The 173rd IIC was held in Auckland, New Zealand on 1st to 3rd March 2024. This IIC also marked the 20 years milestone anniversary of IICs in New Zealand since our founder General Choi’s passing. The course was conducted by ITF Technical Committee members Grand Master Hector Marano, Grand Master Paul McPhail, Master Jurek Jedut, and their special guest Grand Master Michael Daher.
The three-day course was attended by practitioners from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Master Gray Patterson, ITFNZ president, officially welcomed the IIC participants by sharing a precis of the IIC from the past to present. While the course duration has been shortened from what our pioneer instructors had to do, the course objective remains as to ensure consistent competency for Taekwon-Do instructors. After the heaven-hand salute to pay tribute to our founder General Choi, the course was officially opened by Grand Master Marano.
We started with a warm-up session taken by Master Jedut involving dynamic partner work setting the tone for the energetic sessions to come. Grand Master Marano then took the first patterns session from Chon Ji to Yul Gok. We eagerly taking in technical intricacies of patterns while amazed by Grand Master Marano’s wealth of knowledge and passion. Master Jedut returned to take us through self-defence from the end state take-down through to the first contact and counter attack. He also shared a few gems on teaching for our younger members. We finished the day with Grand Master Marano for the rest of the gup patterns and some invigorating group exercises.
Saturday started with Master Jedut on warm-up with familiar exercises but in unconventional ways. This was followed by line work on fundamental movements and first dan patterns. We then split into grade groups. Grand Master Marano took the 5th dan and above group on patterns while Grand Master McPhail took us through step sparring. He covered the precision of distance and footwork in three-step, vital spot as target in one-step, and bonus extra in model sparring. We then continued with 2nd dan patterns and followed by 3rd dan patterns with Master Jedut. After lunch, a sparring session with Master Jedut covering upper body movement, leg strengthening, whole body movement, and footwork drills. While we finished the day with a physically demanding session, we were all in awe of his experience in coaching at the highest level. There was a banquet dinner on the night which doubled as a special celebration of the 20 years milestone anniversary of IIC in New Zealand since General Choi’s passing. A sincere thank you to Grand Master Marano and the ITF Technical Committee for their dedications in bringing IICs to New Zealand through the last two decades.
Our final day included splitting into grade groups for patterns, sparring and conditioning. The 4th dans group breaking off for a patterns sessions before rejoining the main group for a final session on stretching by Grand Master Daher. The 6th degrees also had the unique opportunity to have a Q&A session with GM Marano and also learn “the lost pattern” Woo-Nam. You can see a video of that session here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dgb0vlqlsclx9hy/IMG_9248.MOV?dl=0
The opportunity to train under such knowledgeable Grand Masters and Masters was an extremely valuable experience. The dedication and passion from the Technical Committee were evident in their polished delivery. The sessions were both informative and inspirational to the course participants in many different ways for their Taekwon-Do journey.
We finished the day by presenting gifts to the Technical Committee members and special guests, and certificates to course participants.
A special thank you to Master Mahesh Bhana for organising an enjoyable and well-run course.
International Taekwon-Do NZ
Report of the 43rd QIUC New York
