Cork Taekwondo Instructors’ Last minute Check List:

Posters up, flyers pushed through letterboxes, press releases sent off, web-sites tweaked with landing and squeeze pages, complete with flashing lights and limited special-offer free-bees to stressed out parents. Yep all done.

Wait there’s more ! …Smartphone on stand by and checked dementedly every spare minute, facebook announcements proudly showing preparations in place, VIP cards pressed into every hand you come in contact with, and I nearly forgot the trailer…

God, the trailer, the advertising “piéce de resistance” where we can put a massive corrie-board sign on an old trailer and leave it on the side of the motorway so we hit the eye of every motorist who comes into our town…

Yes, it’s here at last. Welcome September. The month that officially launches the recruitment drive for us Cork Taekwondo Instructors, and of course everyone else. Hope you all get a raft of new, eager faces ready to start in your  Taekwondo classes now as autumn closes in..

Yes Sir…Game On…!

We praise champions, what about Cities ?

Maybe my timing here is a little off, but I am as keen as the next guy to take advantage of an opportunity, especially one looming as near as eleven short months away from this fair city by the Lee. One that could put each school and every Cork Taekwondo Instructor in this city on the Taekwondo map, not to mention in peoples minds for a long time.

Now this is just a suggestion, but if you have read this far, and you’re a Cork Taekwondo student, or even more especially an instructor you might as well read the rest.

Of course all my loving friends in Dublin, Galway, Clare, Wicklow etc. as well as my mates across the pond are all are welcome on here but this is mainly aimed at Cork… Like…( No, not a like as we know on FB, but just… Cork ..like)

 CORK TAEKWONDO INSTRUCTORS is this POSSIBLE ?

Could we mark as a big occasion the fact the  Cork Celebrates the 4oth Anniversary when Taekwondo was introduced into the city  in August 1974?

Would this be newsworthy and would all the media support it ?

Could Taekwondo  become to Cork what soccer is to Brazil, like a new religion across the city and county. It will be us all living out the Tenets of Taekwondo in the real world not paying lip service just when we feel like it. We will be one united family for just one almighty glorious day. It is an opportunity that we should at the very least consider.How many Taekwondo schools in Cork now anyway ? Anyone keeping track? as I’ve lost count.

Now this could be something unheard of and never done before if we all just for one day pooled every bit of our marketing together in one mighty strike for us all.

“Is Just One Cork  Marketing Blow Sufficient for Victory?”…OK .. not now… I will get to those press releases later…

Seriously, can you just imagine different demonstrations done all over the city and county on that one day. Every shopping mall will have pop up banners and bunting and flags.If we did, it would be such a feat of friendship, that other cities would follow suit and imagine the media jumping on board. The publicity for all our clubs and schools would be huge and for the most part free.

The INVESTMENT

Cork today has many different associations, and we are all grown up and mature now, but yes there are the old wounds. We must acknowledge these as valid. Organizing such a big event even for one day will require meetings, and we will have to at some time get towards the hard bits, the handshakes and the swallowed pride, but it could be done, especially if the momentum starts to build.

Now we could make this easier on ourselves if we did up a facebook page, and posted our individual demos and begun intereacting  with ideas etc. We do this anyway on facebook, but now we would have a  date to fix on, and we could freely converse in pure Cork boy.

Seriously, this would avoid wasting time, avoid silly rituals and dogma, not to mention awkward handshakes. We could demo for our individual clubs or associations and do at least one big event together. We could hold some kind of celebration or re-union in a hotel on the evening or a presentation. We could bring all those old photos, do up a linage chart where we could see who trained with who, and get perspective on how far we have come in these last 40 years and where we are heading toward. Seriously we could all win, we could all be hero’ s just for one.. ..Ahh..( and I could bring the Bowie records)

 WHAT ARE RISKS ?

In Cork, it could be lashing rain in August next year as this is the time I suggest we hold the event. Another possible risk is a clash of dates. Let me put your mind at rest there because all my Cork facebook friends with lots of numerical Taekwondo clout would never even dream of holding an event to clash with any of my dates, all dead sound blokes and girls, so relax, no worries there. But if you can think of any more risks please let me know. August, while a holiday time, might also a good time to be getting ready to advertise anyway so we might as well as do it together in some form.

For NOW

Earlier this month I posted a few of thoughts on FB after attending Alan Daltons Mother’s funeral. I also made reference to Mick Burke’s Dad, and not forgetting when Robbie O ‘Sheas funeral had probably the biggest attendance of Cork (and Kerry) Taekwondo people in attendance. It was here I first made reference to the possibility of this type of reunion.

So I am throwing this out there to you all. Like and Share, talk and text away mad. It would be great just to talk, train and network with each other at least once every year. Even for a local charity?  For one poxy day, a big massive group photo, to end all group massive photos on FB to share on all our walls, and a few bob for some deserving cause.

I know we are all so busy and have families now, but there is a value in this, because sometimes rushing around I wonder how the the other guy is doing and whats all this rushing for anyway. Or is it the way we are all so busy to get to know and understand ourselves, or too afraid to extend the hand of friendship?

It’s up to you to dictate whether or not this builds momentum. If you are not from Cork, please get stuck in anyway, and rant if you like but keep it clean and to the point. Could this be done in other cities and towns? Let’s see how this pans out first. I await your response. As a part-time musician, trying to play with pros, I have experienced many weekends of serious rejection, bordering on fear, so I’m ready folks fire away. Be nice constructive and honest.

Respect to you all

Frank Murphy