Taekwondo: Weighing price of golds

Robby Pruckmuller with the spoils from the Gold Coast Champs. Photo / Paul Taylor

It's fair to say Robby Pruckmuller is 15 going on 20 if his prowess on a taekwondo mat is anything to go by.

In fact, the Hastings Boys' High School pupil has returned with two gold medals from the Gold Coast to show for it.

Robby's mum/co-coach Camille.

It's not so much his stature in the under-63kg grade of the Gold Coast Open Championship on May 28-29 but more the mental fortitude that puts him head and shoulders above even adult opponents.

Having beaten men in their 20s on the Saturday, a battle-weary Pruckmuller soldiered on in his junior 15 to 17-year-old grade the following day.

He beat his all-Australian opponents to come away with four victories from as many three by one-minute bouts.

"It's really nerve wracking and scary but, at the same time, I've nothing to lose because I'm younger," says the year 11 pupil.

With mother Master Camille Pruckmuller, of the Bay City sejong in Hastings, and South Korean-born Robin Cheong, who runs a dojang in Browns Bay, Auckland, co-coaching him, there's no doubt the teenager has all the right moves to be adept at the adult level despite the hard knocks.

"They do give me a beating," he says with a grin.

But, on the flip side, he adheres to the edict that what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

"It makes me a lot stronger and makes me fight a lot better when I drop down to the people of my age."

Pruckmuller tends to opt for music with more beats than words or thrashing rock numbers to psyche himself up for fights.

He won his first under-63kg, 18-and-over bout from the Evolution Taekwondo exponent by 10-4 points.

In his second fight in the same category, he didn't have it all his way on the mat against the Lions dojang member.

"He gave me a black eye but I still beat him, 7-5," he says of the opponent who was in his early 20s, like the first one.

However, the third rival was in his late 20s and didn't pull any punches.

"He had pretty hard punches and gave me internal bruising but I came through, 10-9 [points]."

But the test of his mettle came in the last fight the following day, albeit on the heels of the bruising encounters the previous day.

The two teenagers couldn't be separated on points after three rounds but Pruckmuller looked the worse for wear.

"By the end of the third round I had dislocated my right knee - it had popped out and then popped right back in," he says, pulling up the right leg of his dobok (white gear) to show a swollen and strapped up knee that a physiotherapist has been working on to repair torn ligaments in the meniscus.

Understandably a teary-eyed teenager, battling excruciating pain, looked pleadingly at co-coach Cheong for some reprieve but found none as the bout went into the final sudden-death fourth round with whoever scoring the first point to be hailed the winner.

"At the end of the third round I turned around to say it really hurts but [between a few choice expletives] Robin just told me to harden up and win so I had no choice but to carry on," he says of the 26-year-old two-time Kiwi Olympian (Beijing 2008 and 2010 London) who visited Bay City in 2013.

Momentarily Pruckmuller discarded any thoughts he had harboured of throwing in the towel.

Sensing the initial resignation amid a show of emotion from the Bay fighter, his opponent went for the jugular, as it were.

"He thought I was injured so he attacked me but, as I fell to the mat, I kicked him in the head for the first point to win."

Pruckmuller learned a valuable lesson - that no matter how many points one trails by or the extent of an injury during a fight, there's still a chance of clawing one's way back for victory.

Akin to hammering, shaping and reheating steel to make swords in the old days, the martial arts exponent believes his mental and physical template will be ideal for meeting his goal of representing New Zealand in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Pruckmuller is mindful the impending selection won't be a stroll in the park, if the sole selection of Andrea Kilday, of Auckland, for next month's Rio Olympics is anything to go by.

The 33-year-old mother, who clinched gold at the the Pacific Games last year, emulated that feat at this year's Oceania Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament to book her flight to Rio.

Pruckmuller's faith is foremost before every fight. He says a little prayer.

"I'm not praying to win but praying not to be badly injured, knocked out or anything like that." That divine prelude also ensures he doesn't get carried away in his powers to inflict unnecessary injuries on others.

Because of his injury, Pruckmuller will miss the President's Cup (qualifiers) in Sydney next month as well as the Oceania Championship in Suva, Fiji, in September.

However, he will compete in the 11th WTF World Junior Taekwondo Championship in Burnaby, Canada, from November 16-20 at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.

"It'll be the biggest tournament of my life," says the youngster who won silver in his first Oceanias in Sydney in 2014 before claiming bronze at the Australian Open and silver at the Bangkok Open last year.