Master Instructors from Korea teach Taekwondo

The Cayman Islands Taekwondo Federation would like to thank the World Taekwondo Peace Corps for enabling two Master Instructors from Korea to Volunteer to teach taekwondo for a four-month period in Cayman.

Both 4th Dan Black Belts and former members of the Korea National Female Fighting Team, Master Kim and Master Mun are entering the last month of their Volunteer term in Cayman, before they return to Korea on December 27th. They are both enjoying the Cayman Islands, meeting new people and making new friends, particularly through taekwondo.

Master Kim states “When I first heard I was going to Cayman Islands, I was nervous as I knew nothing about the country, but I realize now how nice the people are in Cayman, and the sea is so pretty! I like that fact that I feel so relaxed here compared to Korea. The more I get to know about Cayman, the more I like it here.”

Master Mun states “I thought that Korea has a great passion for taekwondo, but I feel Cayman has a special passion, so I feel proud to be teaching and promoting taekwondo in Cayman.”

David Reid, General Secretary of the Cayman Taekwondo Federation stated “when I first found out the two Master Instructors were coming to Cayman, I contacted the Head of the Anti-Bullying Federation and also the Education Department, to offer free taekwondo in all of the public schools, not only to expose them to the great benefits of the sport of Taekwondo, but to help enable children to stand up for themselves in relation to the Bullying problem. To date, the Master Instructors have been teaching free classes in West Bay School twice weekly since October. We would like to thank Bernie Bush for his support to provide this opportunity for the West Bay students. We are hoping to continue the program of offering free taekwondo classes in the public schools into next year, if possible, and want to expand the program to include all of the other public schools, including Cayman Brac.”

Taekwondo can provide children with the confidence, discipline and physical tools to stand up to bullying, and to help children deal with bullying in a non-violent manner. Taekwondo is primarily a self-defense martial art, in order to protect oneself from physical harm. It is not meant to be used as a tool to cause harm to others. As with most other sports, it also promotes camaraderie and friendship, which leads to students support each other in order to stand up to Bullying.

The Master Instructors, along with Derrick Pascal, also performed a Demonstration at the recent Stand-Up Anti-Bullying Fair.

The Cayman Taekwondo Federation’s goal is to promote and make WT (World Taekwondo) Taekwondo, an Olympic Sport, available to all Caymanians, as widely as possible, which is why we approached Government offering to teach free taekwondo classes in all of the public schools.

In addition to teaching free taekwondo classes for school children, the Master Instructors have been training the Cayman National Taekwondo Team, which currently consists of Derrick Pascal and Leroy Rodriguez. The high quality training has paid off as both performed well, winning medals at the recent Caribbean Taekwondo Championships held in Trinidad. Both Derrick and Leroy are continuing their training under the Master Instructors until they leave Cayman later next month, as they prepare for the Olympic Qualifying event in Costa Rica next March, in order to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

We would like to give a special thanks to the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee for their financial support and guidance to enable the visiting Master Instructors to be here.