First and foremost I would like to thank all the clubleaders, instructors and students who visited my club to train with Sabum-nim Suska.

Three years ago, I opened a Taekwon-do club in Jönköping, Sweden. To my great joy, after three years, I now have a club with over 100 members. And now my friend and multiple World Champion Mr. Jaroslaw Suska VI Dan have visited us. Sometimes I can hardly believe it’s true!

Through the years, I have spent many hours on the stands of different competitions worldwide as a coach or practitioner waiting for fights. These hours were many times long, but some of them were short and filled with emotions. But all these long hours has their rewards. Because when you’re attending competitions all over the world you’re sure to meet lots of new friends and make lots of good memories. Even though you may not win a medal, these friendships and these memories are a much greater victory in my opinion.

After the last European Championship Sabumnim Suska and I decided that he would come and visit my club in Sweden. Partly because he was curious and interested in my club I think, and partly because he wanted to visited me. Our friendship has grown over the years thanks to all the competitions we’ve been at.

Now to the actual seminar.

I couldn’t believe it was really happening until he finally arrived in Jönköping and I shook his hand. Jar slaw Suska was coming to my club! When we enter the club and met my students who were all standing like statues. Nobody said a word. Then you know that it’s big to have Suska as a guest. I could tell that they were all very nervous, but also very excited. Not so strange considering who our visitor was. Before the first training session Mr. Suska asked me if it was ok to make it a tough workout. Just go for it, I said with a smile. And he really did! He showed us many different exercises for the legs and the feet and how they should be executed. It looked just like the things you have seen on Youtube or in movies. But seeing it on a screen is totally different from seeing it with your own eyes. The students’ motivation and inspiration was so great!

After the first training session the mood in the club was completely different. The humble nature of Mr. Suska had made people relax and realize that despite his caliber and status, he was just an ordinary person who just could do extraordinary things. The next day it was time for the kids of the club to meet Mr. Suska. You could tell that the kids were also very nervous. Even though I had to act as a translator for Mr. Suska, the kids seemed to grasp what was said very well. After this meeting, the kids were also motivated to practice at home. Mr. Suska gave me a couple of ideas on how I could motivate the kids to develop their techniques. I tried a few of them on our next training session together and it seemed to be working. Now, all that remains is to see if it works in the long run.

The next two training sessions for the clubs senior students, turned out to be the toughest sessions in leg exercises they had ever experienced. As the head instructor of the club I was so nervous, that I had barely slept at all the night before. I lay awake, trying to grasp all the things Mr. Suska had done with my students and what I could improve in our training. And what would Mr. Suska think of the clubs performance of patterns?

I have experienced training with Mr. Suska before and this time wasn’t very different. But he did also have new ideas adapted to the modern day taekwon-do. During Saturday afternoons pattern-training, he gave a run-through of the basics of sine-wave and technique. He had some comments about the techniques in the club, but all in all he wasn’t completely disappointed in me which was a relief. It felt like if you compare Mr Suskas techniques to anybody else, there is always something to improve. I am now motivated to put more emphasis on patterns in future training sessions. But my students themselves are the ones who have the biggest motivation. Some of my students don’t like to practice their basic techniques, but now say that they are going to improve their patterns and techniques. They have realized that this can be useful to them in sparring as well. As an instructor I am very grateful to hear this.

On Sunday it was time for the instructors in Sweden to take on Mr Suskas training. The first training session of the day, and most of the second as well, was spent going through all patterns up to 3 dan. This was highly appreciated by the participants. Mr Suska asked the participants beforehand what they wanted out of these training sessions, and all agreed that patterns were the most important thing. The last hour of Sundays practice was devoted to foot techniques and foot work. Everyone fought on hard and the mood was high this last day of training as well. After the seminar was concluded, I got some feedback from Mr. Suska. He was very pleased with what he had seen technically. There are still things to improve, but overall the level of the participants was very good. When it came to my club he said the following: “I can tell that there is a special mentality in your club. How tough the excise was, I didn’t matter no one ever gave up. If I asked for 10 kicks, I got 10 kicks. Even though they may not have been on highest level, the thing that struck me the most was the fighting spirit and the will to do the techniques correctly.”

I feel that was a good grade and I can now leave this seminar behind me as a proud instructor and club leader. This weekend has been a historic moment in the history of Jönköping Taekwon-do ITF. Yet again, I would like to say thank you to all the participants but most of all to Sabumnim Jaroslaw Suska VI Dan.

Patrik Carlström IV Dan