Letter from ITA Board to members
Dear Irish Taekwon-Do Association community,
We felt it was important during these difficult times to communicate directly with the students in each of our Taekwon-Do schools. We want to express how proud we are of all of you with how you continue to adapt to the ongoing changes during this national crisis to keep your training going. Now, more than ever it is important for all of us to continue to train and keep our connection with each other, even if we must do it in a different way than that to which we are accustomed.
It is our shared passion for Taekwon-Do and martial arts that unites us and is so important for our physical and mental wellbeing. We would love nothing more than to be with our students on the mats right now, enjoying what we love to do. We want to assure you that constant work is going on behind the scenes at ITA and IMAC board level, there is almost daily engagement with Sport Ireland and their expert group and they are very happy with the training protocols that we have had in place and continue to develop for our general classes as well as our elite athletes. We as a martial arts community have shown that we offer an extremely safe and structured training environment and our clubs have been operating very successfully since the return to sport protocols were endorsed on June 29th.
As Taekwon-Do schools, we offer such a vital service to our local communities. Our community is broad ranging, from to those that enjoy Taekwon-do as a hobby and a way to keep fit, to the student with additional needs, or the shy kid who finds it hard to integrate in a team sport, to those that have learned a valuable skill of self-defence and self-confidence or have been recommended by health professionals to try Taekwon-Do for its excellent ability to develop people's physical and cognitive skills, to the elite athletes that have brought us to the pinnacle of our sport; we miss you all.
Thankfully technology allows us to keep a connection, and meet each other virtually through various online formats, it is a temporary solution but of course it is not the same as meeting face to face, we encourage you to continue to engage with your instructors at this time, they too have shown resilience and determination to keep the show on the road and continue to lead the way by innovating to keep your training going.
It is our hope that very soon we will have the green light from Govt. to return to the dojang, until then, continue to embody the tenets of indomitable spirit and perseverance, keep up your training, be ambassadors for the public health guidelines as you have been up to now and look after each other and your families.
Brighter days are ahead and we will have many events to look forward to and enjoy together in the future
Yours in Taekwon-Do
The ITA Board of Directors