Traveller report from Gabriel Fife

My Friend Derek Romano was already taking lessons (taekwondo) at a Kyung Won University, so I decided to visit him since I had some time during my winter break for school.

I arrived in Seoul on December 14th, my birthday, and met my roomate, not my friend I came to visit. The next day Derek and I visited the taekwondo profesor at Kyung Won Dae(University). The profesor informed us that we had an invitation to Pung Sehng Jung Go Dung Hakyo (Pung Sehng Middle and High School).

The following day, December 16, we made our way to the High School by the subway and began our training. Training consisted of 3-4 training sessions per day each about 2-3 hours. Most Practices started at 8:30 am depending on if the team had an earlier practice (most of the time Derek and I had no knowledge of these training times).

The First practice, depending on the weather, consisted of a one hour run followed by sprints and agility exercises (this might be a day when the weather was poor but somedays we just did this practice). Most days for the first practice we took a bus to Namasansah (mountain). This mountain provided a cross training course that would last 2-3 hours most days. We would climb hills (by walking) and run down hills. Many students suffered painfull falls but were expected to continue the course. At the end of the course we would meet at a parking lot and continue a militaristic type jog which consisted of chants. This jog was probably 1/2 mile. When our jog ended our training would have lasted for about 2 hours. We would end the jog by some stairs (very high) and step the length of the stairs maybe 10 times. Students caught looking tired would recieve a swat from the coaches stick. After the stairs exercise we would walk down the stairs to a park where the coach would speak to the team for a few minutes and everyone would cool down and stretch lightly. We would then walk to the bus and go back to the high school.

After the first training we would either eat or nap for about 2 hours then continue to the next practice. The second practice would consist of an indoor conditioning practice which consisted of jogging and sprints and agility training. After each practice we were given 2-3 hours of rest to eat or sleep and continue onto the next training.

The night practice (3rd or 4th training) would consist of technique practice of kicks on kicking pads. This practice would last 2 hours and most times did not have the supervision of the coach. Each day seemed different but in many ways similar in exercises.

I stayed in at Kyung Won Dae Hankyo (University) for two weeks and left early because of an injury of my hamstring muscle that was two years old.

I think my airfare was around 890$.

Going to Korea was a very memorable and fun experience. I was not mentally and physically prepared. My previous injury held me back and I could have stayed longer if i was more healthy. I plan on training there again once I am in shape and prepared fully to train with full comitment.