Highlights

Hwa Rang Do in Aarhus - In order to build up and maintain a band of interested persons in Hwa Rang Do in Aarhus (second largest city in Denmark), Instructor Finn Jensen will be travelling to Aarhus once a month to teach and develop instructor for the club.  Also, Hwa Rang Do in Copenhagen has been involved in this process.

Common training with Jiu-Jitsu - The local Jiu-Jitsu club was hosting a common ‘traing-together’ seminar, where various martial art clubs were invited, which was hosted by Nordjysk Hwa Rang Do School.  The seminar took place on April 9th and 10th in Aalborg.  It is always interesting to watch other systems. Nordjysk Hwa Rang Do School received much acknowledgement from the Jiu-Jitsu club for our performance and skill level.

Women’s Self Defense - In October we started a new course in Women’s self defense following the success from the first half of 2005.  Although the group was slightly smaller, all the participants had an awesome experience learning the how to properly defend themselves against a violent attack.  

Demonstration at a MMA Tournament - Also in October, Instructors from Køge, Copenhagen and Odense joined Instructor Sørensen for a big demonstration in a mixed martial arts tournament in Odense.  Everyone was very impressed with our performance and it was a great opportunity to share with other stylists, the beauty and power of Hwa Rang Do.

MTV Denmark – October was very busy.  MTV Denmark contacted the Copenhagen Hwa Rang Do School, showing an interest in doing a piece on our popular women’s self defense program.  We jumped on the opportunity to show HRD on Danish television.  The result was a interesting and educational afternoon, which culminated into a three part show with an advertisement spot and full credit recognition for the show.  Besides our own promotional video for the course, we now have full rights to use the broadcasted shows, which will make an excellent promotional piece for our women’s self-defense program. 

Teaching in public school – Hwa Rang Do took over the gymnastic lessons on “Mellervang School” in Aalborg on the 16th, 17th and 18th of September.  This gave the opportunity for all the students of the school to experience what it is to exercise and perform Hwa Rang Do. The project was carried out under a municipal program called “Youth in movement” and the basic purpose for this program was to have inactive youths to exercise more.  The feedback was very positive from both the teachers and the students.

Kyukpa (Breaking) Seminar - In November, Sabunim Jorgensen held a special seminar on breaking in our club in Jutland.  Students of all ranks participated and gained learned many new concepts and techniques on the proper method of breaking.  The theories behind board breaking as well as power breaking were covered.  This was a great opportunity for learning, but it was also great to meet students from the other clubs.

Christmas Party - In December we had a Christmas party with all Hwa Rang Do students and instructors from the Copenhagen as well as Køge. The party was held in collaboration with the Aikido and Capoeira club from our building. It was a great turn out and everybody had an awesome time.

Another Breaking Seminar -To make sure that we did not get too lazy from all that eating and drinking Sabumnim Jorgensen held another breaking seminar a week after the Christmas party. 

Future Seminars - Nordjysk Hwa Rang Do School has planned future seminars to take place at “Ranum Continuation School” to be carried out 4 evenings on the 17th, 24th, 25th January and February 7th, 2006.

In conclusion, it has been an exciting year here in Denmark.  We all look forward to making 2006 better than ever. We hope it will be a year of growth – both in quantity and quality.

From the Danish Hwa Rang Do / Tae Soo Do Family, we wish all the WHRDA members a Happy New Year!

Hwarang Forever,

Jokyo Nim Simon Eklund and all of Hwa Rang Do Denmark