TKDAction - Official iTKD NZ Photography: 2013

Sunday, 10 November 2013

Monday, 28 October 2013

Day 4 competition (246 images)...

Slideshow (242 images)...

Sunday, 27 October 2013

Day 3 competition (375 images)...

Slideshow (375 images)...

Saturday, 26 October 2013

Day 2 competition (747 images)

Slideshow of images (747 images)...

Friday, 25 October 2013

Day 1 competition - (~1,300 images)

The internet at our hotel is still down at 5am and won't be fixed until after 8am (our bus leaves at 8.30am) so I've uploaded a picture of each competitor that we shot competing in the mean time via my cellphone. It may not be until the end of day two until we can upload more :-( Doug

Slideshow - Morning (395 images)...

Slideshow - Afternoon (554 images)...

Slideshow - Evening (350 images)...

Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Weigh-in successful

Slideshow of images (by Master McPhail)...

How to follow the NZ Team at the World Champs live and delayed

A few people have been asking how to best follow the NZ Team at the world champs. There are a few methods as we're using multiple platforms to broadcast back to our extended Taekwon-Do family back in NZ and around the world.

Live Updates are via Twitter - for instant live action and results
Live updates of results during the competition will be posted by TKDAction on twitter. Team members are taking turns in updating our feed and we're also using the hashtag #ITFWC which you can follow.

Here's how.......
If you don't currently use twitter but want to keep up with the play 24/7 then sign up to twitter.com and clock FOLLOW on the TKDAction page (see a picture of my twitter feed above).

To see all tweets from anyone posting with the hashtag #ITFWC simply use the twitter search box and enter #ITFWC

You can download a twitter app for iPhone and Android from the relative App Stores which is even better than using the twitter.com website.

The official NZ iTKD website
There is a special page devoted to this tournament. It includes all the NZ Team members and the events that they are in, live posts from TKDAction and videos taken by the NZ support crew.

Video
We're trying to capture and publish some video this year which will be posted on this iTKD.co.nz web page.

The NZ iTKD Group on Facebook
This is a really good place to see the latest news, leave comments or post notices to the team. It's interactive so team members can see your feedback and comments. We post some pictures here and a link to TKDAction.com images every time they're published. Once you belong to the group all the updates appear in your Facebook feed. If you don't belong to Facebook and want to be among the action, this is the place to be.

** You need to apply to join the iTKD Facebook group which now has over 1,000 members. We will accept your request as soon as we see it (bearing in mind we are in the Madrid, Spain timezone - 11 hours behind you!). Anyone can join the group although spammers or anyone abusing it will be deleted. **

TKDAction.com
This website shows the latest TKDAction tweets, articles and images. The articles and images are fed through to the iTKD.co.nz world champs page.

Live Video Streams
We have been told that there will be some live video streams from the official tournament website www.itfworldchampionships2013.com but at time of writing there doesn't appear to be information about it on the website yet. We believe it will be a service that you will need to subscribe and pay to watch.

Pick of the pix from Wednesday's training

Slideshow (10 images)...

Last training at Benidorm before weigh in and competition

Today is the last day before the World Champs tournament begins. The team were training at 7.30am prior to breakfast followed by the weigh in scheduled for mid-morning. This will be the first time most of the team will see the competition venue.

Yesterday some of the coaches and senior members visited and met the Taekwon-Do instructor/engineer who built the breaking and specialty machines. They're based on those used at the last European Champs along with some improvements. They have 500kg of weights to hold the breaking machines so they're solid with another 500kg just down the road if needed. They haven't been subjected to the Wesley test yet!

Mean time our experts gave them the thumbs up.

Mark and Carl checked out the elevated ring #1 for it's strength, mat feel and size for their pre-arranged sparring routine and also gave it the thumbs up.

The mats are all new and seem to be a little thicker than what we're used to. They didn't feel slippery and were also being washed down last night.

The venue has a good feel and we're all looking forward to getting underway.

Images from this mornings training (92)...

Pick of the pix from Tuesday's training

Slideshow (5 images)...

Tour up to the mountain village of El Castell de Guadalest

Today many of the team members and supporters went on a tour up to the mountain village of El Castell de Guadalest which is about a 45 minute drive from Benidorm.

It was a pleasant temperature and really nice to something of "real Spain". The country in these hills looks to get a reasonable rainfall as it looks reasonably lush. The village is built on the top of a mountain and was originally fortified.

Slideshow of 14 images...

Tuesday morning training in Benidorm

Another great day... I thought the weather must always be this good but apparently we are having exceptionally good fine weather for this time of the year. Today many of the team went on a tour up into a mountain village.... It felt like we were seeing something of "real Spain". Will post some photos of that later. Slideshow of images from this morning's training. I tried to capture images of some team members that I didn't get shots of yesterday. 85 images...

Tuesday, 22 October 2013

Visit to Benidorm Beach

The team were talking last night about the "experience" of going down to the beach. It's a couple of kilometers walk from our hotel to the beach front. I took a walk after breakfast this morning, getting back at about 1.30pm or so - right in the height of the heat. I'm guessing the temperature is around thirty degrees in the middle of the day... enough to break into a good sweat when walking in it. There's not a cloud to be seen and it looks like it hasn't rained in a long time. There's only the slightest of breeze.

If you've seen the TV programme Benidorm then this is just like it. It's a huge area of hotels lining miles and miles of beach. The beach is super crowded by our standards - like what you see in al those crowds on beaches that you see in photos of the Med. Except here the tourist population seem to be 100% middle-age to mostly elderly large British. The only Spanish around are working in the shops, taxis, buses, hotels and restaurants.

There's an abundance of those electric 4 wheel scooters, occasionally with one large lady sitting on the lap of another to get a lift :)

Here's a couple more photos...

Monday, 21 October 2013

Pick of the Pix from this morning's training

Slideshow of 22 images...

First NZ Team training in Benidorm (link fixed)

At 6.30am Benidorm time (5.30pm NZ time) the NZ Team assembled for their first training session. We have a large room in the hotel 100% available to the team for training. They have to be careful as the floor which can be a bit slippery but it all seemed to work pretty well. The team are now off having breakfast and have the day off until 5.30pm when they're having a Haka practice.

Check out our human power machine :)

Slideshow (159 images)...

NZ Team settles in to Benidorm

Today was the first full day in Benidorm after their very long flights (25 hours) from New Zealand plus a 5 hour bus trip arriving late yesterday afternoon.

Late today Masters Pellow and McPhail arrived (with me in tow) from Barcelona and after dinner had a team meeting. Tomorrow at 0630 will be the first of three early morning training sessions for the next three days prior to the competition starting on Thursday.

A few pictures (13)...