Thank you for your continued support and the courage and perseverance shown in this difficult year for many.
We wish you all a warm and happy festive season, and prosperous New year to be shared and enjoyed with your loved ones.
After a very challenging 2021 for all of our schools and wider communities, it is important to embrace these times and focus on the positives.
Eat, drink and be merry, for there is always training to come back to (let’s hope)
Be sure to spread the cheer among your Taekwon-Do colleagues and friends, so that they know they are being thought of too, particularly those that have really struggled.
Take a moment to reflect and give appreciation for the things you were fortunate enough to be able to do and still have. Spare a thought for those who have lost, whether it be family, finances or psychological distress.
For those travelling near and far during this time, we hope you stay safe and have a great break.
Once again, wishing a very Merry Christmas to you all.
Violence against women is a serious and widespread issue in Australia, as well as throughout the world. And while the long term goal is education to stop violence against women, there are actionable strategies women can employ, right now. Here are 7 very simple reasons you should consider taking a women’s self defense class.
1 – Don’t Become a Statistic
Frankly, the statistics in Australia alone are frightening. At least one woman a week is killed by a partner or former partner. One in three women have experienced physical violence. 300,000 women a year experience physical or sexual violence from a stranger.
Violence against women contributes to more death, disability and illness to women between 15 and 44 than any other preventable risk factor. Learning self-defense gives you the power to avoid becoming one of these statistics, now.
2 – Prevention and Awareness
As teens and adults we become increasingly fixated on the front and our devices, often being unaware of what’s around us. You work with an experienced instructor to develop strategies that work best for you against a variety of opponents, attacks and situations. Above all, women’s self defense teaches us awareness and prevention.
3 – Take Control for Yourself and Other Women
Women’s self defense is about taking safety into our own hands. Taking a Self defense class is our chance to take action in our own lives, to take control of our own present and future. The fact is, crimes against women happen and will continue to happen.
Women’s self defense classes can help prevent us becoming victims. Knowing how to defend ourselves gives us a better chance of stopping attacks and even lessening attacks against women in the future.
4 – Great Exercise!
Self defense classes, at the end of the day, can also be a great source of exercise, working a range of vital parts of your body. It not only exercises your body physically, it also exercises your mind, reactions and reflexes. It is also an incredible way of exercising your own power and confidence.
You do not have to be physically strong to be successful at self-defense. If you can learn to successfully escape or prevent a dangerous situation, then you are exercising good self-defense.
5 – Be Accountable
As women, we are constantly encouraged to be accountable for ourselves. We are told to be accountable for our finances. We are told to account for our stress and encouraged to be accountable for our health, weight and diet, along with our workouts and fitness.
It stands to reason that we should be accountable for our self defense. Is it really so hard to add a self defense class to our routine as we would add the latest yoga, pilates or work out fad? However, unlike a fad, this is something that will actually make a monumental, positive change to our lives.
6 – Be Feminine
There is a terrible misconception – unfortunately perpetuated by mass media – that self defense is unfeminine and unattractive. These dangerous articles claim that women who pursue self defense are masculine, “jacked up” and have a distasteful love for violence. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, many models, actresses and even pageant winners are devotees of women’s self defense. Women’s self defense is incredibly feminine because it is empowering. Encouraging women to take self defense is a beautiful, inspiring thing. So, ignore the dangerous misconceptions of mainstream media and enjoy learning self defense.
7 – Do Something Now
Of course we need better education to end violence against women and men. Violence of all kinds is unacceptable. Unfortunately, though, education is long term and may not be able to help you today, tomorrow or even next year. That is why women’s self defense education is important. This is something that can happen now. Women’s self defense provides functional strategies, techniques and training methods to stop an attacker intent on hurting you.
It gives you the security and confidence, right now, that you can protect yourself should the need arise. Unfortunately, no matter how well intended, ideologies can’t do that. So until education catches up with reality, keep yourselves safe. Invest in women’s self defense today.
We’ve released the first couple of videos here, and will be releasing more over the next couple of weeks.
If you want to get your first, directly to your inbox, please support by subscribing to our video channel, and leave us a like if you found the video useful.
With much of the country still in lockdown, and interstate borders closed, our executive committee have taken the decision to make our annual Australian Championships the2021 ITF Online Nationals.
The event is open to all ITF practitioners, regardless off age, rank or affiliation.
We ask all instructors to do their best to support this event with as many enthusiastic students as possible.
As it is now an online nationals, and after the wonderful support of our previous online events, we also welcome international participants to take part.
General Choi Hong Hi – Founder of Taekwon-DoToday marks another General Choi Death Anniversary marking a further year since the passing of the legendary Founder of Taekwon-Do, General Choi Hong Hi.
Grandmasters, Masters and students around the globe will reflect on the General’s influence and continue to keep his legacy alive through the continued promotion and growth of ITF Taekwon-Do
In 2000, General Choi, the Founder of Taekwon-Do, was announced by Taekwon-Do Times magazine, as the most influential martial artist on the century.
General Choi is regarded as the Founder of Taekwon-do and served as President of the International Taekwon-do Federation (I.T.F.) for many years. He sadly passed away in June 2002, after a long battle with cancer.
The Taekwon-Do Founder, General Choi Hong Hi (dec) was born on November 9th, 1918 in the rugged and harsh area of Hwa Dae, Myong Chung District, in what is now D.P.R of Korea . A sickly but willful child, he was expelled from school at the age of 12 for leading a protest against the occupying Japanese.
Later, Choi Hong Hi travelled to Japan, where he studied English, mathematics, and karate. In Kyoto, he met a fellow Korean with the surname Kim, who was a karate instructor and taught Choi this martial art. Choi also learned Shotokan under Gichin Funakoshi,the founder of Shotokan karate-do, perhaps the most widely known style of karate, and is known as a “father of modern karate”
Just before he had left Korea, Choi had a disagreement with a wrestler named Hu, and the possibility of a future confrontation inspired him to train. In his own words, he said “I would imagine that these were the techniques I would use to defend myself against the wrestler, Mr. Hu, if he did attempt to carry out his promise to tear me limb from limb when I eventually returned to Korea”.
With two years of concentrated training, Choi attained the rank of first degree black belt, and then 2nd Degree soon after. These techniques, together with Taek Kyon (foot techniques), were the forerunners of modern Taekwon-Do.
General Choi’s military career began in 1937, when he was forced, as were all Korean soldiers, to join the Japanese army as a student volunteer, during Japan’s occupancy of Korea.
On his return to Korea in 1942, he hid to avoid conscription into the Japanese Army, but was eventually caught, and in October 1943 began his basic training. He was soon arrested during an attempt to escape and join the underground Korean Liberation Army. Sent to Pyung Yang prison for treason, he was due to have been executed on August 18 1945, three days after Korea was liberated.
While in prison, to alleviate the boredom and keep physically fit, Choi began practicing this art in the solitude of his cell. In a short time, even his cellmate and jailer became students of his.
In 1945, Choi enrolled in the Koreans Military Academy, later to be commissioned to the rank of second lieutenant in 1946. By 1948, he had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was a Taekyon instructor for the military troops of the R.O.K. and the American Military Police School based in Korea.
On the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, Choi hurried back to Korea, where he was ordered to set up an officer training academy. In 1952 he was appointed chief of staff of the First Corps, and soon found himself briefing General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the United Nations troops, on the situation at the front line.
From 1946 to 1951, Choi received promotions to first lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, and then brigadier general, becoming Chief of staff to the Korean Army.
The year 1953 was an eventful one for the General, in both his military career and in the progress of the new martial art. He became the author of the first authoritative book on military intelligence in Korea.
He organized and activated the crack 29th Infantry Division at Cheju Island, which eventually became the spearhead of Taekwon-Do in the military and established the Oh Do Kwan (Gym of My Way) where Korean soldiers were trained in General Choi’s new martial art to become the pioneer Taekwon-do instructors. It was also a opportunity to develop the Taekyon and Karate techniques into a modern system of Taekwon-Do.
He went on to command Chung Do Kwan (Gym of the Blue Wave), the largest civilian gym in Korea;
In 1954 Choi was promoted to the rank of Major General.
During his military career, General Choi constantly researched various martial arts, mainly Taekyon, Kung Fu and Karate – drawing from each to create the original version of Taekwon-do.
In 1955 General Choi led the Korean Army’s Taekwon-do demonstration team on a tour of China and Vietnam to promote his form of unarmed combat. After breathtaking displays, both these countries adopted General Choi’s Taekwon-do as an integral part of their soldier’s military training.
In 1961, the Korean Taekwon-do Association was formed with General Choi as its President. During the next few years, he led Taekwon-do demonstration teams throughout the world. In 1965, the South Korean government gave approval to General Choi’s martial art and declared it as Korea’s National martial art.
On March 22nd, 1966, General Choi Hong Hi (dec) formed the International Taekwon-do Federation(I.T.F) in Seoul, Korea. At the time it had associations in Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, West Germany, America, Turkey, Italy, Egypt and Korea. Taekwon-Do was taken up by several foreign armies, and was taught at West Point in America. During the Vietnam War, the Taekwon-Do training of Korean and other foreign soldiers was said to have had a demoralizing effect on the Viet Cong.
In 1971, the South Korean president Park Chung Hee began to use Taekwon-Do as anti-communist political propaganda. Choi, fiercely against this, went into exile in Canada. He continued to teach Taekwon-Do throughout the world, including in North Korea, and in 1974 he organised the first Taekwon-Do world championship in Montreal.
All the while he had to endure death threats from Korean Central Intelligence, attempts to kidnap him and attempts on his life by armed assassins. On one occasion his son and daughter, who had stayed behind in South Korea, were kidnapped and their lives threatened if Choi did not return to Korea. His response was “I choose Taekwon-Do over my son”. They were freed.
General Choi died of cancer on 15 June 2002 in Pyongyang, North Korea. Choi is listed in the Taekwondo Hall of Fame with various titles: “Father of Taekwon-Do,” “Founder and First President of the International Taekwon-Do Federation,” and “Founder of Oh Do Kwan.”Choi is survived by his wife, Choi Joon Hee; his son, Choi Jung Hwa; two daughters, Sunny and Meeyun; and several grandchildren.
We ask that you take a moment on the occasion of General Choi Death Anniversary to reflect on how Taekwon-Do has impacted your own life.
- exerpts from 'Taekwondo - The Korean Art of Self Defence' - General Choi Hong Hi
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General Choi Hong Hi seminar 1995 video 3
General Choi seminar Sunshine Coast 1995 video 1
General Choi Hong Hi Seminar 1995 Sunshine Coast video 2
General Choi Taekwondo Seminar, Sydney 1993
General Choi Hong Hi seminar Sydney 1993 clip 3
General Choi Hong Hi Sydney Seminar 1993 video 2
Gen Choi Hong Hi Seminar Perth 1998 - degree testing
General Choi Hong Hi Seminar & Black Belt Testing, 1995 Sunshine Coast, Australia
General Choi Hong Hi teaching Taekwon-Do In Korea
General Choi Memorial Cyber Champs launch with Master Michael Muleta
For those travelling near and far during this time, we hope you stay safe and have a great break.
defense class is our chance to take action in our own lives, to take control of our own present and future. The fact is, crimes against women happen and will continue to happen.
