AETF reporter
Katarzyna Rozwadowska

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The next successful edition of ‘Battle of Utrecht’ was held in Utrecht, the Netherlands on Sunday, 9th of October 2011.

The tournament gathered 362 competitors from Belgium, England, Germany, Malaysia, Sweden and the Netherlands. Children, juniors and seniors were competing in patterns and sparring divisions on six squares, in front of 79 referees and a mass of spectators and supporters.

The National Team’s members and some well known European competitors’ attendance increased the sports level of the competition to the international standards. All participants, from white to black belts and from little kids to seniors, presented also high level of courtesy, perseverance and indomitable spirit.

In the middle of the competition organizer attracted the audience with the lottery. Five holders of lucky tickets received very nice prizes; taekwon-do dobok and bags, a pad for training and a book about Taekwon-Do ITF (ITF TKD Encyclopedia).

Thank to great knowledge and five years organizing experience of the organizer; Master James Tjin-A-Ton and his wife Liesbeth, in cooperation with diligence of club’s members and umpires’ professionalism, the tournament went very smoothly. Also, all participants were disciplined and well informed about their turn, which made the competition very fast and easy.

The most age senior of the competition was Mr. Leon Pernikis, who came compete to Utrecht from England along with his two children; Sofia and Michael, who are the English National Team members (seniors). The Pernikis’ Family shared with me their Taekwon-Do experience in a nice talk (below).

Sofia, Michael and Leon Pernikis

• How did the whole Taekwon-Do adventure in your family start? When and why your dad joined you and your brother? What degrees do you hold?
  Sofia: Our Taekwon-Do Story began with Michael starting at the age of 5, back in our birth country, Latvia. When we moved to the UK, I joined him and started at the age of 13. Eventually I caught up and we now both hold 2nd Dan black belt. After accompanying us at many competitions and attending numerous sessions, our father decided to try it himself. He soon felt that the benefits of training in Taekwondo were strong and so he continued. He has now been training for three years and holds a red tag.
• Is it easier to train if the whole family is involved in Taekwon-Do? Why?
  Sofia: Yes, it is always more fun to have your family in the training sessions, and most importantly, it is a good motivational push, when everyone encourages each other to train regularly.
• Do you practice TKD together at home or do you prepare for the gradings or competitions at home?
  Sofia: At home there is not much open space, unfortunately, so training at home is difficult. However, I do get my dad sometimes asking to look at some movements of his pattern and correct it. Michael and I also sometimes go for a run by the river to keep fit, and I do all sorts of outdoors activities, which helps my general fitness.
• Does Taekwon-Do often appear in your house conversations? In what occasions and what do you talk about mostly?
  Sofia: Since the three of us train in the same martial art, Taekwondo does appear in our conversations quite often, especially when we go away together for competitions or seminars. We come back with stories, jokes and other discussions based on a shared experience, and feed it back to my mother, who has also become quite familiar with our Taekwondo conversations.
• What are your goals and achievements in Taekwon-Do?
  Sofia: My main goals in Taekwondo are to consistently achieve my personal best, and hopefully inspire others around me to train hard and achieve their own heights. I would also like to win the Individual 2nd Dan patterns in the upcoming European Championships, and then in the World Cup in 2012. Having been training for 12 years, I have achieved a 2nd Dan black belt, and recently 1st place in patterns in the last two competitions: ‘The Gathering’ in Scotland, and ‘The Battle of Utrecht’, which is a real confidence booster for the upcoming European Championships.
  Michael: For me Taekwondo is a lifestyle. I like training and improving my technique while travelling around the world and meeting people with similar ambitions and mind set. The main goal for me would be to keep the Taekwon-Do lifestyle for as long as I can. My dad is a great example of this, you are definitely never too old to start Taekwon-Do, it's a great activity for any age. I know that if I stick to continuous training and will be working on improvements one step at a time, the success of winning the competitions will come on its own. So my main goal is never to stop developing, that's my main drive in life in general.
  Leon: My main goal is to get a black belt in Taekwondo. And my biggest achievement is – my kids. Having accompanied them to their training sessions and competitions throughout the years, I believe it has paid off, which is evident in their success. I was also a 2010 GTI British Open Champion in sparring, which I am proud of. The main goal for our family in Taekwondo is to keep training together, encourage each other and celebrate our successes. Taekwondo has definitely brought us closer together as a family. With everyone being so busy these days, our TKD classes is where we spend time with each other, by training and competing together.
• What categories did you enter in Battle of Utrecht and what were your results? Are you happy with these results?
  Sofia: I entered 2nd Dan Individual Patterns and got gold. Michael entered Individual Sparring and got bronze, and Leon entered both Patterns and Sparring and got silver in Patterns. I was definitely happy with my gold, Michael felt he fought well, but there were a few things to brush up on before going to the Euros.
• You and Michael are going to Bratislava for the European Championships soon. Was this competition good preparation for the forthcoming Championships in Slovakia?
  Sofia: It was a good preparation in the sense that we got to see where we stand after so much training and preparations, being so close to the European Championships. It highlighted our strengths and weaknesses, and where we should give ourselves the last push. However, we both noticed that some of the stronger competitors did not attend this competition, being in turn at other training camps, preparing for the Euros. So many categories only had 3-4 people.
• What is your impression about tournament Battle of Utrecht?
  Sofia: It is a nicely organised competition, however, yearly they greet us in Dutch with no translation into English, even though they invite many other countries to attend and participate. They are friendly and helpful, though, so I cannot complain. This competition normally sees many experienced and skilled competitors, so it is a good one to go to for experience.

Hours of sports rivalry emerged two best clubs of the tournament. This significant title went to Sportcenter Koguryo from the Netherlands and Hwa Rang from Belgium. Below you will find few words from Mr. Chiel Rombout, the chief instructor of Sportcenter Koguryo:

Chiel Rombout (Sportcenter Koguryo) and Mr. Pascal Raeijmaekers (Hwa Rang)

• Could you tell us a little bit about your club?
  My club was founded in 1982. We have been training for 5 years in public halls. From 1980 to 1987 I was in the Dutch national team with other several members from our school and we were very successful under former national coach GM Wim Bos. Then we got our first school and now we have a big 600 square meters building. We have about 600 students in Fitness, aerobic, taebo, streetdance, kettlebells and ITF Taekwon-Do. At the moment we have about 30 black belts training in our club and 10 of them are in the national team.
• Could you tell us about the biggest successes of your club or your students?
  One of the biggest success was in 1998. It was the Junior World Championships in Delhi, India. As a national coach I went there with 2 students and returned with 2 gold and 2 silver medals.
• It is not the first time you took part in the tournament ‘Battle of Utrecht’. What are your previous achievements of this competition?
  In 2010 we won the Battle of Utrecht and many medals in the past.
• How many students of your club took part in the Battle of Utrecht 2011? How many medals did you win?
  We had 17 competitors in the Battle and won 9 gold medals, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals.
• Which of your students taking part in Battle of Utrecht would you like to praise?
  Bo Rook junior female -50 kg Sparring and Tul winner. And all my senior blackbelts who became 1st in sparring. Zenna van der Mel, Iwan Clement, Grady Rombout and Tim Kool.
• What is your impression about the competition Battle of Utrecht 2011?
  It is a good tournament. We have three good tournaments in the Netherlands; The Holland-Cup, Open Dutch (former Open Brabant) and the Battle of Utrecht.

I had the great pleasure to conduct a short interview with Master James Tjin-A-Ton, organizer of the ‘Battle of Utrecht’:

Organisers of Battle of Utrecht - Master James-Tjin-A-Ton with his wife Liesbeth Willems

• Who is in the organising committee for this competition?
  The committee is me and my wife Liesbeth.
• Who else help out at this event?
  A lot of people from my club Taekwon-Do In Nae Do Kwan; all teachers and other members.
• I remember that last year you wanted improve three things for the following year; the weight in procedure to be faster, contact in sparring to be lighter and the temperature of the sport hall to be lower. Did you achieve all these points this year?
  Yes, we did it. Now we have two scales and four people for the weight in procedure. That made the process very fast and easy. At the umpires meeting I told them very clearly that the contact must be very light like Taekwon-Do contact. All referees keep the contact in sparring at light level. Before competition I asked the manager of the building to put the temperature lower and now is really suitable for all of us, especially for the competitors.
• Did you have any new problems this year?
  Not at all. We actually improved. We have hired a security team this year. It is much better because they do not know anyone from Taekwon-Do, so they treat everybody the same way. If someone has no a competitor or a coach wristband must to get out from the competition area. I think it’s much better and clearer.
• In two weeks time we have the European Championships in Bratislava. Do you think this competition is a good preparation for this very important tournament? Is it not too risky for the competitors? If anyone get any injury there is no time to recover.
  I think it is not risky at all. All National Team members of the ITF Netherlands have to compete in the Battle of Utrecht because it is a good preparation for Bratislava. I am not worried about injury because they are professionals in Taekwon-Do, they know how to compete. It is also very good for their spirit.
• What do you think about all these little kids competing here? Can you see some potential in them?
  I love the little kids competing. They are a future for Taekwon-Do. We teach children here about not hard contact. They love the game, they love to play. They love Taekwon-Do. That’s why we all love and enjoy it.
• How do you consider the sport level here? I see some well known European competitors and they are as good as always, but what about the others?
  The others are still growing. Many of them are very much beginners but they are growing for the international level. You have to compete a lot to be a champion or a good competitor and is always better to compete with good people. You can improve much more this way.
• Do you have any special guests today?
  Yes. I have special guests from Sweden - the Swedish team. The special guests are also yourself and Master Denis from England.
• You attracted spectators with the lottery today. It is not the first time. Do you organise it every year?
  Yes. We do the lottery to give some extras for the audience. They have to spend the whole day sitting in the sports hall. The prizes are some nice things we can give them and everyone enjoy it.
• How do you do that every time the sports hall is full of audience all day? There are no free seats in the grandstand!
  That is an effect of good advertising. At our competition we have actually more spectators than at European Championships. We are very happy and proud with this result.
• Is there something else you would like to add?
  The Battle of Utrecht is well known for the good organization not only by the competitors but also by the umpires. As you know I am an international Umpire so I know from my own experience how to treat them. Drinks, sweets and very important - a warm meal. Good Umpires are very important part of every tournament and you must have enough numbers of them, so they can have plenty of breaks. We had a lot of umpires who were very interested to come to our tournament - even they didn’t have competitors. I had to disappoint some Umpires because we had more than enough, even more than on European Championships.

The final impression about the tournament was very positive. Master James Tjin-A-Ton did his best to make the competition totally successful. The atmosphere was very friendly and welcoming. 2011 edition of ‘Battle of Utrecht’ finished with a very nice accent; all the umpires who worked tirelessly throughout the day, were thanked and bestowed with beautiful red roses.

More pictures on https://picasaweb.google.com/110362956198938211454/BattleOfUtrecht#.

Results here (MS xls, 232 kB).