Hwarangdo Championships 2011 – From the volunteers

Two volunteers share their experiences and observations from the 2011 Hwarangdo Championships.

Stephanie Heng
Catherine Chan

Stephanie Heng (top)

The Hwa Rang Do Tournament is an event I always look forward to every year. Not because I'm competing, but because it's an opportunity to meet new and old members, and their families and friends. I never miss out on the opportunity to volunteer at these events, because I love helping out and seeing how things are done behind the scenes, plus the free t-shirts given for helping out aren't bad either.

The start of the tournament is always a mad rush for those volunteering. I'm glad I wasn't handing out tickets at the door because there are hundreds of people waiting to get in and there's never enough coinage! Selling merchandise is never uneventful at these events either. You have the parents of the kids who are competing in panic mode because their son/daughter doesn't have the right protective gear and their matches are only minutes away; mad dashes to the chemist because there aren't enough mouth guards and parents seriously contemplating if they should purchase their daughter's groin guards. That conversation is always guaranteed to make me laugh.

I love being behind the counter and talking to the competitors. You can always tell when it's a person's first time competing. Their parents almost seem just as nervous. I always try and allay their first time jitters and wish them luck.

This year's tournament had more matches than average I think, which made for one exciting day. I love watching how the crowd gets all worked up over the fights and hearing the "ooh" and "ahh"'s being shouted out in unison when an opponent gets in a good shot. For some reason I always seem to be looking in the wrong direction whenever that happens! No matter who you support, the excitement of the crowd is infectious. You can't help but cheer for "Hong" or "Chong" even if you don't know who they are, or what club they come from, because you're supporting a Hwa Rang Do member regardless.

At the end of the long day, after all the mats are packed up, you feel exhausted but gratified being able to help make the day a success. I think I'll definitely volunteer again next year.

"Hwa Rang Do! Hwa Rang Do! Who-ah!"

Catherine Chan (top)

It was my first time experiencing the annual Hwarangdo Tournament and to tell you the truth, I didn’t know what to expect. When we all had our chest pads on in training, I started to have images of many different sized Optimus Primes from Transformers in my head on the day of the TKD tournament. That was pretty much it.

I did have a lot of fun being a volunteer for the event. It was definitely a very successful event. There were maybe about 400 spectators throughout the day, many being interstate supporters as well i.e. from Queensland and Victoria.

It was only until the end of the day when we had almost finished packing up the mats, I found out I have been volunteering the whole day with 3 sisters, 2 of whom were twins. I was wondering throughout the day why I felt like I had to repeat my stories to the same person over and over again. Or I must still be sleeping when I felt like I saw the same person appear twice at the same place. Of course I didn’t want to be rude but in the end I was the blind one.

I’ve always found that when you volunteer, you usually get more out of it than you put in, so committed and dedicated and very friendly. You know, it’s actually a pleasure helping out.  I’ll definitely know for next time when we volunteer again. Thanks girls for the experience together.