United Kingdom Trip 2007

After event comments (Commenti in italiano e foto sul BLOG):

Hwarang, When I think about the London event, the image of the group is the first that comes to my mind. Yes, because I felt that we were a group, with a common identity and a common energy that helped us during the outdoor training. That’s great. I have been really glad to meet JKN Vincent. He seems a humble and brave person. His hospitality and his wife’s misty eyes moved me. For all this, for this experience I thank everybody.

Hwarang forever, Alberto Costa

Concerning England: it has been really e wonderful experience about how different people can interact thank to martial practice. Nowadays, it’s pretty hard to communicate even with your neighbours and when you communicate, you often argue. During these three days I saw a group of different people become one, sleep together on the floor of a man who had two little children, a man who didn’t even know who we were. Different people, different colour of the skin, different thoughts, who stayed together on a frozen meadow, while it was raining, just to practice together martial techniques. All this has become for me subjet of reflection. How many wars we fight in the name of unlikeness, (even if in the end the reason are esclusively economic), and how many people in history could grow up just thanks to different people, just because the were hungry and thirsty together so they had to fight shoulder to shoulder and not one against the other, fighting the battles of the spirit, the ones who are able to make us human beings.

Hwarang, Alessandro Angelini

I'd like to give You some brief reflections regarding our experience in London. Our stay in London has been to me both a surprise and a confirmation. A surprise, of the Meng Sae framework's strenght and especially of its ability to link Hwa Rang Do practitioners one to the other all around the world, beyond cultural differences. I particularly refer to JKN Jessica and to JKN Vincent, with whom I think there's a close sharing of values. Regarding our training in Luton, I have to say that the training we did in "extreme conditions", has been a great experience, for both our minds and bodies. Even if it was getting harder and harder to practice in the cold and under the rain, our trust in Kyo Sa Nim, and the unity of the Group, made it possible for me to complete the training and so to feel satisfied. Concerning the indoor training, in which Kyo Sa Nim showed us many techniques and combinations, I appreciated how various and complicated Hwa Rang Do is, but also how important our everyday training is: as it is based on the study of the belt curricula, this makes it possible for us to improve our ability to focus on sequences of movements that day by day become more and more complicated. I want to thank KSN Marco Mattiucci, for giving me the opportunity to take part to such an important event for the Tae Soo Do and Hwa Rang Do Family - even if I'm only a beginner. I'm sure that this experience has grown up our group-feeling and our motivation.

Hwarang For Ever! Alessandro d'Eri

On the spur of the moment it is hard to explain or try to describe the most beautiful and moving moments of this “outdoor” experience. Countless positive sensations: the sensitiveness and hospitalty of Jokyonim Vincent’s family moved me much. Countless also the negative sensations: the cold, the wind, and the rain, which didn’t stop to fall. My first thought, as I came back from Luton, was anyway about the strenght and compactness of the group. Facing the inclement weather and the strain, the Hwarangdo & Taesoodo group has gone over the frontiers to spread the art, the discipline, the severity, the joy and passion that make it one, but especially to train with a person who, besides the social problems, has the will to learn and then to teach someother, in a very soon future, the art of Hwarangdo. The “group” is essential in the society, as it is in a martial art. It’s just like the“locomotive of a train”, which never stops travelling, pursuing every step after one other, giving strenght to those who slaken, or meet difficulties on their journey. A glaringly obvious example was the Sunday morning training: under a perennial non-stop rain, we found ourselves being one...we substained each other to fight the cold, resist to the effort, and keep on training, even when the energy was getting lower and lower. I feel honored to be part of this group. I’ll do everything which will be necessary to keep in my mind the memory of everything I felt, so that it will be a useful lesson in the daily lilfe.

Hwarang to everyone. Andrea Manzara

Hwarang to everyone! The fact that for us everything was improvised, made it more curious and exhilarating . Then to see us united also from the new Hwarangdo® tracksuit made everything more beautiful and ordered. As soon as we arrived to Luton I felt that we were being welcome from JKN Vincent and its family with much familiar warmth and great kindness, all because of the heart of the Hwarangdo® is unique, but composed from many people. And compliments to JKN Jessica who followed us in several Sulsa training and also in this! In the first day of lesson Kyo Sa Nim explained lock techniques and projections, which seemed all simple, but then trying them was much more complex than it seemed. And then in the training under the rain I felt the spirit burning of joy and I felt more alive than ever, thanks also to the strenght of the group of the Hwarangdo®. A unique and unforgettable experience that enriches the spirit to everyone of us.

HWARANG FOREVER ! ANTONIO ANGELI.

Few minutes ago I looked at myself in the mirror of the lift, a bit worn-out, and I thought: these 3 days have left a sign on me. Both inside and outside. On Friday I was really nervous, I didn’t receive any program and I didn’t know in detail what we would do. In particolar I’m always afraid not to be good enough for the situation, especially knowing the high standars of the Hwarangdo/Taesoodo. Anyway I’m learning to take this much easier, and in fact I have to say that this is the way I lived the last 3 days. As I already said, I felt the whirl of the creation of Um and Yang, in the techinques, which were mostly circular that we had to learn (and I liked them very much) and in being together and confront ourselves. I think with pleasure about walking together in London, worn in the same clothes. Inside me I thought I was honoured to have the opportunità to wear a tracksuit with the blazon Hwarangdo e Taesoodo. I’m honoured to be part of that handful of people who still believe in certain values, and also to have the opportunity to train with an Instructor such as Sun bae Massimo Borriello. I thought that inside us we have the spark of the universe and this comes out also in the moments of hardship, as it has been the training under the rain. I admire the KSN Mattiucci’s steel will and I felt very close to him during this experience. Slowly the initial cold has passed and a side of me appeared in the surface, which I know appears in such situations. It was the need of surviving, to become wild again, to come back to the nature. Yes, like KSN said, we are made of soil and of the other elements, so it has been a situation of pantheism and union. I hope I was not too prolix, boring or dull. I’m not person who becomes elated like a fanatic, but for a person like me who has a sedentary job, experienced like this are a real treasure. I would also like to express all my surprise earing Jkn Vincent’s wife pronounce suche true-love words to her husband. I wonder how many people would be likely to sacrifice at this point for love...

Hwarang!!!!!!!! Claudio Nassisi

About the experience I lived in England, I’ve been really shoked from two facts: the weather and the division in races in the zone where we stayed. Another thing which impressed me much was the image of Instructor Jkn Vincent, sincerely I don’t know him much, but I think the docile behaviour of his wife and children, and also of his friends, was in some way a mirror of his personality, putting in evidence a mixture of humility and strenght at the same time. Regarding the phisical experience and the techniques we studied, I’m very happy about participating to the whole event and living it with all the others TSD students. I do not have top ut in evidence particolar moments, I was just in general very happy and surprised about knowing Jkn Vincent and I wish to him and his family great success in the future. In the same way, I thank Jkn Jessica for being there, who already had been to some of our trainings and whose presence I now consider almost unfailing. I thank everyone who participated to the event and in particular way those who made the effort to make it possible.

Thank to the 2007 Hwarang warriors! Hwarangdo, Hwarangdo, Hwarang 4 EVER!

“a very instructive trip, priceless. The example of my instructor and his determination and his courage will lead Hwa Rang Do in Europe to very high levels: luck, will and possibility!”

Hwarang! JKN Francesco Biancuzzi

Hwarang! What can I say about the experience in England? It was wonderful to see how people far from us and with different experiences have in common the same dream as us. What shoked me most wa the hospitality, as if they had been already knowing us...I hope there will be again the occasion to come back and visit the new english club. Surely bigger than now.

Hwarang! Gaetano Currao

Hwarang! It is always astonishing to see that some more Hwa Rang Do brothers do exist in the world and that they all think and behave in the same way! We went into a foreign country and we all found a new part of our big big family! What's more, we found a couple of sad black eyes into this foreign country: yet, they were not alone, and they now know they belong to a bigger and warmer family!

Hwarang forever! Jkn Giulia Felicetti

What I wanted to say, was that the loyalty of KSN Mattiucci and his students to Hwa Rang Do is evident in all that they do. What I experienced was a constant sense of selflessness. A continuous push to achieve success together, not individually. The support, motivation, and inspiration of others can often push a person to achieve great success but also the desire to share this success with others. I have seen in those students an overwhelming amount of respect and love for others. While training in the community center and then in the park, I also once again understood that HRD is universal and can be learned, taught, trained, and spread anywhere in the world regardless of one's own culture or language. My eyes have been opened to what the future of Hwa Rang Do can be around the world. Thank you, KSN Mattiucci!

Hwarang forever! TSD JKN Jessica Schiff

Hwarang to everyone! Some days have been passing already from the London trip, but I still can see it in my mind, and I keep on talking about it also with people outside of the Hwarangdo. I get emotioned every time I think back to the welcome of Jokyonim Vincent, of his family and of his friends; I get emotioned when I think back of his wife’s joy tears, because 17 people had come into her house silent and discreet “like ninjas”, and those people were us, me and my mates... On my opinion this time it has been a really different trip, I saw Hwarangdo not as training, strain and technique, but as life philosophy, feelings, oneness, history. I still have much to learn, but always more desire to learn, and to be part of this group.

Thank you Kyosanim Mattiucci!

Hwarang forever - Loredana Sirolli

When I think about the english event, wich has passed from short time, I get invaded from a thousand memories and sensations, but to summarize my personal experience I have two peculiar images in my mind. The first is the Hwa Rang Do® group sightseeing in London with the same super tracksuit, recognisable between millions of people, with the sense of oneness, family and belonging to something so beautiful. The other image concerns the training of the Sunday morning in a wonderful park with the tipical english meadow and the tipical english rain, too!In that moment, nothing existed, nor the rain, the cold, the wind, there was just the belief that we could do that, all together until the end...and if you believe untile the end in what you do, you’ll finally get there!

Hwarang forever! TSD JKN Maria Luisa Medelin

...Kyosanim Mattiucci’s speechs; the condivision of space, time, fatigue, joy; the benevolence and humility of Jkn Vincent’s family; the introspection and the overcoming of one’ own limit; the first stage for the “La Salle” group; the costant thought of the black belt test; the theoretical and practical study, leave a profound furrow in my soul, and I want to thank Kyosanim Mattiucci and the Hwa Rang Do fir these wonderful occasions, which are always unique and unrepeatable.

Hwarang forever, Massimo Borriello

Hwarang! To the people who asked me what was the main goal about our trip there in England, I could not easily give a clear answer. This not because the trip didn't have a main goal or meaning, on the contrary it was so meaningful that it was difficult to tell why. Better reflecting upon this, I believe that the main goal of our trip has been, besides from the evident "advertising goal", and of Hwa Rang Do spreading, the one the bring our enthusiasm as a big hug to England and to Vincent, who I'm sure will be able to bring out from it many reflections, which will certaintly bring him many results. So, finally, the goal of our trip was to give our help to construct a castle made of hard stone, upon cloud fundations.

Hwarang forever, JKN Maura Floris

Hwarang! It has been a great experience in England! We met a wonderful part of the Hwa Rang Do Family and we shared our dreams with them for three days, training and talking. I’m always surprised about how different HRD practitioners are in the different countries we go, but I’m much more surprised about how similar our ways of living are, our passions and the spirit which links us. Thank you Vincent for this opportunity and thanks to your family and friends for the warm welcome.

Hwarang! For ever - JKN Mauro Capocci

With the help of Instructor Mattiucci and the Italian Branch of the World Hwa Rang Do® Association, the venerable martial art of Hwa Rang Do ® made its way once more into the British Isles. The group consisting of 16 Hwa Rang Do®/Tae Soo Do® instructors and students led by Kyo Sa Nim Marco Mattiucci himself arrived in Luton Airport and were met by Tae Soo Do® black belt Jessica Schiff from Austria and myself. “Hwarang!” is the characteristic greeting amongst the practitioners of our martial art, and as both of our groups met, the loud and vigorous words affirming our common and fraternal bonds to one another and to the Hwarang warriors of the distant past caught the attention of by-standers and other passengers alike.

From then on it was an unrelenting whirlwind of activity and training both indoors and outdoors. The rain and the cold wind could not prevent or dampen the fiery spirits of the group. Particularly tough and memorable was training only with t-shirts and barefoot in a park on a cold rainy Sunday morning. We practiced forms, weapons, kicks and running and rolling around an improvised obstacle course made of fallen tree logs, park benches and gates. We could not feel our feet and our hands because of the cold, we could only rely on our spirits to sustain us. All the time, Kyo Sa Nim’s words kept ringing in my ears. “Make it happen!”. So we persevered and endured together. We helped one another with the lessons. We were as brothers and sisters who stood as one and we prevailed over our weaknesses.

The restful periods were spent sharing simple meals together and listening to the words of encouragement of Kyo Sa Nim. Inside a small house, the warmth and affection amongst the group made each gathering heartfelt and sincere. I thank my wife for being a perfect host and for showing the unconditional openness and hospitality that is the hallmark of a true Filipino home. Our Italian brothers and sisters were not to be outdone and everyone was scrambling to be first --- to wash the dishes, empty the garbage bin and clean-up the dinner table! It was a good opportunity to share our cultures, develop friendships and cement the bonds among Hwarang.

The weekend was too short but nevertheless I gained a deeper insight into the meaning of loyalty and honor and the Hwa Rang Do® Meng Sae. All of us made sacrifices; personal and financial. But all of these were made for the cause of a noble dream --- the spread of the Hwarang spirit. In committing ourselves to this dream we take the difficult path, but it is the true path of the warrior and to be able to pass on our treasure to the next generations we can walk in no other way.

Hwarang forever!!! JKN Vincent Doronila