BINTULU: Resuming training although subject to strict adherence to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) is a huge relief for taekwondo exponents here.
Over 30 students from the Smart Taekwondo Club (WTF) returned to training at Gym Taekwondo Medan Sentral on March 1.
According to its head instructor Pui Jak Joon, all students had expressed their excitement after being allowed by their parents to join others in training.
“Majority of students especially the juniors want to come down for training, but about 70 per cent of parents are still worried of their children safety, and reluctant to release their children although with the existing SOPs in place.
“Parents still scared and I understand that situation,” the 46-year-old said.
Pui Jak Joon
Pui said students are looking forward for a face to face conventional training after struggling to cope with online session in an ‘informal training environment’ at home.
“It was not a problem for the seniors but for our young juniors, online session was very challenging for them and they were having difficulty to adapt to the new learning environment,” he added.
He said during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period, the club had not skip classes as they provided online sessions for their students.
He said it was part of the club’s Taekwondo central development programme to prepare the exponents for future tournaments.
Asked about the risk of resuming training amidst the ongoing pandemic, Pui said everything in life has some kind of risk, adding that the club has enhanced its own SOPs for its training session.
“As an instructors we also worried, but if we are not open, we will be financially burdened with the rental fees and other operational costs,” he said.
According to him, it was very unfortunate for the club after they had to let go few potential coaches who had to look for other jobs when the gym was temporarily closed during the lockdown.
“When the gym was closed, there was no income, but now with the reopening, although the number of returning students still low, at least we still can cover the operational costs,” said Pui, adding that trainings are conducted by two trainers and two assistants from 7.30pm to 9pm on weekdays.
For the time being, he said training is limited to poomsae, basic movement and syllabus for upgrading.
“If we look at a positive side, this is the right time for them to empower their individual skills and techniques in poomsae,” Pui said.
Poomsae is a set sequence of movements that consists of the various fundamental stances, blocks, punches and kicks arranged in a meaningful order in response to attacks from multiple imaginary assailants.
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