The 3rd ITFNZ Instructors Conference
By Steve Weston, 6th dan, Tasmania
The first weekend of December saw a gathering in Rotorua of over 70 Instructors from throughout new Zealand along with the Oceanic President and another lone Australian Instructor for the 3rd Instructors conference.
The weekend began on Friday with a senior dan grading of 3 candidates for 6th dan, 2 for 5th dan and 11 for 4th dan. Following an afternoon of an intensive closed doors session that included a question and answer component for each candidate on their submitted thesis the candidates spent another 3 hours performing the open section their test in front of Senior Master Daher and ITFNZ Masters Davidson and McPhail as examiners and a large contingent of the conference delegates and members of the public.
All candidates had previously been required to fulfil fitness goals for the previous six months prior to testing and where therefore in peak physical condition for the grading.
The consequence was an awe inspiring display of patterns, sparring, self defence and breaking from all candidates. As should be expected the quality of performance was reflected by the rank of the candidates with the sixth degree performers showing the precision and accuracy that comes from many years of experience but could not detract from the level of enthusiasm displayed by the 5th and 4th degree candidates. Of particular note was the patterns performance of Mr Lawrence Manjika, the prearranged sparring routines of Mr Matthew Breen and Mark Banicevich and the gritty determination of the 59 year old Florinda Patterson in achieving her 4th degree. Given that the preparation for the grading was so intensive it comes as no surprise that all candidates were successful in achieving their next rank. Congratulations go to all the candidates.
On Saturday morning the conference began with Master McPhail doing a quick session suitably titled “outside the square” that covered a range of training methods including the use of foam rollers to stimulate the fascia surrounding tissue and muscle as well as looking at some higher level “planking techniques” to develop core strength, and some ideas about how to recode the process of learning skills. Master McPhail provided some terrific supporting research on core strength by Professor Stuart McGill from Canada.
The next session led by Carolina Dillen, assisted by World Champion Jeremy Hanna. These two individuals develop a training program based around high intensity workouts that develop skills rapidly at a high level of competence with maximum strength and flexibility. They have numerous acronyms for their sessions from WOW to GPP and every session they present provides the practitioner with a challenging and dynamic workout. One of the most important features of the classes these young professionals provide is the recording of results from the routines practiced. By setting down the results the programs measure outcomes and development of student’s progress, an important feature that allows the student to set goals and measure their improvement. It is clear that these programs from two young and dynamic instructors will really attract those students who want to achieve high level skills rapidly in a fun atmosphere.
Following a short break Master Daher then provided an interesting session on kicking drills and provided some good ideas on working with children as well as getting better skills for adults. In particular his skills improved speed and strength in techniques as well as accuracy and focus. Master Daher’s simple message about ensuring the foot shape was correct for each individual kick at the beginning of the technique was an important feature in ensuring the correct execution of the technique. He also demonstrated some excellent exercises for developing concentration and focus.
After lunch, the invited guest speaker Mr Lee Paroroe who is a former naturopath who now works extensively with high performance sporting personalities, 
gave a fascinating session on “Power Posture”. This is about being body centred and involves the principles of shiatsu, neuromuscular therapy and self-mastery. His approach is to do a needs analysis for each athlete and involve them with whole body training encompassing their physical, mental and emotional state. Even though this approach may sound rather vague, its execution is much more specific, with very targeted exercises to develop speed, agility, core strength and flexibility. His knowledge of trigger points to switch off tension and relax the body was extensive, leading to improved athletic performance.
The last conference session for the day was presented by Mr Michael Lowe, who brings not only his Taekwon-do experience but also his teaching knowledge and ability. The implementation of the “NZ student centred coaching” was very clearly articulated by Mr Lowe and raised interesting discussion throughout his session. He outlined the reasons for the implementation of this approach to dealing with our athletes, and explained how this would lead to a career path for potential club, national and international coaches with International Taekwon-Do. This approach to coaching should create independent, confident and motivated exponents who will eventually be able to develop their own coaching needs. He explained that the rationale behind the approach was to allow the athlete to set out their objectives and have ownership of their learning process. The coach who can develop these skills will need to have excellent communication skills and be an excellent active listener. They must also be able to make their athletes think about their own learning processes in order to develop their programs.
Saturday night saw a tremendous meal with lots of convivial celebration once the results of the grading where announced. Mr Banicevich provided a comprehensive and professional report on his trip to Europe and the first ITF convention with only minor interruptions from his young son who clearly takes after his father in exuding charm and capturing the attention of his audience. Mr Thompson as CEO then outlined the progress of International Taekwon-Do that showed how well the plans are for the expansion and development of the body are going.
Sunday morning provided Master Davidson in his usual restrained style to outline the ITF Code of Conduct document he developed in conjunction with Mr Gautier, Ms Tran and Master Weiss. New Zealand exponents can feel proud to have contributed substantially to this document with much of it paralleling the code of conduct for NZ coaches developed by SPARC. It does reflect well the values of the Ideal Instructor and the philosophy of ITF Taekwon-do espoused by the Encyclopaedia of Taekwon-do.
After a short break the groups were separated into rank divisions and allocated to Master instructors to cover the senior patterns. This gave all of the newly promoted instructors their first opportunity to learn their new patterns with some of the best Instructors International Taekwon-do has to offer. This session brought together of the collective knowledge of the participants to achieve a clear understanding of how many of the techniques should be performed. The slightly less formal atmosphere to that of an IIC encouraged the participants to ask questions and gain a good understanding of how to achieve the best results when practicing their patterns.
The weekend was completed with a Q and A session of an expert panel that provided instructors with the opportunity to clarify many procedural and technical queries and generated a lot of interest and polite debate.
It is clear from the attendance and overall positive feeling that pervaded the weekend that these Instructors conferences will continue in the future and perhaps become even more regular than the five year span between each one so far.
