New Episode UP!

Hello Taekwondo lovers, welcome to a new interview in taekwondo passion.

Our guest today is master Ehsan Davari from Iran.

If you follow us from before, you probably know him as he helped us as an interpreter to interview Fatemeh Hesam.

But I wanted to interview him as he has been a poomsae, sparring and gymnastics coach and competitor.

At first he practiced gymnastics for many years. When he decided to move into taekwondo, he was already a gymnastics coach.

But he made that move because in taekwondo he would have better opportunities to develop as an athlete.

Master Eshan now is mostly focused on refereeing and as you’ll notice from the interview, he is very dedicated to improving his practice and knowledge of the rules.

He mentions that one of the most common mistakes athletes make at any level is to not know the rules, the best athletes have a deep understanding of the game rules.

One of the most important things you can learn listening to this interview is about dedication and willingness to learn.

Master Eshan is clear that one of the most important things for success is not to quit.

So, don’t miss the opportunity to learn from him and to listen to how taekwondo is in one of the countries with a greater tradition in our martial art..

You can find the interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Iran’s taekwondo tradition
As you may know, Iran is a country with a very rich taekwondo tradition.

Taekwondo is very popular in Iran, and also very competitive. The country organizes taekwondo professional leagues for sparring and poomsae.

The league lasts for some months and you accumulate points as you participate and win matches every weekend.

At the end of the league the athlete with most wins is the one who will win the league. I

What do you think of this kind of competitions?

I personally think that is a “fairer” way to find the best athletes in the country, but on the other side it can be very demanding for athletes to fight or compete every weekend.

Also this kind of league can only work in countries where a lot of people practice taekwondo. A thing that with time is always more common.

Here in my country Mexico, we have a lot of people practicing and going crazy about taekwondo events, and I’ve always imagined the same from Iran.

Is it the same way in your country? You can tell us how it is in the comments.

From gymnastics to taekwondo
Imagine that you are a really talented gymnastics athlete. You are among the best in your region and you are even starting to coach other athletes.

Why should you move as a teenager to try in another sport? A sport that you have never practiced before.

This was what happened to Master Eshan, he was a very talented athlete but his city is very small and they didn’t have the facilities which allow him to continue growing.

They didn’t have even the most basic equipement.

That lack of equipment didn’t allow him to compete in all the necessary events to be scouted as a talent.

So he decided not to stop and to move to another sport.

And that’s the way he came into taekwondo.

It is also interesting that some of his first taekwondo training partners were his gymnastics students.

But he didn’t care about that and as he was a person with a lot of athleticism coming from gymnastics he developed really fast in taekwondo.

Another interesting thing Master Ehsan shares is that he was always the first who wanted to help his taekwondo Master.

He was always early to class so if something was needed, for example cleaning the mats, he would always volunteer to that.

The taekwondo journey

To train in a small town can make things difficult but not impossible. Master Eshan was first more oriented to the sparring side of the sport.

But you know you can train sparring alone, but it is better always to have a team and training partners.

So, for Master Ehsan, a way to be more competitive was poomsae. In which you are more able to train alone.

And in a similar way he is now more focused in refereeing than in coaching.

He shares that coaching is a very rewarding experience, but for many aspects of coaching you don’t depend only on you to excel.

So he prefered to focus on the refereeing part now. So, if he has to travel to an event he only has to focus on giving his best.

But on the other side he has a responsability. He shares with us that he has talked with some coaches about the challenges of being a referee or a coach.

If you make a mistake as a coach maybe you can redeem learning from it and giving the best for your athlete in the future.

But if you make a mistake as a referee the mistake will always be there.

What do you prefer?

How to prepare for a competition as a referee?

Every athlete has to prepare the best for a competition.

The same is valid for referees.

You have to be at your best for every match, apart from his normal preparation attending seminars and practicing.

The night before a tournament, Master Ehsan reads and studies all the ruleset and practices for two to three hours.

No matter that he already knows the rules, he make that extra effort to perform his bests as a referee.

More on the interview

Learn more from training and refereeing in the interview.

Master Eshan gave us some advice to improve at poomsae and refereeing. So, definitely is worth listening to him.

Links to the interview below.