small city in New Zealand called Palmerston North. One evening, my Koro (or grandfather) took my cousin and myself to a mysterious hall.
As I walked through the doorway I could hear loud, synchronised shouting and strong footfalls on the floor.
As we emerged into the hall my eyes were confronted with several rows of martial arts students, striking the air with their fists, shouting with such power it made the watchers in the room fall silent.
Leading the group at the front was a tall man wearing glasses, he was introduced to me as Mr.B and as the instructor.
He was very kind and asked us to join in at any time if we felt like it.
My cousin and I were very shy, so we just watched.
Leaving the hall I felt a strange energy and calling, "I have to go back there" I thought to myself.
One week later my Koro had bought my cousin and I uniforms known as Doboks, they were white with large 'TAE KWON DO' lettering on the back and a small 'International Tae Kwon Do Federation' logo on the front. Although I was drowning in a uniform too big for me, I couldn't have been happier and wrapping a white belt around my waist completed everything for me, I was ready to start training.
For a whole year I trained twice a week for an hour and a half at the Palmerston North TaeKwonDo Academy under the instruction of Mr.B and sometimes, a fantastic young woman named Sandy.
I learnt how to punch hard, to turn my back foot when kicking, to be respectful. But most of all I learnt to RUN.
On odd days Mr.B would feel the need to destroy all of us by creating exercises called 'shuttles'. Where one must run from one line on the floor and back, to the next line on the floor and back. There were four lines and at each line was delegated an exercise, be it ten push-ups or ten sit-ups. These were repeated in sets and they were a killer.
I remember looking at the older students and seeing them drenched in sweat, we were all drenched in sweat!
Regardless of the sometimes 'full on' training, everyone held Mr.B in the highest respect and never said anything bad about the way he trained us.
Throughout the year of 2009 I trained hard, studied my theory often and graded my way up to yellow belt/green tip. My dobok was fitting me a lot better and I was feeling confident in continuing on to becoming a black belt.
Strangely at the end of that year my Koro decided to move me to a different club closer to home, Southern Cross TaeKwonDo Academy, led by Mr. M. A few familiar faces from my old club were there too. My Koro even started giving it a go! He looked great in his new Dobok and was very enthusiastic. Although Mr. M was a fantastic instructor, I felt that I was betraying my previous club and became stubborn to train there. Along with school and home I became very lazy and only went once every week or so.
Sometime during that year horrible news struck me that Mr.B had passed away, it was very shocking and drained any drive I had left from continuing my training in TaeKwonDo, as it did for a few other people as well.
I stopped training altogether.
-
I moved back to Australia to live with my parents again in 2011 and we moved to Cairns shortly after. I tried to train again at a new club in Cairns, but it wasn't the same style and it just didn't feel right.
I discarded the thought of training again until very recently. I began seeing posts on Facebook from the Southern Cross club of a woman who started after me as a white belt now graded as a black belt, of her son grading to first degree black belt and travelling overseas for a tournament. All I kept thinking was "I could've done that".
So I started looking for clubs in Cairns and the only thing similar to 'International TaeKwonDo' was an organisation called 'Rhee TaeKwonDo', so I attended a training session to see for myself how similar it was.
It was ALMOST identical, the same commands, the same patterns.
I was excited and in this month, March of 2015, I started training again under the instruction of Mr Greg Blair.
It is important to know that if you love something be it cooking or writing or TaeKwonDo, there is never a time where it is too late to start.
So here I am, nineteen years old going on twenty, starting my TaeKwonDo journey again as a white belt in Rhee TaeKwonDo.
In this blog I will provide anyone who wants to read about my journey with a weekly update on what my training involves, how it differentiates from ITF (International TaeKwonDo Federation) and my thoughts and feelings on the long road to becoming a black belt.
But first thing's first, let me tell you more about myself.
I'm currently nineteen years old, born in New Zealand and am now living in a city called Cairns, located in Queensland Australia.
My TaeKwonDo journey started in 2009 when I was twelve and living in a small city in New Zealand called Palmerston North. One evening, my Koro (or grandfather) took my cousin and myself to a mysterious hall.
As I walked through the doorway I could hear loud, synchronised shouting and strong footfalls on the floor.
As we emerged into the hall my eyes were confronted with several rows of martial arts students, striking the air with their fists, shouting with such power it made the watchers in the room fall silent.
Leading the group at the front was a tall man wearing glasses, he was introduced to me as Mr.B and as the instructor.
He was very kind and asked us to join in at any time if we felt like it.
My cousin and I were very shy, so we just watched.
Leaving the hall I felt a strange energy and calling, "I have to go back there" I thought to myself.
One week later my Koro had bought my cousin and I uniforms known as Doboks, they were white with large 'TAE KWON DO' lettering on the back and a small 'International Tae Kwon Do Federation' logo on the front. Although I was drowning in a uniform too big for me, I couldn't have been happier and wrapping a white belt around my waist completed everything for me, I was ready to start training.
For a whole year I trained twice a week for an hour and a half at the Palmerston North TaeKwonDo Academy under the instruction of Mr.B and sometimes, a fantastic young woman named Sandy.
I learnt how to punch hard, to turn my back foot when kicking, to be respectful. But most of all I learnt to RUN.
On odd days Mr.B would feel the need to destroy all of us by creating exercises called 'shuttles'. Where one must run from one line on the floor and back, to the next line on the floor and back. There were four lines and at each line was delegated an exercise, be it ten push-ups or ten sit-ups. These were repeated in sets and they were a killer.
I remember looking at the older students and seeing them drenched in sweat, we were all drenched in sweat!
Regardless of the sometimes 'full on' training, everyone held Mr.B in the highest respect and never said anything bad about the way he trained us.
Throughout the year of 2009 I trained hard, studied my theory often and graded my way up to yellow belt/green tip. My dobok was fitting me a lot better and I was feeling confident in continuing on to becoming a black belt.
Strangely at the end of that year my Koro decided to move me to a different club closer to home, Southern Cross TaeKwonDo Academy, led by Mr. M. A few familiar faces from my old club were there too. My Koro even started giving it a go! He looked great in his new Dobok and was very enthusiastic. Although Mr. M was a fantastic instructor, I felt that I was betraying my previous club and became stubborn to train there. Along with school and home I became very lazy and only went once every week or so.
Sometime during that year horrible news struck me that Mr.B had passed away, it was very shocking and drained any drive I had left from continuing my training in TaeKwonDo, as it did for a few other people as well.
I stopped training altogether.
-
I moved back to Australia to live with my parents again in 2011 and we moved to Cairns shortly after. I tried to train again at a new club in Cairns, but it wasn't the same style and it just didn't feel right.
I discarded the thought of training again until very recently. I began seeing posts on Facebook from the Southern Cross club of a woman who started after me as a white belt now graded as a black belt, of her son grading to first degree black belt and travelling overseas for a tournament. All I kept thinking was "I could've done that".
So I started looking for clubs in Cairns and the only thing similar to 'International TaeKwonDo' was an organisation called 'Rhee TaeKwonDo', so I attended a training session to see for myself how similar it was.
It was ALMOST identical, the same commands, the same patterns.
I was excited and in this month, March of 2015, I started training again under the instruction of Mr Greg Blair.
It is important to know that if you love something be it cooking or writing or TaeKwonDo, there is never a time where it is too late to start.
So here I am, nineteen years old going on twenty, starting my TaeKwonDo journey again as a white belt in Rhee TaeKwonDo.
In this blog I will provide anyone who wants to read about my journey with a weekly update on what my training involves, how it differentiates from ITF (International TaeKwonDo Federation) and my thoughts and feelings on the long road to becoming a black belt.
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