UK Martial Arts Awards
On 8th May, a number of my family members and I headed up to Doncaster, as I had been informed that I was being inducted into the UK Hall of Fame by the UK Martial Arts group.
After driving the 155 mile journey there, our party of nine checked into our rooms, had a shower and headed off to the venue.
The venue was big, so queues were big for the bar and the food serving areas. With around 600+ people there, it was unorganised chaos. As I looked around, it quickly became obvious that TaeKwon-Do was not represented too well, so were the negative rumours other TaeKwon-Do Masters had pre-warned me about true?
As we get to our table, I see one of the proof readers from this magazine Zoe and her husband Master John Tizick, so this was a bonus meeting others from the TaeKwon-Do family, especially as we chatted over the night.
I got speaking to both about the event and it was clear after attending three of these events, this one had not impressed them as the organisers had gone for mass opposed to that personal touch of previous years.
Mr and Mrs Tizick were inducted into the Hall of Fame later that evening which was great for Taekwon-Do, then I was called up to get my award which seemed to be for my efforts in U.K. events.
Unfortunately, our party were not impressed by the food provided by the venue as, at £40 a head, it was pretty low budget to be honest and the organisation of the venue was shocking, to say the least.
The highlight for me was meeting one of my life idols ‘Superfoot Wallace’ and getting a picture with him – at 76 years old, what an inspirational legend.
It was great that nine of my family members attended this with me to celebrate my achievement and meeting our friends John and Zoe who work on the magazine who were great company on the night but, asked if I would attend again, I would have to say 100% no as, to me, it felt like there was no personal touches of awarding the work many who have dedicated their lives to. It just felt like TaeKwon-Do was treated as a second thought Martial Art, rather than one of the biggest Martial Arts in the world.
Hats off to the organisers as the day was said to be great, especially the Martial Arts show but, for me, I feel that in order for all arts to be more inclusive, every Martial Art must be represented equally and fairly.
As a one off perhaps going and collecting the award is good for local bragging rights, but to attend yearly I think that is a no from me, especially as there are no real personal touches done which I feel is essential so others can learn who is actually being awarded and what for.
Master Snow