The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the world sporting calendar, leaving athletes in the lurch while they slowly resume training following months of staying indoors.
However, uncertainty has allowed the national taekwondo poomsae exponents to venture into freestyle poomsae – a category that promises more exciting routines and is contested at multi-sports events, including the 2019 Manila SEA Games.
“I was supposed to go for the Asian and World Championships … those were the two major tournaments this year. But the pandemic disrupted the calendar and we just started training at Bukit Jalil,” said poomsae expert Sara Yap Khim Wen.
“Currently, we are exploring freestyle (poomsae) … we’re improving on that a bit more.”
The 2017 SEA Games gold medalist said the traditional poomsae is rather static and is merely practical shadow boxing and kicking.
“Freestyle is an attempt to modernise the sport and it’s basically somewhat like wushu – you perform with music, there are flips, jumps and airborne kicks.
“A lot of multi-sports games have them and we are venturing into this. It’s also less boring for the audience.”
National taekwondo poomsae coach Yap Yih Tiing was quoted earlier this year as saying the trend in international poomsae is to have louder music and more lighting.
But Sara insisted such distractions did not bother her.
“I’m quite used to the music and camera following me,” she said on The RSS with HD aired over the weekend.
Produced by Professional Storytellers and Toucan Media, the weekly talk show, aired on YouTube at 4pm every Sunday, has featured sports personalities like Olympians Annatasia Karen Raj (athletics), Che Chew Chan (taekwondo), Maninderjit Singh (hockey), Olympic Council of Malaysia president Datuk Seri Norza Zakaria and former National Sports Council director-general Datuk Dr Ramlan Aziz.
The show is hosted by actor Rashid Salleh and Twentytwo13 editor Haresh Deol. Amnig is the official apparel brand.
