Newsletter Newsletter 4/2015 Seminar with Mr. Jaroslaw Suska in Paris
A.E.T.F. REPORT
Newsletter 4/2015
Seminar with Mr. Jaroslaw Suska in Paris

Following on from the successful patterns seminar with Mr. Suska in 2014, ITF Paris hosted a second seminar with Mr. Suska during the weekend of 5th and 6th December 2015.

The event was organized by Mr Lylian Doulay, National Technical Director and President of ITF France on behalf of ITF Paris in cooperation with Mightyfist Europe (www.doboks.eu) and Black Belt Project (www.tkd-blackbelt.com).

The venue for the seminar was the French National Institute for Sport and Physical Education (www.insep.fr). 50 participants attended the seminar from 6 countries including Belgium, Finland, Luxembourg, Poland and France, with one participant even travelling from as far away as Columbia in South America.

Whilst of course Mr Suska is famous for his amazing power and technique in patterns, the participants were also able to benefit from Mr Suska's experience as a sparring medallist in numerous Polish Championships, European and World Cups and Championships.

The first day started with warming up and stretching in order to prepare the body for the challenging exercises to come. In addition to full coverage of the patterns from Chon-Ji up to Choi-Yong, each of the problematic and challenging areas of each pattern was examined. The participants also benefited from the attendance of Master Thierry Meyour who asked many questions on behalf of the participants in order to provoke further interesting explanation of techniques and demonstrations by Mr Suska.

Between each pattern, Mr Suska also focused on specific exercises to improve particular techniques giving many great training ideas for the instructors to use in their dojangs. Due to Mr Suska's enthusiasm and the participants' willingness, the training continued until a little later than planned. At the conclusion of the first day the participants had earned a well deserved overnight rest with many taking the short trip into the centre of Paris to dine and explore the sights of this wonderful city.

Mr Doulay and his partner Miss Stéphanie Guerrero organised a special dinner for Mr Suska, inviting Master Meyour and his partner Miss Sanna Rantasaari, Mr Lukasz Grygiel and Mr Jonathan Morris. The dinner was held at the top of the 210m tall Montparnasse Tower with spectacular views over the whole of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. A wonderful evening was had by all and of course due to the enthusiasm of all present the conversation naturally turned to many stories of Taekwon-Do and discussion of techniques.

Day 2 of the seminar focused on sparring drills, techniques and exercises to improve speed, reactions and agility. Participants changed partners after every exercise which not only allowed the more experienced to assist with the less experienced students but also allowed the participants from different schools to get to know each other better and build friendships. The sparring seminar showed Mr Suska's versatility as a fully rounded Taekwon-Do practitioner and instructor and allowed the participants to leave having exercised virtually every part of their bodies.

Throughout the seminar, translations were provided upon request by several Polish participants. The organisers would like to thank Mr Lukasz Grygiel, Miss Monika Kepa and Miss Iwona Zoch for the assistance with the translations from Polish into English and French.

At the end of the seminar, several recently examined black belts were presented their black belt certificates by Mr Suska then Mr Suska presented participation certificates to the instructors in attendance. Mr Doulay expressed his gratitude to Mr Suska on behalf of ITF France and all the participants both verbally and with some regional gifts. Mr Suska was also presented with a new Mightyfist dobok embroidered with POLSKA and the Polish national emblem, a Mightyfist t-shirt and an Art of Taekwon-Do ITF patterns book.

The second Mr Suska seminar in Paris was another great success and was enjoyed by everyone. ITF France would like to thank Mr Suska for coming to Paris to train, inspire and share his love of Taekwon-Do. Thank you also to Mr Doulay and ITF Paris for working tirelessly to provide a well organised seminar and for bringing Mr Suska to Paris for everyone to profit from his experience.

Report written by Jonathan Morris, Vice-President ITF France


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