Over three days in Tauranga (14th to 16th March), HGNZ hosted the first Leaders Seminar for Haidong Gumdo in New Zealand.
The Leaders Seminar was run to encourage the spread of Haidong Gumdo as a martial art throughout New Zealand. Those able to apply needed to be current practicing Black belts in another martial art.
For the first seminar, 5 Black belts (two taekwondo and three karate) took part. The activities that the candidates took part in were: Patterns, Breathing, Paper cutting, Arranged Sparring and Bamboo cutting.
Each day the candidates had to undergo a grading test to progress to the next day. By the end of three days, the candidates had reached Keup 5 (Blue belt).
The journey for the candidates is now to continue training throughout the year, and sit a full grading in December, which, if successful, will be their Keup 4 (Blue Belt, Red Stripe).
In 2024, HGNZ will hold the 2nd Leaders Seminar. This year’s group will train through to Keup 1, with a full Black belt grading scheduled for this group in December 2024. As part of next year’s second seminar, 5-7 new candidates will be able to begin their Gumdo journey.
