Spring Training with the Czech National Taekwon-do Union

IFSC Force visited Prague in the Czech republic over the June bank holiday weekend for Spring training with members of the Czech National Taekwon-do Union.

We arrived in Prague on Thursday evening and were met at the airport by our hosts Mr Viktor Stein, President of the Czech National taekwondo Union and Mr Kamil Kolofik, IV degree black belt and the technical director for the Czech National Taekwon-do Union.

As our training was starting Friday evening we decided to spend Friday sightseeing in Prague city led by our wonderful tour guide Jana Marsikova. After a traditional Czech lunch in the city centre, we returned to our hotel and we did our first training session in the evening with our Czech friends. Two hours of demanding sparring drills and fundamental techniques worked up a thirst so on our way back to the hotel after training we stopped at the local pub for a beer and some Czech pickled sausage to refuel after the tough session.

Saturday we did more sightseeing with the highlight of the day being a boat trip down the Vltava river and more training again in the evening, with more sparring drills, some patterns and stretching to finish.

Sunday we had training sessions in morning and evening and we were honoured to be joined by members of the Czech nationa taekwon-do team where the training included fun games Ireland VS Czech Republic and lots of sparring drills and pattern practice, fundamental moves and self -defence.

​Sunday night we were treated to a fantastic barbecue by our Czech hosts where the food seemed to be endless, all cooked by Mr Stein, the beer was on draught and we had a chance to have friendly conversations with our hosts and to watch taekwon-do videos.

​As Monday was our last full day we decided to visit an Aqua park which was great fun (even for our two junior members in our group Aaron and Luke) with plenty of fun water slides and some scary ones as well for the more daring of us.

​We did our last training session Monday evening to conclude our spring training with a total of 6 tough training sessions or 10 hours in total over the weekend which helped burn off the excesses of the barbecue.

We returned to Dublin on Tuesday where we promised to make it an annual event open to anyone who wishes to join us. We would like to thank Mr Viktor Stein, Mr Kamil Kolofik, Ms Lenka Kolofikova and Jana Marsikova for their kindness and hospitality and we are looking forward to returning next year again.