Taekwondo Podcast

Episode 7 - Athletes are getting ready for the Continental Championships

March 01, 2022 Taekwondo Podcast Season 1 Episode 7
Taekwondo Podcast
Episode 7 - Athletes are getting ready for the Continental Championships
Show Notes Transcript

   The World Championships are pushed to later in the year, leaving the Continental Championships as the first big objective for most teams.

  In this episode, Coaches César Valentim and Peter Nestler discuss the strategies teams are taking, on the road to the upcoming Continental Championships.

  What's the big difference between competing in Europe and in the pan-American regions? How are teams getting ready for the competition calendar and what are the immediate goals?

  This podcast is supported by Hawkin Dynamics and Athlete Analyzer! 

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Speaker 1:

Have you been looking for a Teon do podcast with qualified people who know what they're talking about, who help you keep up with everything going on in the Teon do world? Well, you found it. This is the Teon do podcast. Teon do news competitions in a of the events training in sports science, keeping the fans, coaches and high performance athletes up to date with the latest news and trends on Olympic TaeKwonDo. Let's do this. This is the TaeKwonDo podcast. And now your host coach, Cesar Valenti team and Peter Nestle.

Speaker 2:

Hello and welcome to the Teon do podcast. We are a podcast based out of Austria in English language for everyone out there who likes Teon. In this episode, we talk about the upcoming competition, the current events and what we can expect in the different continental regions. Welcome to our podcast. I'm coach Teza Valenti team. And with me as coach Peter Nestler. Hi, Peter, how are you?

Speaker 3:

I'm fine today. Hi, CSAR how

Speaker 2:

Are you? Very good. Nice to be here again. It has been an amazing year so far. Well, despite all the restrictions of training, traveling and competing, the events are taking place and we have a year packed with events ahead of us, but most of these events have something special. It's called the bubble and the COVID prevention plans. And what challenges does it bring? And also what are the big concerns you have regarding it?

Speaker 3:

What we have is, well, let, let me start with this. We had some events are already, um, which were organized in bubble style and it worked out really well. So you enter with a test, then you stay in the same place. You don't leave the place championship all in the same place and when you leave it you're gone. Uh, it worked fine for the teams as so far, but on the other hand, it, uh, also makes longer wind events, uh, which causes bigger costs for the teams. So it's quite safe. Let me say it's, uh, like this.

Speaker 2:

Well, the bigger events with bubble were, as you mentioned in private, the microphones were not yet on, um, where the winter Olympics. Um, but those are talking about national Olympic teams. It's not exactly the same as Teon opens. And right now the events let's talk about the event that just finished the president's cup. When you have to stay there with the cadets junior seniors Poe, uh, for a week or over at 90 euros per person, I, the costs are a little bit prohibitive. Do you think that, uh, that kind of approach to the events is fair for the clubs?

Speaker 3:

Well, we, we have, we have been, uh, we have seen, uh, rising costs in the, in the last year. So as licenses here, licenses there, you have to have certificates here and there. And the last thing thing was the not only for, for the bubble, it was also before you have to take the hotel, which has been organized by the federal, which is doing the event. Well, that's a big amount of money. I mean, if you guess a team for, uh, for 10 people, you have to stay a full time and the events longer, as I said, cuz it's less, uh, divisions per day cause of COVID. So it's, it's really, really, really hard, uh, for some of the teams to, to, to answer those competitions. I don't know if we could stretch those things. Furthermore, I think it is already a lot of money to spend, let's see

Speaker 2:

The world Techon released, uh, new guidelines for the GMs saying that the global licenses for the federations as a price, but they do not, should charge more than$35 per, um, license. We know that some Federation charge a little bit more others charge way more. Um, and I understand also administrative costs and uh, all these, uh, involved, or also as a extra source of income, the, the problem with the licenses that you pay once a year. Sure. I think that's, uh, one of the one, uh, another cost to add to the, uh, amount of cost we have. We are still a very cheap sport when we compare, for example, with cycling or, uh, with all kind of, uh, water and Motorsports. Can you imagine traveling with a team of mechanics or shipping your boats in a and 10 to the other side of the world ahead of the tournament, we are quite, quite, uh, uh, cheap. We can travel with a small backpack to most of the competitions. Uh, if you don't have a big team that has to bring physiotherapies and a massage table, uh, it's quite easy, uh, the costs with the sensor socks. Um, and let's be honest, almost every month you have to buy new because the quality are, are not, um, as high as it should be for a, a competitive equipment. Um, to be honest, some of my players did buy socks literally every month because the magnets start to fall apart. But the, the events are not, uh, prohibitive in terms of equipment in terms of licensing. But I, when we start seeing hotels, official hotels, being pushed for people who already have all kinds of, uh, vaccination panels and testing opportunities. Do you think this is gonna be over with the COVID is over or do you think it's gonna stay as a ways of the organizers also to have easier logistics?

Speaker 3:

I think it will stay like this because it's a, it it's a good income for them, but I think, I really think it will stay like that.

Speaker 2:

We were talking in the last episode, actually two episodes ago, um, about, uh, the world championships being pushed to the end of the year and that the continental championships, uh, being the, the biggest objective for the first semester, uh, the rules right now say that you have one athlete per weight division and some continental unions. You have the possibility to qualify athletes via quota events. Is it realistic to keep these, uh, eight weight divisions for the seniors and 10 for the juniors and cadets per gender? Or should we actually, uh, add the, the, the, either more weight divisions or the number of athletes participating outside of quota events? For example, in Jule, you can take two athletes per weight division to some competitions and in Teo can only take one. And do you think it's having more players or having a different, uh, instead of single elimination to allow the players to have more bouts like they have in other, uh, combat sports? Do you think the continental championships should, um, increase their, uh, participation formats?

Speaker 3:

Well, actually we have, uh, very big events right now with, with the existing system to open it even further, the events would get even bigger. I don't know if you want, if we want that. Um, but the models you have in, in other sports as you called in, in ju or so, it is, it allows the more, uh, playing within the team,

Speaker 2:

The seniors, um, the absolute, uh, European championships. Um, they are G four events yet the European university event gets zero points. The, do you think that would be interesting to create other kind of European championships? Not only the open women European events that we should probably have, uh, or might we would like of workers, uh, European championships or students, university European championships, making points or male or gender, uh, also for the other, uh, um, um, minorities, some kind of, uh, European championship that allow them to gather points since we go only allowing one athlete per way, division in a regular European championships.

Speaker 3:

Yes, I'd love to, to have this. Um, the uni university games don't have any points at all, but, uh, we have them for many years now. And you could see from the rising number of participants, that it is, uh, it's good events there. So why shouldn't we give them points as well? So start with a low level, some G two or so half of, of the European normal points. Um, that would be nice. Also other formats that's true.

Speaker 2:

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Speaker 1:

Your listening to the tech one, go podcast. Now back to your hosts, coach Caesar, Valenti team, and Peter Nestler.

Speaker 3:

Welcome back for the second part of the take Oneo podcast. Now we change roles. Um, my next question to coach Caesar, um, the pan America has very busy calendar this year. Do you think, is that realistic for

Speaker 2:

The teams? Penn America is usually have, uh, a few countries that are quite international. They travel a lot, they have big teams and they also have the financial support to do that. We're talking like most of north America, Canada, us, Mexico, uh, Puerto Rico, but then you have, uh, also in south America and central America, some, uh, uh, strong teams, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, colo, um, they tend to go, uh, to most events. And then you have the surprise teams that the don't go out too often, like Cuba, but then, uh, they, when they go, they make amazing results. Some of the events over there are traditional. Uh, the circuit north American circuit used to be Mexico open us open and, uh, Canada open if they organize themselves. And sometimes they did. They managed to, you'd manage to travel over there and have three events in four weeks or three weeks. Um, then of course you have, uh, Costa Rica and some other events that are traditional very well organized. The federations and the organizers have quite a good, uh, experience organizing them. They were not so regular, but they happened. And the, in the few last few years, you also saw, we saw in Rio once, which I think is less than 70 athletes competing, uh, a big flop at the time. Um, Argentina that, uh, also known as Brazilian open since there is more Brazilian people competing there than anyone else and other events this year, we see some quite interesting competitions. We do see, um, Ecuador opening in keto. We'd see, AANA open making Cuba as a Teon competition for the first time in the, in the opens calendar, we will have, uh, Brazil as well, not only the Pan-American championships, but also the, uh, Brazil open Costa Rica. The traditional open will happen again and so on. And so on. You will have, um, a few events, including Puerto Rico, uh, and Argentina and, uh, Chile, um, that will bring, uh, um, the events over there to the interesting amount, allowing the local athletes to have almost the same opportunities as the alas in Asia, in Europe. If those events do take place. We see, for example, the first of event, uh, us open the first open event in the pan American calendar was canceled. The reason out there official reason was because of COVID as a COVID restriction because of Aran. Uh, well, um, we might have some other information sources that say it was not quite the, the situation. Apparently the convention sent was asking a little more money than usual negotiations, uh, went sideways. And that's also a risk. We suffer on every event, especially on countries that don't have a longstanding tradition of international events and don't have the, uh, authorities, but we, we can, might see some surprises. For example, Columbia has elections this year. Um, that means the local politicians will be glad to show some last minute work and to please their populations. That means funds will be available for the national teams, regional training centers, um, maybe opens. So the Pan-American region has very different, uh, opportunities. The south, the south and the north and the central American are all very, very different. The Caribbean and the islands, they are a special reality. And honestly, going to Cuba open, it would be a great excuse to go to Cuban and say, I'm going not going on vacations and actually do an event, but a country that is very strong that has some, uh, restrictions, travel restrictions that has, uh, like many other countries over there. Um, a very, um, small number of athletes competing international and a big number of clubs that don't leave their country. Make me a little bit skeptic about these events and the cost is not the same in, uh, Europe. We have all these amount of events, but we can travel. They're close to each other. Um, the low cost airlines, the well connected, uh, railroads and highways allow us to travel to these events very quickly. I don't think going to Chile, Argentina and Canada would be the same cost is going to Spain, Belgium, and Netherlands. That's true, but I will still miss you as open. Thank you, Peter. It was a pleasure being here with you and with everyone who is listening out there. This was the Teon podcast. If you haven't already listen to our other episodes, they are available wherever you listen to your podcasts. We are releasing episodes every Tuesday, stay tuned, subscribe to the podcast, leave us a positive review and share it with your friends. See you next time

Speaker 1:

You've been listening to the Teon do podcast, keeping the fans, coaches, and high performance athletes up to date with the latest news and trends on Olympic Teon do your host coach Caesar. Valenti has almost 20 years of experience with high performance TaeKwonDo and has worked all around the world. As a TaeKwonDo trainer. Peter Nestler has been teaching TaeKwonDo for more than 20 years, and he's currently one of the top referees in Europe. We hope you enjoyed the show, make sure to like rate and review and we'll be back soon. But in the meantime, find us on Instagram at tech. One do podcast on Facebook at tech, one do cast and the website tech one do podcast.com. See you next time.