On Wednesday, May 11, three persons tested for their next dan grade at the Trio Sports Center in Vantaa, Finland. Master Ko Baek-yong and instructor Klaas Barends watched three people test for their next dan grade.
Jukka Teuronen passed his test for second degree black belt, Satu Munukka tested successfully for her third degree and Sami Munukka passed the technical part of his fourth dan exam.
For grades of fourth dan and up you are also required to write a ten page essay about your training and the hankido techniques and principles. Sami’s essay will be examined by master Ko Baek-yong after which Sami will hear if he will be graduated to fourth dan.
It was Sami Munukka who contacted master Ko Baek-yong back in 2008 and expressed the desire to learn hankido. Sami, who already had a background in martial arts, started on his journey to become a hankido instructor with the help from instructors of the Dutch HKD Federation. In 2010 Sami travelled to Korea with his wife Satu and both in 2011 and 2013 master Ko Back-yong visited Finland. The road to fourth dan test was never easy, but worth every step.
Instructor grade
The fourth dan is an important one, it is the offical instructor grade in most Korean martial arts.
Sami Munukka is currently building the first fulltime hankido gym in Finland. This gym, named Spirit Center, will be a place people can not only learn hankido but receive oriental therapy as well.
Besides the jidoja (black belts) a group of Finnish students tested also for a higher rank on their quest to black belt. We would like to congratulate Joona (red belt), Tiitu, Sara, Anette (purple belt) and Jesse (green belt) with their new belts.
Seminars
During master Ko Baek-yong’s visit the daily training sessions turned out to be a great success. Members of the Finnish hankido school had the chance to train with master Ko Baek-yong on a daily basis with three training sessions per day.