As the country’s oldest and most recognized martial art, taekwondo is truly Korean pride, due to its deep philosophy and fascinating motion. This unarmed combat is also known and revered globally and practiced by millions of people all over the world today.

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In Indonesia, taekwondo is quite popular among young people; this can be seen from the increased number of taekwondo students in various associations throughout the country, and Indonesian taekwondo athletes are starting to show their proficiency by participating in many world championships over the past few years which promises a bright future. In order to celebrate Korean culture, NOW! Jakarta recently caught up with Seun Shin Jung or Mr.Shin –as he fondly called- the taekwondo poomsae coach who contributes a lot to the achievement of the Indonesian taekwondo poomsae national team.

The North Jeolla-born coach was a part of Koran National Taekwondo Demo Team before landed his role as the coach for Pengurus Besar Taekwondo Indonesia (Indonesian Taekwondo Association) in the late 2011. He first learned about this combat sport at the age of fifteen and admitted to falling in love with taekwondo instantly. “I first practiced taekwondo in high school as learning about Korean traditional art was a part of school programme. In Korean language, Tae means ‘to kick’, Kwon implies ‘fist’ or ‘hand’ and Do means ‘etiquette’, thus taekwondo is an ethical system of self-defense which requires both physical and mental discipline,” explains Mr.Shin.

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Taekwondo is more than just physical fighting skill; it strives to develop the character, personality, and positive moral and ethical traits in each practitioner. Mr.Shin focuses on taekwondo poomsae training which consists of various fundamental stances, blocks, punches and kicks arranged in a meaningful order in response to attacks that may come from different directions. “There are three fundamental parts of taekwondo, namely poomsae (forms), gyeorugi (sparring) and gyeokpa (demonstration).  Poomsae is a defined pattern of defense-and-attack motions that consist of several sequences of movements, each has its own purpose and philosophical meaning. Poomsae begins with a blocking technique and ends with an attacking technique. The rules of poomsae are set by the taekwondo headquarters in Korea, Kukkiwon and World Taekwondo Federation,” Mr. Shin continued.

As taekwondo poomsae master and coach, Mr. Shin has helped the Indonesian team to win several medals in a number of prestigious taekwondo poomsae tournaments, including one gold, two silvers and five bronzes in the 2014 World Taekwondo Poomsae Championship. This accomplishment shows the big ambition of Indonesian athletes to be on the top world rank one day, optimism that he shared with all the members of national team, “Indonesia athletes have very good potential which needs to be nurtured properly. We hope that Indonesian taekwondo poomsae team will qualify for the Jakarta Asian Games 2018 and win all the medals.”

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Shin’s commitment in promoting taekwondo in Indonesia seems beyond doubt as he is currently preparing a taekwondo poomsae guidebook which describes every technique in detail, “The book is written in Bahasa Indonesia to facilitate students in learning about taekwondo poomsae easily. This manual is almost finished and is expected to be published in September,” he said.