University of
Birmingham Taekwondo Club trip to Universum Taekwondo Training Camp 2007.
Tom Farmery
Over the summer a squad of five members of the Taekwondo club went to
Hungary to participate in a week long training camp organised by a Hungarian club. We were invited by
Southampton
University , who thanks to an old member have been going to
Hungary for the last few years. The invitation was extended to all members of the British Student Taekwondo Federation (BSTF) at the annual BSTF Fight Camp, and several clubs took up the offer, including Cambridge, Bristol, Southampton,
Kingston
University and Oxford Brookes.
On the 18th July Mustafa Belim, Ibby Ibrahim, Mike Voong and myself met up at Heathrow airport and flew out to
Budapest for a few days acclimatisation and tourism. After an eventful taxi journey into the centre of Budapest involving an error which sent us in entirely the wrong direction and nearly resulted in us being left alone in the middle of suburban
Budapest with no hope of escape. Eventually we met up with the team from
Cambridge and settled into your sparse accommodation for the night (an empty flat supplied by Andrew Dorrian, the man who made the trip possible).
After a few days of enjoying Budapest’s water parks and spas we were joined by our instructor David Grey and some people from
Southampton
University. However it was now time to begin the arduous journey to Zanka on Lake Balaton (Europe’s largest lake outside
Scandinavia): a three hour plus journey in a decrepit train hailing from the Soviet era in forty degree Celsius heat. Finally we arrived at our destination with time to settle in before our first training session of the week.
On average there was five hours of training per day; with one hour of fitness in the morning before breakfast (the only time cool enough to do any fitness other than at night) followed by three hours of basics before lunch outside; we rounded the day off with a two hour sparring class in the evenings usually led by Master Lindsay Lawrence from Kingston University. At the end of each day we socialised with our new Hungarian friends in a bar, and one memorable night we ventured into the nearby disco…
However all good things must come to an end, and before we knew it the training was finished (as with the way of the world it finished once we had got used to it). We got onboard a much more modern train and went back to Budapest for a final couple of days which were mainly spent in a spa letting the hot water work its magic on our copious injuries and enjoying the nightlife with
Cambridge and Oxford Brookes. We finally flew back to Heathrow and parted ways after an excellent two weeks in
Hungary, which I certainly hope to repeat next year, hopefully with even more people from the club attending than this year.
