2nd ICC in Spain – Report

During the first weekend of July the 2nd ICC was held, in the city of Benidorm, Spain and was conducted by GM Bos , Master Van de Mortel and Sabum Tomaz Barada.

On Friday most of the participants arrived in  the beautiful city of Benidorm where prediction of the weather for the weekend and temperature was quite hot (30-35 degrees) but the organization in the previous days of the event changed the venue to a new one with full air conditioning in a nice Hotel Melia Benidorm, of  a high standard. During the afternoon the organization and the volunteers prepared all the hall with full tatami, big banners of General Choi, ICC, sponsors , the main table for the Masters and another table with water for all participants.

On Saturday morning all participants arrived on time , everything was ready and all of them were excited and ready to meet the masters and start the seminar. We had participants from Argentina, Canada, Ireland , Georgia, Scotland and Spain. The Masters were pleased that high ranks (VIII degree, VII, VI and V ) were present and wishing to learn from them . At 10 oclock we started, and during the morning we started with some exercises that GM Bos surprised us  with. All of us know that he always surprises us with new exercises , but which ones were coming in this semminar ….. many !!! Thanks GM . After that we followed with Master Van de Mortel and learned how to prepare for Traditional Sparring, how to get the power for the techniques and how to show them for a successful exercise. We had a break and right away we started with Sabum Tomaz Barada with some preparations for Sparring , always Sabum Barada shows us how easy the Sparring can be when you have everything in control , he explained to us how important the mind is, the importance of the coach , what the coach should say in difficult moments , what to do and when, all participants were pleased that they shared all this with us . After the lunch the participants could have a small rest and a fresh swim in the Hotel Swimming pool . We started again at 16h and finish at 19h , all of us were tired but we didn’t want to finish , we were pleased in the way that they were conducting the course and we wanted more , but we had to wait for the next day.

On Saturday evening we went for the banquet to a restaurant in the center of the city, where we could eat some “tapas” and spanish food , always tasty.

Sunday arrived and before starting the participants were talking with each other and saying “do you remember this exercise from yesterday , waoo ….and this other exercise” ….

The Masters arrive and we started with the second day , all of us were wishing for more , and we had more and more , the surprises and the new exercises from the day before didn’t end .  At 18h the Seminar finished and the faces of all of us speaks by themselves, all of us had the opportunity to attend this new course and learn from GM Bos , Master Van de Mortel and Sabum Barada, and enjoyed it a lot.

We want to thank for all participants that attended the course in Spain and also to the Masters for giving us the opportunity to have this wonderful event in our country .

Paco Ferrando              Vicente Ibañez
President FEST            Chairman organicer