The specific details of Taekwon-Do techniques were closely inspected during the National Instructor Course in Nokia, Finland on January 13–14, 2018.

100 RED AND BLACK BELTS ATTENDED

Nokia Taekwon-Do Club organized the second annual National Instructor Course (NIC) together with ITF Taekwon-Do Finland in January 2018. The event gathered together 100 red and black belts from all over Finland to go through the teachings of recent IIC’s during the two days.

The course was taught by Master Thierry Meyour, 7th Degree, Technical Director of ITF Taekwon-Do Finland, and Mr Jori Aaltonen, 6th Degree, Head of Instructor Committee of ITF Taekwon-Do Finland. Master Meyour oversaw the technical details in patterns and fundamental techniques, while Mr Aaltonen offered the participants new ideas to adapt the techniques into the contexts of self-defense and step-sparring.

This was the 2nd annual NIC, and the structure of the course had clearly been developed from the previous year, as the ratio of doing and learning was better balanced. In practice, this meant less sitting and more doing than the one-day course given in 2017, which provided better opportunities to learn by doing.

In addition to the participants, the instructors were also very happy with the NIC weekend.

“The event was very successful, which is evident from the fact that we had over 20 international instructors present. It shows that the instructors in Finland are very keen to learn and standardize the technical aspects of Taekwon-Do”,
Master Thierry Meyour says.

“Compared to last year, we had more time this year. Last year the NIC was a one-day course. This year, the level of performance was considerably higher, which allowed us to focus on details”,
Master Meyour continues.

The event was organized by the head instructor of Nokia Taekwon-Do Club, Mr Joonas Helassalo, 4th Degree, who was also very pleased with the event:
“We were very surprised to see that we had a lot more participants than last year. In 2017, the course was held in Oulu, in Northern Finland, where we had around 70 participants. It was great to see the event grow.”

Text: Inka Khanji
Translation: Henri Savilampi
Photos: Michael Holler