CWC Sports students were recently visited by coaches from Taekwondo England who ran a number of sessions in the College’s Sports Hall. Throughout the day students took part in practical demonstrations, fitness tests and were shown the various skills needed for the sport including balance and co-ordination.
Taekwondo made its first appearance as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Olympics before becoming a full medal sport in 2000 at the Olympics held in Sydney, Australia. The full contact sport is similar to boxing – opponents fight for three rounds lasting two minutes each and athletes can have up to seven or eight fights a day in a tournament.
Students from Levels 1 to 3 who took part in the training sessions were coached by Nuno Varela, current National Champion and Portuguese Gold medallist and Tom Redding, a two-time student National Champion and two times National Champion. Along with several other Taekwondo coaches (including a former Olympian) they form Dragon Taekwondo, based in Peterborough. “We had over 90 students taking part in the various sessions throughout the day,” said Craig Riddell, one of CWC’s Leisure, Health and Public Services lecturer who also coaches at Dragon Taekwondo
“There’s a big movement in sport regarding cross overs to different sports and we’ve seen today that those who do gymnastics or other martial arts like kickboxing are doing extremely well in these introductory classes,” Craig added. “Taekwondo England as a whole is a fairly new organisation, but they have a big base in London. Hopefully some of the students today enjoyed learning about Taekwondo and will attend classes in the future.”
Taekwondo made its first appearance as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Olympics before becoming a full medal sport in 2000 at the Olympics held in Sydney, Australia. The full contact sport is similar to boxing – opponents fight for three rounds lasting two minutes each and athletes can have up to seven or eight fights a day in a tournament.
Students from Levels 1 to 3 who took part in the training sessions were coached by Nuno Varela, current National Champion and Portuguese Gold medallist and Tom Redding, a two-time student National Champion and two times National Champion. Along with several other Taekwondo coaches (including a former Olympian) they form Dragon Taekwondo, based in Peterborough. “We had over 90 students taking part in the various sessions throughout the day,” said Craig Riddell, one of CWC’s Leisure, Health and Public Services lecturer who also coaches at Dragon Taekwondo
“There’s a big movement in sport regarding cross overs to different sports and we’ve seen today that those who do gymnastics or other martial arts like kickboxing are doing extremely well in these introductory classes,” Craig added. “Taekwondo England as a whole is a fairly new organisation, but they have a big base in London. Hopefully some of the students today enjoyed learning about Taekwondo and will attend classes in the future.”