The Instructor Marco Mattiucci was unable to attend the Black Sash Conference 2005 due to some problems with their visas for travel to the US. So, he did the next best thing.  He arranged an intensive training conference for all the Italian TSD/HRD Instructors, Assistant Instructors, and other exceptional Tae Soo Do students during the month of August. The one week training camp was divided into special categories - full contact, grappling, knife fighting, Sulsa, etc. The Hwa Rang Do students trained for about 5 hours a day, for 3 days, then for four special days they trained for about 10 hours a day while sleeping on the mat.  Finally, for 2 days, they went into the wilderness and trained without eating or drinking.

Even though Europeans take their vacations very seriously, all the participants were very enthusiastic about the intensive training experience, even when they had to forfeit their vacation time. Some of them questioned Ins. Mattiucci about the importance of taking vacations and he told them,

“I don’t want to take vacations from Hwa Rang Do, it’s 90% of the Giulia’s (his wife) life and mine; it would be the same to take vacations from my family. How could I do that? Look at Chief Master Lee and Do Joo Nim - do you think they live one day without Hwa Rang Do? I don’t think so, and I want to do the same. I follow the example of my teachers!”

The Women Warriors (Wonhwa) of Hwarangdo: Federica (left) and Guilia (right) traing in full contact fighting, AWESOME!

Important note: Riccardo Napoli (see the news of July, 2005), the Carabinieri Officer and Tae Soo Do student that won the military self defense competition, is going to be transferred to a very dangerous Italian area (full of criminals) at the end of August. Because of this, Ins. Mattiucci arranged two special lessons on gun disarmament / retention and handcuffing with and without baton. We all want to say good luck to Riccardo for his new, extremely difficult task. We are confident he will honor the name of our art every day.

September 2005 is coming with a new academic year for TSD/HRD in Italy. We’re ready to fight!

Hwarang forever,

Giulia Felicetti

Italian Headquarters Chief Administrator