History of ITF in France is rather recent because all instructors switched to WTF in the 70's. ITF was re-introduced in the early 90's. The ATIF (French ITF Taekwon-Do Association) was created in 2000. Its goal is to promote ITF Taekwon-Do in our country and to develop the art that or late founder General Choi gave us, in the purest tradition.

Our association has two main events each year: the French open and a national technical seminar.

Since 2001, France hosted international Opens to which practitionners from many countries granted us the pleasure to take part to. That competition that is run in a very friendly atmosphere was each time a good opportunity to measure one's talent to other people's skills, and also to share a good laugh with the same people. 2004 edition was no exception.

The second major annual event in France is our national technical seminar.

Each year, under the aegis of world-famous and great talent instructors, practitioners from all parts of France, and also from abroad, meet to improve their Taekwon-Do skills in the various fields of our art consists of.

Mr Dumaine displayed in Taekwondo Choc magazine, N°45 October-November-December 2004, courtesy of M. Sydeney Meloul

The last edition took place in Fontaine (French Alpes area) in Mai 2004. Alain Dumaine (6th Degree from Montréal, Canada) was once again invited to lead this seminar. Alain Dumaine is a twice world champion (power breaking in Greece 1987, and 4th degree pattern in North Korea 1992). This year Mr. Dumaine was seconded by Mr. Sylvain Boucher (5th Degree from Montréal, Canada) a Canadian power breaking champion.

In this seminar, almost all the technical aspect of Taekwon-Do were taught by Mr. Dumaine and Mr. Boucher: patterns, fighting, breaking as well as self-defense.

  Mr Boucher teaching self defense                  Mr Boucher teaching breaking technics

The traditionnal group picture

The day before our seminar, an important martial arts night was organized in the city. A team of French and Canadian practitioners gave an impressive demonstration to show the large crowd attending how efficient and beautiful ITF Taekwon-Do is.

You can download videos of demonstrations given during that evening from ITF-France website (http://www.itf-france.com/): self defense, breaking 1, breaking 2, breaking 3.

Apart from those recurrent main events, a seminar was also organized by Mr. Fabrello. In October 2004, for instance, Master Trajtenberg conducted a seminar in Normandy. The emphasis in this Master class was about fighting in which both the physical training and mental attitude were taught.

 
Master Trajtenberg demonstrating a punch         Master Trajtenberg demonstrating sine wave

This year again, Mr Alain Dumaine has accepted to conduct our national technical seminar. It will take place the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th of may in the city of Brest, Brittany, France. Anyone wishing to take part to that event is very welcome to join us. Further details can be found on our website, under the "Activités Nationales" menu item. For more information, you can also contact our President Mr. Thierry Reynaud.

For French ITF Taekwon-Do Association,
Guy Ballet (Secretary of ATIF)