Have you ever seen the people who do taekwondo at the Samgak garden? They are the taekwondo club ‘Sunrang’. They are trying to build up physical strength and promote taekwondo during their busy school life. So The Campus Journal met the leader of Sunrang to hear more details.

Q. Hello. Please introduce yourself and the club ‘Sunrang’.

A. Hello. I’m Ha Min-Gyu (Department of Mechanical Engineering, 23), leader of Sunrang. Sunrang is part of the Federation of Korean Taekwondo Association and it has been running for 26 years since 1991. Because Sunrang is a longtime club, there are many seniors who graduated and the communication between them and juniors is very active. Our club has many people like a standalone department and we have strong talent. We achieved good results at the Federation of Korean Taekwondo Association Competition and the Youngnam Area Taekwondo Competition. Also, our club is planning not only taekwondo, but also many events, so students who are unfamiliar with this martial art can join without worry. If you are interested in taekwondo, join our club and share our fun!

Q. I heard that you are planning many events, what kind of activities do you usually do?

A. Our main activity is doing taekwondo. We practice in front of Samgak garden every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We start taekwondo after building up physical strength doing a shuttle run, side stepping, and various jumps. We are trying to teach poomsae (in taekwondo, the continuous operation of the basic techniques of attack and defense and connection) and kick motions without difficulty. Also, we are not only doing these activities, but also many other events.

We participate in the aforementioned competitions every year. With such periodic participation, we won second place at the Korea Association Competition in 2012 and were the champion at the Youngnam Area Taekwondo Competition in 2016. Through these activities, students form solidarity. Also, we have exchange exercises twice a month. We learn taekwondo systematically with the instructor who is experienced in taekwondo from the national team. Every May there is a promotion evaluation which is a time for checking what freshmen and enrolled students learned during the semester. Seniors who graduated come and look at our movements and give us feedback. Through this, we can improve our skills and get counseling or advice in taekwondo. Also, we made an SNS group, ‘Sunrang talk talk’. It is for listening to each other’s worries and exchanging sympathy and comfort. Members share their experiences and find solutions together. Furthermore, we not only enjoy physical activities, but also take part in mental training. We have a ‘reading discussion’ every month. Seniors who graduated provide books for juniors. We make teams with five people and read the book and discuss it freely. We also volunteer at a community child center. It is an activity for students who have no place to go after school. Through these various activities, the seniors and juniors become naturally intimate and people can visit our club without burden.

Q. Recently, there are many complaints over SNS about your group. What do you think about this?

A. In 1991, we exercised in building 21’s underground club room which was wide, but the school gathered all clubs at Bongrimguan. So the club room is too small and we felt there wasn’t enough room for exercising indoors. We decided to exercise outside and looked for places. The college buildings were adjoined, so we felt it was hard to exercise between the buildings. Also, when the exercise is finished, it is evening, so we want a spot with lights for safety. For these reasons, we picked Samgak garden and Sarimguan. We chose Samgak garden because no one uses this space and we couldn’t use Sarimguan regularly. So we requested cooperation from the student division and facilities division and have been using this place until now. We don’t monopolize the space, when cars pass, we stop working and step aside. Recently however, we saw many students’ complaints. We don’t think that it’s right to do harm to students so we will change the exercise place. Please wait some time, we will find a new place.

Q. Is there anything you want to say to our readers?

A. Currently, Sunrang is the only club in CWNU that exercises on asphalt. Despite these poor conditions, we are getting good results. We will care about traffic problems and noise problems so please be generous and love our club. We will keep trying our best, please cheer for our club.

The taekwondo club ‘Sunrang’ is doing taekwondo.

Choi Ga-Yun cub-reporter  rkxnsl@naver.com

<저작권자 © The Campus Journal, 무단 전재 및 재배포 금지>