Totally Tae Kwon Do Magazine - Issue 20 - Usadojo

way then it has a future.
But I’m afraid it is only for a small group of
people who are really interested in
TaeKwon-Do as a Martial Art.
Paul: How do you hope people view the
UTI in the world of TaeKwon-Do?
GM Karel: Hopefully when people from
outside look at the UTI, they see it as a
serious TaeKwon-Do organisation. In
Holland it is more a foundation and we
accept members only when we are sure
they want to work hard and go deeper into
the philosophy of TaeKwon-Do. So
automatically we make our own borders
and say well, everybody is welcome to
come in, but you have to work at it! I think
the level is high especially for the people at
gradings because they have to show more
than people do in other organisations. On
the other hand, I think that if you would like
to develop yourself in a serious way in
TaeKwon-Do you need a higher standard.
When you give somebody a black belt or
any graduation in TaeKwon-Do it is a
punishment when they are not at the right
level because everybody is laughing at
them because they are not at the right skill
level for their grade. It is much better to be
proud of your technical level at your grade.
John: The UTI as an organisation has an
interesting concept that I have admired a
lot, which is that you can’t join it – therefore
you can’t leave it. But the UTI exists as an
organisation to help other organisations
and one of the things it does is that it
promotes a training session in Papendal
once a month. Could you explain what the
UTI does at these Papendal sessions?
GM Karel: Well, once a month we have
central training in Papendal, the Dutch
national sports centre. Firstly, all the
schools that are working with us are invited
but there is always an open door for other
instructors who would like to develop
themselves. It is not important if they are
members of another organisation; when
they are serious TaeKwon-Do guys and
they like to develop themselves then they
are welcome on our training sessions. We
ask nothing from them, not to change their
organisation or to do a grading with us or
whatever, just to develop themselves is
Grading group From left to right: Mr. Sean Foley, Mr. Keith Reidy, Mr. Martin Ryan (Instructor BTKD), Mr. Scott
Fitzgearld, GM Karel Van Orsouw, Mr. Niall O'Keeffe (Head Instructor BTKD), Mr. Jonathan Murphy, Mr. Joe
Green.
12 - Totally Tae Kwon Do