Mr Adrian Byrne - Ireland

• What is your impression about the competition?
  This competition in New Zealand is an organizational success for the people of International Taekwon-Do New Zealand. I think they have done a fantastic job. And from my perspective as Irish coach at this competition, I’m really ecstatic at level of our performances and that the huge heart and effort that our competitors have put in and it’s even results have got so far.
• What is your impression about New Zealand and especially about Wellington?
  Well, we had a windy introduction to Wellington and we landed playing bounce and sway from side to side but got safely to the runway. Of course the result and news of earthquake and everything too scary with weather, but for us Wellington has been beautiful and welcoming. We really grown to like the place more and more over the days we’ve been here. We found very nice places to eat and nice places to go on and relax. The people in Wellington have being fantastic and they are welcoming and of course we’ve met a lot of expats Irish people and they were very very happy to come along and support us on the trip.
• How do you consider a level of the World Championships? Particularly:
  • Accommodation
    We have a fantastic crew in our hotel. They are really lovely people and that has really made the accommodation for us, so feels like a little private and even away from the competition. Everything is a very, very comfortable and food in general is fantastic, which is always pleasant at the competition, something you don’t have to worry about.
  • Awarding ceremony
    It’s a new arrangement of course. The awarding ceremony takes place twice a day and it’s been nice to hear the Irish anthem of course at the awarding ceremony, and very interesting to see a lot of new countries and the variation between countries that have been winning. I think it’s a nicer form. It’s shorter and you don’t have a very long way until the last day. So, I think the awarding ceremony they have now, everything is a way to go to the future.
  • Sports level in general
    Of course it’s a smaller Championships than normal and you can definitely see which countries are maybe a little bit weaker on the level of competitors attending. I think most of the top stars of this sport are still here and the competitors level is still very consistent with the level it was in Argentina. It’s been a challenge to adapt to the changes in the rules. We needed maybe more notification to the coaches, so that we know what the rules are. Much stronger than that. So the people can make adaptations to the tactics.
• As we started to talk about the new rules, what do you think about new rules of competition?
  • Draw 2 weeks before competition
    Fantastic. For me to have the draw in advance on the competition is fantastic, it allows you to just relax, set your mind you don’t have to get up in the morning to get the draw. So very comfortable with that idea.
  • Helmets for seniors
    It’s interesting that our competitors have made an observations because we practiced with the helmets before we came. We’ve had some competitions with the helmets like e.g. when the juniors visit the Viking Cup or in Finland, and the observation is that maybe we can’t tell if there is less injuries to the head like knockout or something like that. You can’t tell you don’t see very many anyway and with the helmets seems the same. What do you see is a lot more injuries to the nose. The senior competitors have an opinion that because the rest of the head is covered people are focused and very careful about the nose, and we having more injuries with the nose. It maybe is only an observation at the moment but that’s their feeling. Of course, it takes getting use to your head a little bit warmer when you spar but the choice of helmets, as long as you use a helmet that doesn’t get in the way of their vision, you can adapt, it’s not so bad.
  • Change order of categories – special techniques and power test before pattern and sparring, team sparring before team pattern
    Hideous. Absolutely hate this. It’s a disaster for us. We feel that it’s almost impossible to prepare person for Power so well and there is no risk of injury. We think there is always a risk of injury and because we always prioritise the sparring, we pull all our competitors out of Power for this Championships. Nobody entered. When we saw the arrangement that the Power Test will be before the Sparring we decided: ‘no for us the risk to compete in Power before the Sparring’.
    I don’t necessarily agree with the idea that the people who attend the most IICs are the best people to judge the patterns. They may be very up to date but maybe are not the best judges, maybe not the most experienced judges.
    I still feel more comfortable myself with Pattern first, than Sparring and the other events as you finish your sparring, like always before. It feels very very comfortable. Maybe it’s a little more exciting for the people coming to watch the tournament, and there is always some sparring to watch and maybe something of every event to watch, but it’s at the expense of the competitor I think. Also the pressure comes on them very heavily from the top table that they must go here, must go there. Competitors are not always able to prepare. Personally I feel that for pattern you need one warm up, for sparring totally different warm up, for Special Techniques – totally different warm up. So, you can’t to go and perform from one to the next very well. If you want to really perform well at Special Techniques you need to prepare for that event a lot in advance and you can’t go after 15 minutes of sparring and you go to the final and then hope to jump very high. It’s very difficult to do. I have huge respect to athletes you can do this and you do very very well. I think it’s a lot about conditioning but I think we don’t treat those events with the same respect we treat Patterns and Sparring.
• What about other changes?
  Special techniques (traditionally from the beginning we had Nomo Yop Chagi - long jump, now we have Nomo Yop Chagi - high jump) I’m very happy that I’m not competing any more. At the beginning we had Nomo Yop Chagi long jump and now, what is the change for this competition - high jump, but also some years ago they changed, so that you now have to scissors to do Dolyo Chagi and Nopi Chagi. Before these changes to the rules I could make four at all of the five techniques and I’m 177cm, because I can jump and maybe flexible enough but not very tall. Now, with all these changes to the techniques I can only make one. So, they have made the competition so that it suits very tall competitors who can jump straight up, not competitors who could be smaller, more flexible or who are very fast. Because if you are very fast you can do normal Yop Chagi but to do it for high the fast is not important, you have to develop a lot of power. So, not so happy for the changes that makes it more difficult to make a team. Also in Ireland we have not so many very tall competitors, so our chances for Special Techniques are very low now.
  There is no discussion and as usual the coaches are not consulted on behalf of the athletes. So, I think the changes maybe suit the organization of the tournament more than they suit the people who are experience in this sport first hand – the competitors and the coaches. Some thinking for the competitors put back to the centre of what is most important about the competition it’s what needed you.
• Did Irish competitors enjoy new rules? Which of them they liked which not?
  Yeah, actually some of them we’ve come up against, as well as the rules. Now we’ve had a very successful Championships. However, choosing at this Championships to really emphasize the zero scores for a certain technique in pattern has been awful, because many many of ours preparation has come in. When competitors are preparing to a very fine detail to make it changed at the very end is very different. In our preparation we focused on the performance of the pattern assuming that the technical content was OK. Now we know that really we should to spend all of our time focus in to make sure that the technical content was precisely as for the IIC. My best advice I could have given to my athlete, who has to go against Jarek Suska in the final, would be: ‘Do Chon-Ji, not Moon-Moo and you would win’. So, this is a problem for me. If I knew in advance…. Also with the sparring. They changed rules slightly for what is consider the push, for what is avoiding sparring and what is a kick to the back. Because of these rules athletes are picking up warnings and they don’t know why they have the warning and they get frustrated in the ring. So for a coach is very hard as well. You have to calm them down and try to play around the rules and you don’t understand yourself, because this also communicated to us. If we know six months, one year in advance we can prepare a little differently, not now. For some people it could be a last chance, the first or the only one to become a World Champion. And also, it is a big financial investment because there only very few countries here have money for the athletes. For most athletes they have to pay for themselves.
• How many medals did you get?
  So far 1 gold, 3 silver and we have already 3 bronze. Our sparring team will start in a few minutes in the semi-final against Poland, so we have bronze already and maybe with some knock we can be one better than that.
  (Ireland finished with; 1 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze)
• Are you satisfied with this result?
  Very happy with the performance.
• What would be your best memory of this World Championships? Maybe I should ask you after the semi-final senior sparring?
  Yes, maybe after this, yeah, would be good time. But so far, we have had some fantastic memories. Although we had the gold medal with the junior male -63 with Dylan Fitzgibbon, two silver medals almost at the same time in sparring with Paul King -63 and Hong Keet Looi -71, and both medals happened almost at the same 10 minutes. So, fantastic moments for us.

Master Swavek Dydiszko - Sweden

• What is your impression about the competition?
  Fantastic championship with warm atmosphere. Absolutely one of the best ITF World Championships ever.
• What is your impression about New Zealand - especially about Wellington?
  I love this city, this country and the people here. I’ve never felt a stranger here. I would not have any problem to live in New Zealand. Who knows, maybe I will do it in the future.
• What do you think about organisation of the competition?
  I have not any objection. Everything went smoothly and without any big issues. Personally I liked very much the warm and open attitude of the championships staff members. This is important especially because the competitors experience much stress and feelings during the competition.
• How do you consider the level of the World Championships? Particularly:
  
  • Welcome
    Very good. We had the feeling that we were always welcome everywhere.
  • Accommodation
    The Swedish team was accommodated in the Hotel Museum. It was a fantastic place with a very good standard. In the rooms for example there was an espresso machine, home theatre sound system, a laundry machine and many more good things. That the hotel was in short range to the sport hall was also a very good thing for us.
  • Awarding ceremony
    Sorry but I have personally missed the ceremony. I have had some problems with the jet-lag, so I choose to rest instead.
  • Sports level in general
    How the sport level for the whole competition was is quite difficult for me to comment on. I have not seen all the matches. Anyway, on the basis of those matches I have seen I personally feel that the level was very mixed. There were many very interesting people but some who maybe should practice a little bit more before they attend the World Championships. On the whole, I think the level was as it often is during the World Championships. Unfortunately, there was also some things about the level of the umpires’ decisions. Some were excellent and some were as far from the reality as possible, unfortunately, as usual, for the competitors. I think all of us are determined to work to make this better in the future.
• What do you think about new rules of competition?
  • Draw 2 weeks before competition
    I think this is a very good idea but life has also its own rules. Of course some of the competitors can be sick or injured before the competition and this can make problems for the organizer.
  • Change order of categories – special techniques and power test before pattern and sparring, team sparring before team pattern
    I understand that all the changes are to make the championships as effective as possible and this is absolutely a good idea. However, I am a little bit afraid that in all of this work the simple competitor will be forgotten. They all are only common people who pay much of their life to perform as good as possible during the competitions. For example, to force a competitor between the semifinal and final in sparring to make the best result in the power test or special techniques is not good or professional. This is my opinion as a coach.
  • Helmets for seniors
    This is one of the things we have been working on very much in Sweden in the past years. Many independent investigations about helmet and protections effect in sparring has been made and it shows in short as follows: Helmet protection power is mostly in the case when the person is falling and hits their head in the floor. Helmets have not much protection against punches and kicks. The main problem is the powerful shaking of the head and not the impact area. Most injures in ITF are in the front of the face and the head protection helps very little there. Because ITF Taekwon-Do is not a full contact sport and because we have good protection on the floor (puzzle mats) I think that we do not need the helmets. However, to protect all young competitors it's OK for a obligatory helmet for the juniors, but only optional for the seniors. There is also another point against the helmets for the seniors. On the film and photo the competitors with the helmets seem very impersonal. This problem is actually big in the WTF where many media representatives don't want to invest in this kind of event. Anyway, this is my opinion and I of course accept the official rules of ITF as they are today.
  • Special techniques (traditionally from the beginning we had Nomo Yop Chagi – long jump, now we have Nomo Yop Chagi – high jump)
    Much better.
  • Did your athletes enjoy new rules?
    Some of them yes and some not.
• Is there something you would like to add about the new rules?
  I think it is time to change or add some of the weight categories. It should be good to have one lighter category for the women and one heaver for the men.
• How many medals did you get? Are you satisfied with your results?
  The Swedish team won in the World Championships in New Zeeland 7 medals; 1 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze. This is an OK result but of course I would have counted for more. You know, the coach is never satisfied in 100%, Ha, ha...
• What would be your best memory of this World Championships?
  My absolute best memory is the country New Zeeland, the city Wellington and all the people here.

Mr Grzegorz Ozimek - Poland

• What is your impression about the competition?
  Very positive impression. I’m talking about the organizational aspect mainly. New Zealand; the country, climate, place and the organization I can say are only pluses. We are very positively surprised and everyone from the Polish Team express themselves only in superlatives.
• How do you consider the level of the World Championships? Particularly:
  
  • Welcome and accommodation
    The way of welcoming here was like in a very distinguished travel agency where clients pay, come, and from the moment he leaves the plane he got the sense of security, something that is needed to spend time in a very comfortable way. Accommodation is not as good as we expected for that price, but the food is good.
  • Awarding ceremony
    What I remember from many, many years is that it is the first time when we used this form and I think that it works very well, because the majority of participants felt that they took part in a real important tournament. Awarding, even if it took place in a break time, were made with a greater part of public, supporters and competitors. Organising it in three hours time sometimes, and let say ‘in bulk’, at the end of the competition when people are not interested with anything because they are so tired, defeats the purpose. So, I think that this new way we’ve seen in New Zealand could be imitated in the future successfully.
  • Sports level
    Unfortunately, there is a small minus in this competition. I think, the sports level in sparring was much worse than the level at the last World Championships. Nevertheless, there were some good performances and people who represented fine level. We could choose some good matches, so we can’t say that it wasn’t worth watching.
• What do you think about new rules of competition?
  • Draw 2 weeks before competition
    Personally, I think that it is a misunderstanding. In days of internet globalization we could do it online, coaches could get the draws in paper with date and time - those things could be changed. It would make everything more clear. Also, I’m not actually sure, that having draws weeks before competition can improve the organization or speed up the procedure. We could observe, also this time, that we always have some changes after teams arrivals, because some people didn’t come, some got sick, some didn’t get their weight divisions etc. Situations like these always make unnecessary confusion and annoyance. With a computer we can do it in the minutes, and we can do it at the coaches meeting though.
  • Change an order of categories – special techniques and power test before pattern and sparring, team sparring before team pattern
    That is a problem for teams who have so-called ‘specialists’, I mean teams where competitors have to perform in more than one or even every division. For teams consisting of 60 or 70 people that is rather no problem at all, because everyone has got his own part, just one event to take part in. So, I would prefer if referees or people in charge of preparing the schedule for a competition would look and think more about the good and comfort of the competitors, not only about the smoothness of the tournament.
  • Helmets for seniors
    Like in some other sports, we endeavour to improve safety of our competitors. I think that’s not a bad idea, especially for juniors. However, for the seniors I would rather give them a choice to wear it or not and make it optional. I have actually no definite opinion on that point. Maybe we should undertake some professional research on it. Mr. Jacek Wachala, other Polish coach, noticed, that because people feel more safe with helmets, they fight with much harder contact. Also, most injuries are on the faces, uncovered even if people wear helmets and are exposed anyway.
  • Special Techniques (traditionally from the beginning we had Nomo Yop Chagi - long jump, now we have Nomo Yop Chagi - high jump)
    If we want to leave this technique we definitely have to change the machine for it. We need to construct something safe to protect competitors and avert possible accidents in the future. The machine we have got at the moment, where a person jumps in, kicks and simply has to hide under some protruding metal, doesn’t make a jump comfortable and it’s not safe at all.
• Would you like to say something else about some other changes?
  Decision about new belts or specifications about doboks and safety equipment was a little surprising. I attended international tournaments from many years and I can’t remember even one situation when a competitor was dressed improperly or strangely. Also, there wasn’t problems with safety equipment.
• Is there anything else you would like to add about latest changes or the new rules?
  Yes, I would like to add something, and it’s not only from myself or Polish coaches but on behalf of others as well. We were discussing during the competition, that we, as coaches, would like to be involved into preparing or making changes related to our athletes. Our voice or opinion could be given in some kind of questionnaire, feedback form or proposals or something similar. We understand, that the Technical Committee is highest, conclusive and definite, but not necessarily do the people making those kind of changes have their own clubs or work with competitors. So, they have a little different view than coaches working with competitors. I personally think, that this kind of cooperation could have a positive results for everyone. It wouldn’t be an advantage for them but only pluses, because that would increase more integrity in our community. We do not want to make a low but we would like to have an advisory vote in things related to the competitors.
• How many medals did you get? Are you satisfied with your results?
  We won 8 gold, 13 silver and 8 bronze. With the seniors we are really satisfied and we think that this is a very good result. With our juniors, to be honest… We have this group, not another one. It’s come from the fact, that we have not too many black belts in juniors age in Poland that we can choose a very good and strong team from.
• What would be your best memory of this World Championships?
  We feel really good and nice here. People are very nice, friendly, smiley and welcoming all the time. We walked into the sports hall every time with real pleasure. Getting the ID Card and showing it, even 40 times a day, doesn’t make a problem or irritate anyone. On the contrary – it’s always a pleasure and we do it willingly in front of nice senior ladies who ‘work as bodyguards’. Also, as we were just talking with other members of Polish team, we are living now in the rhythm of the nice music played by the Maori cultural groups at the Opening Ceremony and on the performances during the competition.