Para Taekwondo Archives - TaeKwonDo Times

Para Taekwondo #KickingItAtHome

Michael Pagan — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 16:52:13 +0000

Para athletes around the world are getting creative with their workouts to stay on course for Tokyo 2020, which has been postponed to next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With most confined to home, the World Taekwondo has come up with a unique initiative to ensure that their fighters remain fit, connected and motivated. They have launched a digital campaign #KickingItAtHome to show how fighters are coping with the global situation, and videos are being posted on World Para Taekwondo’s Facebook page.

“As taekwondo can be practiced pretty much anywhere with minimal equipment, (there is) no special support (needed) for training,” said World Taekwondo’s Para Taekwondo Director Olof Hansson. “(To prove the point), we started asking our athletes to share their training videos with us on social media.”

The response has been overwhelmingly positive.

The first video of the #KickingItAtHome campaign came from Spain’s world and European champion Alejandro Vidal Alvarez. His post reached over 50,000 people in less than four days.

Quarantine can’t keep Para taekwondo legend down! Despite an ankle injury, Ukraine’s six-time world champion Vika Marchuk shows just why she’ll be tough to beat in Tokyo (this or any other year).

Well this, and the beatdown she delivered at last year’s European championship, where she set a record for most points in a match with a 72-2 semifinal win on the way to her fifth European crown.

The post Para Taekwondo #KickingItAtHome appeared first on TaeKwonDo Times.

The Gift of My Life

Michael Pagan — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 17:22:12 +0000

For World Para Taekwondo Champion, Lisa Gjessing, taekwondo is the gift that keeps on giving. The undefeated Danish fighter has won it all – World Championships and European Championships titles – but it is Paralympic glory that she has yet to achieve.
Training with the Danish national para taekwondo team at the Makuhari Messenger Hall in the Chiba Prefecture ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics test event on 28 September, this is something she is hoping to put right next summer. Gjessing is one of para taekwondo’s true superstars and has already been identified by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as ‘one to watch.’
Born in 1978, she is one of the older athletes on the circuit, but what she lacks in youth she more than makes up for in experience. Almost 20 years ago, Gjessing was competing for Denmark in the 2001 and 2003 WT World Taekwondo Championships. However, in 2007 she was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, and underwent different treatments before, in 2012, her lower left arm was amputated. It was a very difficult time in her life. But taekwondo gave her hope. She got in touch with her coach Bjarne Johansen who spoke to her about para taekwondo. She got back into training and was practicing alongside elite athletes at Johansen’s training centre. Not long after, she entered the World Para Taekwondo Championships in Switzerland in 2013 in the -58kg and won gold. Since then she has not looked back. She has fully recovered from her cancer and has not lost as a para taekwondo athlete. She is now confident she can win gold at Tokyo 2020. “I heard from Johanssen in the summer of 2012 when I cut my wrist, Taekwondo has become a very big gift to me,” she said. “It will be a great challenge for me to advance to the Tokyo Paralympics.” Gjessing serves as a true inspiration to many around the world and competing at the Paralympic Games will embody taekwondo as a sport for all.

The post The Gift of My Life appeared first on TaeKwonDo Times.

Qualification Procedure for Taekwondo Paralympic Debut

Michael Pagan — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 19:50:33 +0000

World Taekwondo has reaffirmed the qualification procedure for the sport’s Paralympic debut in Tokyo next year. The governing body said they had received “many calls and requests” for confirmation of quota places after the November world rankings were published. Last month’s European Para Taekwondo Open Championships in Bari in Italy was the last official ranking tournament for Tokyo 2020, but it is the January rankings which will decide the Paralympic qualifiers. This is because there is still room for “deductions” between now and then, World Taekwondo said. They will write to countries on January 6 to confirm the allocation of slots. The top four athletes in all of the K44 weight categories will earn a quota space for their country, as well as the top two in the K43 events. Quotas have also already been allocated through continental qualification tournaments, while host nation Japan have been awarded three athletes.
Eligible athletes could also be invited by World Taekwondo and the International Paralympic Committee through the Bipartite Commission. The qualification period for Tokyo 2020 opened on January 1, 2018. Taekwondo will make its Paralympic debut alongside badminton.

The post Qualification Procedure for Taekwondo Paralympic Debut appeared first on TaeKwonDo Times.

Taekwondo Master Teaches Classes at Anaheim Braille Institute

Michael Pagan — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 19:25:28 +0000

For 13 years, Lester Hubner has trained in taekwondo with Grand Master Sung Yang, earning a 3rd degree black belt and became an assistant instructor for the class. “You just cannot believe the feeling that someone like me gets from having people around them that they can help,” Hubner said. “When I’m out there, I’m asking for help. When I’m here, I’m not asking for anything.” Hubner trains in the martial art at the Braille Institute in Anaheim. Every Friday, Hubner boards a bus from his home in Huntington Beach, exits on Beach Boulevard near Knott’s Berry Farm walks 20 minutes to the Braille Institute, which offers a variety of programs and classes for people who are blind or visually impaired. Hubner, 72, is able to see out about 20 feet in front of him, while most people can see about 200 feet. That feeling of empowerment derived from learning taekwondo is a main reason the martial arts class is the most popular of all the activities offered at the institute. Yang, who owns the Shambhala Martial Arts Center in Brea, started the taekwondo classes at the Braille Institute 18 years ago and said he was immediately inspired by his students’ effort. “They challenge themselves,” Yang said. “That is why I respect them.” The class is free, as are all the services and classes offered at the Braille Institute. “I’ve seen people just blossom in this class,” said Donna Wager, the volunteer services manager at the institute. “They carry themselves in a more confident manner. I think that it makes them less vulnerable. They learn spatial awareness, balance and coordination. The students, which number about 40 and include a woman in her 80s, also walk away with an understanding of the philosophies of taekwondo. Those include interpersonal communication skills, deeper self-awareness, self-discipline and ability to influence others. They not only learn the taekwondo skills, and taekwondo philosophies, but the ability to inspire other people. Student David Yohan Chung, 27, said he has been making the trek to the class from Koreatown in Los Angeles for seven years, because he wanted to be taught by a grand master. “Taekwondo is a sport for which we Koreans are very proud,” said Chung, who holds a brown belt. “In Korea, there are not many grand masters who are willing to teach visually impaired students how to do taekwondo. I think one of the biggest blessings of the class is (becoming) more confident in my abilities and conquering some of the challenges that visually impaired people have. They’re willing to teach you something that nobody else will teach you, and in a comfortable atmosphere,” Hubner said. “They do everything here to make it so safe. I’ve been doing this for so long, not because I have to, but because I can’t wait to.”

Blind student, David Chung, 25, is all smiles after he broke his board during the 8th annual Shambhala Festival held at the Orange County Braille Institute. The event featured demonstrations by both sighted and blind students. Grand Master, Sung Wook Yang, holds his board.

Blind student, Unjue Cho, 86, demonstrates a technique called “Don’t mess with my backpack” with Grand Master, Sung Wook Yang. He has taught Taekwondo to more than 70 blind students.

The post Taekwondo Master Teaches Classes at Anaheim Braille Institute appeared first on TaeKwonDo Times.

One-Armed Para Taekwondo Master Has a Leg Up on Competition

Michael Pagan — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 18:17:08 +0000

A South Florida man is a one-armed fighter, but he has a leg up in the competition when it comes to Para Taekwondo. Daniel Espinosa lost his arm and his mother lost a leg in a train accident in Cuba at the age of 2. “We falling down and the train coming, and my mom lost a leg, and I lost my right hand,” the 46-year-old recalled. He started training in Taekwondo at just five years old and left Cuba at 22 to become an athlete in the U.S. “Taekwondo is everything for me,” he said. “Taekwondo gives me a lot of confidence.” Espinosa won bronze in the 2019 World Para Taekwondo Championship and gold in the 2017 U.S. Open, just to name a few of his accomplishments. He has also kicked it up a notch by teaching the next generation of Taekwondo students. Espinosa opened 1AF Taekwondo Training Academy in Cooper City with his son and family to teach others, with or without disabilities. “I don’t care if you have an arm or you don’t have a leg. I don’t care,” says Espinosa. Espinosa has his set his sights on the Tokyo Paralympics in 2020, but it’s up in the air right now as he says his classification category has changed. Although he continues to overcome a lot of adversity, he doesn’t look at disabilities — he only looks at advantages. “I never see in the people the disable,” he said. “Always I see why you can do it.”

The post One-Armed Para Taekwondo Master Has a Leg Up on Competition appeared first on TaeKwonDo Times.