Kung fu trainees go bush

IN THE ZONE: Danielle Halliday during a recent training session with Kaikohe Yun Jung Do. PICTURE/DEBBIE BEADLE

Meet the family-orientated martial arts club from the Far North which operates with a definitive point of difference.

The members of Kaikohe Yun Jung Do (KYJD) not only train steadfastly on Monday and Wednesday nights at the Kaikohe War Memorial Hall under the guidance of head instructor John Cowan, but also get the opportunity to go bush up to three times a year.

Having been involved in promoting the form of self-defence in the mid North for the past 25 years, Cowan described Yun Jung Do as great way to learn how to relax and feel more comfortable.

"It is a fun club which practises non-contact, except for control defence and releasing technics. Anyone can get some sort of advance from it. It's a great way to look after your body and improve your upper body," he said. The founder of Yun Jung Do was a man known as Master Yun (now a grandmaster) who was a founding figure from the ITF (International Tae Kwon Do Federation), which introduced tae kwon do to the Pacific region last century.

Cowan made a radical decision to remove the contact aspect from training years ago and said the pay-off was seeing the attendance from children and female members rise dramatically. The club also chose not to represent at other martial arts competitions because many weren't enjoying the physical contact.

Cowan said thousands of people have passed through the club over the past three decades, with many returning to drop off off children and grand-children. The youngest member is six and the oldest is around 60, Cowan said, adding his children and grandchildren have also progressed through the ranks.

It was while training with various other visiting martial arts clubs from Auckland at the annual weekend camp hosted locally by KYJD that the seed was sown to branch out and offer an alternative. The moment came at a camp at Trefoil Park in Mangakahia, where the martial artists were finding the natural environment a great place to push the limits - such as running up hills. It became increasingly apparent how much the children who had accompanied their parents to the camp were also enjoying the activities, even more than the adults.

To capitalise on the interest, Cowan formed the Kaikohe Yun Jung Do Development Trust, an organisation which now runs three camps in local bushland areas each year. These camps, he said, helped glue the club community together.

"In those days the first camps were about river crossings, building bivouacs, compass work, getting up in the bush. Nowadays it is really refined. We are teaching more bushcraft and orienteering on the camps, including food preparation, how to light a fire in wet bush ... "

With the camps costing anything between $1500 and $2000 to run once all the food, accommodation and transport costs had been taken into consideration, Cowan soon realised how important it was to make the camps more accessible to more children, especially those from a depressed area like Kaikohe. The biggest thing preventing kids - particularly those who'd benefit the most - from attending was the cost.

Regular funding from agencies like the Lottery Grants Board, and COGS (Community Organisations and Grants Scheme) has allowed the Kaikohe club to cater to a growing number of local youth. The last camp held at Lonsdale Park, Matauri Bay, earlier this year was attended by 32 children and 13 adults, a figure which represented a pleasing increase in the child/ parent ratio.

"It's good to see the parent involvement today. Back in the old days, 20 years or so ago, there used to be more than 40 children and three supervisors ... parents didn't get involved like they do today. It is really important for families to get out and support their children and become involved in this sort of event. It is what we promote."

"Martial arts can be a boring, monotonous and repetitive discipline most of the time. It is hard work so it is good to have these camps which give them something to look forward to after a hard term of training indoors."

- For more information on Kaikohe Jun Yung Do, contact John Cowan 401-3030.