Taekwondo grand master Jaime Moore makes special trip to Whangārei

Grand master Jaime Moore (right) looks on as Haydn Cain holds his pose. Photo / Michael Cunningham

It's not every day a taekwondo grand master travels to Northland.

In fact, the arrival of martial arts legend Jamie Moore to local taekwondo club, IL Kyuk Pilsal, at Hurupaki Primary School on Saturday, marked the first visit of any grand master to Whangārei.

Moore, 53, is a taekwondo specialist, having trained in the discipline for over 40 years and travelled to 40 countries during this time, including North Korea. Members of the IL Kyuk Pilsal club had organised for Moore visit for the weekend and administer the grading of people wishing to advance their taekwondo ranking.

This ranking, or level, is described in the sport as their "dan" with a person going through grading moving from fourth dan to fifth dan for example. Over the two days, Moore spoke to and graded some of the 35-member club as well as others who had travelled to Whangārei for the occasion.

"It is a great honour for me to be able to train them in their hometown," Moore said.

"Their standard is high, their knowledge is good and their willingness to keep that knowledge as well as refine what they are doing is great."

When travelling to New Zealand, grand masters usually visited bigger cities which had a larger martial arts following. Moore, who had been coming to New Zealand on and off for the last eight years, said it was great to be somewhere he hadn't been before.

"Traditionally, it's been about everyone having to go to Auckland or Christchurch so from that point of view, it's nice to know that I can go to the smaller towns and teach in these areas.

"For the locals to want to have me here, it just goes to show the sort of people that want to do martial arts."

Moore, who worked out of his gym in Brisbane called Worldwide, was taught by the founder of taekwondo, General Choi Hong Hi. Moore said it was important to pass down the teachings which were at the origin of the sport.

"We try and continue the legacy of what was taught by the founder which is important to most martial arts," he said.

"Martial arts is really about passing on that knowledge, it's not really a commercial thing."

While Moore emphasised the necessity for maintaining the sport's core values, he knew the teaching process had to evolve to fit the needs of its students.

"We have to be modern teachers for the children, we've got to be able to adjust and not just tell them this is the way we did it back in the old days."

He said rules like not wearing jewellery, training in bare feet and wearing nothing under the traditional taekwondo garment called a dobok, were crucial to continue as it paid respect to those who started the discipline.

Moore wanted to see more people take up martial arts and encouraged those who were not so familiar with the sport to go along to their local club to talk with what Moore hoped to be welcoming and enthusiastic club leaders.

"You've got to make sure people aren't scared to learn because it's all about training and if you've got the right people around you, you can achieve anything," he said.

IL Kyuk Pilsal instructor Victor Coda said it was great to see a grand master in Whangārei and he hoped it would encourage more people to take up martial arts in Northland.

For more information, visit the club training nights on Monday and Wednesday at 6pm at Hurupaki Primary School.