21st International Umpire Course, Budapest, Hungary

150 umpires from the whole of Europe attended the 21st International Umpire Course at the Danubius Helia hotel in Budapest on February 13 to 15, with the presence of Grand Master Wim Bos, ITF Director, Master Alberto Katz, head of ITF Umpire Committee, Master Harry Vones and some of the highest representatives of our federation.

ITF-Belgium was represented this time by Sabum Eddy Van Damme, Boosabum Sotirios Pagalis and Boosabum Benito Martinez. Since their arriving, thje participants realized the excellency of the organization and reception and enjoyed the welcome of the hungarian organizers.
All items in ITF Taekwon-Do rules and procedures were reviewed, especially the amendements decided for the 2015 World Championships in Jesolo, Italy.
Many questions were asked by the very motivated participants, especially in new issues like the concept of « Unsportmanlike conduct » to sanctione with a minus point or « being negatively responsable for causing conciousness » debates were very dynamic and learning very intensive during all the time of the seminar.

The whole event ruled in a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere, where the use of videos for excersice and perceive details in Tuls or Sparring was very usefull as a pedagogic method. A
t the end, every participant received a certificate of participation.

Benito Martinez

On Sunday February 8^th, the ITF-B Umpire Committee organized a National Umpire Course (NUC) in Sint-Lievens-Houtem from 10:00 to 16:00 hosted by Hodori.

23 participants were inscribed from x different schools: Ge-Baek, Hodori, Won-Hyo, So-San, Samjok-O, Chon-Ji, ITF Brussels,.. Besides black belts and coloured belts, there was also a parent that took part of it.

The teachers were VIth degree, sabum Eddy Van Damme, chairman of the Umpire Committee and IInd degree, boosabum Sotirios Pagalis.

First on the agenda was a general introduction about an umpire’s responsibilities.

Afterwards the theory to judge tuls was explained and put into practice later on, when the group was separated in two.

After lunch time, most of the afternoon was spent on the different roles in sparring for an umpire: jury president, time keeper, jury member tracking warnings and minus points, center referee and corner referee.  Several participants volunteered for giving a sparring demo, so that the others could assume the referee roles they wanted to.

By the end of the afternoon, some more information was given about judging teamtul, pre-arranged free sparring and specials.

Everybody could still ask questions, but was fulfilled by this very interesting and animated course.

The documents from the course can be found at the following link.

The 9th NIC ITF-Belgium, open to all instructors of ITF-Belgium and ITF Luxembourg, was organized in Harelbeke on Sunday December 14th.

Program : the warming-up & stretching was conducted by Yves Pollefeyt, followed by the first tul session of the seminar, Chon-ji up to Choong-moo, condcted by Master Frank Vanberghen.

Afterwards there was a session on testing profies in ITF Taekwon-Do, by Annick Van Driessche.

After lunch break, the second tul session of the day, Kwang-gae up to Choi-yong, again conducted by Master Frank Vanberghen, followed by a short session on sport insurances, also conducted by Annick Van Driessche : how to fill in the forms, the liability of the instructors, and so on. Afterwards there was some time for questions, for discussion, and the certificates were distributed, followed by the last session of the day, tuls Yon-gae to Tong-il, under guidance of Master Frank Vanberghen.