By: Lawal Damilare
Contrary to the damage that many assume martial arts causes, martial art is actually a wholesome development of the mind. It is also a way to build one’s capacity to handle tough physical and mental tasks.
Let’s take a closer look at the meaning of the words “Tae-Kwon-Do.” It is composed of three parts as shown in the English spelling, though it is one word in Korean. Tae means ‘to kick’, Kwon means ‘punch’, and ‘Do’ means ‘the art of’. If we put these three parts together, we can see the important concepts behind “Taekwondo”.
In this interview, Lawal Damilare an Indy press correspondent look to unveil Ui’s Taekwondo team with Sunday Lawrence her captain.
Can we meet you ?
My name is Adetunji Sunday Lawrence
I am a 400Level Student of Law, and I am Currently Ui’s Taekwondo’s captain.
How is the team preparing for NUGA?
I don’t know of any official statement as to when NUGA is going on or going to hold, but we know it’s very close. Our plans ? We are training, and training for us is to improve ourselves. We are never relaxing even when there is no competition, so I think we are pretty good, because there is no appropriate time to start preparing or training for something. Ever since resumption before we left for exams we have been training.
What is the team capacity like?
Taekwondo is not really a team sport, everybody fights individually, the only thing is the support we can offer our team mates, we have been to competitions before and our team has been doing very okay.
What is your regular training system?
Well, our training system, we train Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as of now. Before, we train all through the week, because we divide the class to beginners class and senior’s class. Extra training depends on the coach and we do it when competitions are closer, there is an official preparation for training that the school seems to cater for us and organize.
What preparatory game have you engaged in so far?
Except for we sparring ourselves on our dojer we have not really had any preparatory game recently. But there is the interfaculty that’s coming up, which athletes have been training for. Everything works hand in hand.
Have you been to any NUGA and what lessons have you learnt?
Actually, in the last NUGA, I competed in the Pre-NUGA, I qualified to go to NUGA, but I broke my leg, I got injured, and I couldn’t participate in the NUGA at Lagos. But then the lessons? I actually followed through, I believe we grow more and learn more and do better in the coming one.
What do you think this present team has that makes it different from this current team?
What we have that they don’t have ? well not to lie, the last squad of which some has graduated are very experienced people and they have, although experience starts from somewhere and you can learn as the years go by, but what I can see we have now is fighting spirit – we have ” agidi “especially this our junior category, and I think we can channel that to winning.
What is your routine like ?
My personal routine is simple, my baseline is trying to develop yourself whether physically, mentally, and that’s how it goes. So personally, I seek to improve myself, maybe regular jogging, then as a team we do interesting together, we learn together even off the mat, we go to Awo stadium, and train and it’s been great so far.
Thank you for having Indy Press?
It’s a pleasure
