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Nigel Shows Off his Booboo
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The UC Open is a tournament that UCMAP hosts every year. UCMAP stands
for UC Martial Arts Program. It is one of the country's premier university
martial arts program, producing many world champions and Olympic Gold Medalists.
The program is hosted at UC Berkeley. It includes Taekwondo, Hankido,
Wushu, Taiji, Judo, Karate, and a Martial Arts Fitness Program. UCMAP
Taekondo has reigned as the National Collegiate Champions for most of the
last 10 years.
Preparations for each UC Open includes planning over numerous meetings.
The day before the tournament is usually the most hectic with Friday night
reserved for the setup of the rings and last minute demo practice. This
year, Master Pak also decided to give a Hankdio seminar, so, once
the mats were setup, the Hankido Club was the first to christian it.
Master Pak is from Iowa and leads UCMAP Taekwondo's top rival in the National
Collegiate Champianships, Iowa State University. He is also a
Hankido master and often helps us instruct Hankido at summer camp. I first
came across Master Pak at summer camp and he had struck me as both humble
and kind even if his wrist twist can cause you great pain (but that is always
that oxymoron in Martial Arts - that being kind does not necessarily mean
you cannot also be deadly).
The first couple of pictures in this page shows Nigel.
Nigel himself is a living oxymoron. He is so strong that we often think of
him as one big muscle. He can do back flips like the most graceful gymnast.
If you don't know him, you would shy away from him because of his massive
size. But when he laughs, the most melodious giggle comes out and you know
in a minute that he is just a teddy bear (ripped and muscled, but a teddy
bear nonetheless).
The last portion of the page shows the UCMAP Taekwondo, Hankido, and Wushu
demo teams doing a dry run of the demo that they are planning to perform
as part of the Opening Ceremony (of which yours truly is in charge). They
have practiced the routine for weeks leading up to the UC Open. Since I have
to introduce them, I watched many of the practices till I knew the routine
almost as much as they did. Nevertheless, it is still exciting to watch them
go through the whole thing, accompanied by loud hip-hop music, even though
I have seen it so many times.
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