Is all in a day’s work for this fourth dan blackbelt…
(transcribed from MX magazine, interview with Tiffany Hall, by Sally Brooks)
Q: When did you begin studying tae kwon do?
A: The year I was born my parents started the first full-time tae kwon do club in Australia. I did ballet for many years and tkd on the side, but then I found it too hard to be graceful then aggressive, so I had to choose between them. I started when I was about six years old.
Q: What level are you now?
A: I’m a fourth-dan black belt. After your get your black belt there are levels and it took me six years to achieve my fourth dan after I achieved my black belt.
Q: Where are you training and competing?
A: I was aiming for a world championship in February in Korea, my first international competition, but I snapped my anterior crucial ligament. I had a knee reconstruction and I haven’t done tae kwon do for 11 months.
Q: Will wee see you in the Commonwealth Games in 2006?
A: Tae kwon do’s not in it. We’ve gotta do something about that. If it was, I would definitely try for it.
Q: What’s the difference between tae kwon do and other martial arts?
A: The simple answer is they originate from different places. Karate is Japanese and tae kwon do is Korean. But tae kwon do is 80% kicks, so if you think of The Matrix and all the impressive spinning and kicks, that’s tae kwon do.
Q: Can you break wooden boards with your hands?
A: Yeah, we have to. In order to get to different levels, you have to break a certain number of boards and they get thicker as you go along. I’m in a demonstration team that travels around Australia, demonstrating tae kwon do with the Olympic team and we always do board breaks for corporate gigs and for people like Prince Charles.
Q: You’ve met Prince Charles? Tell us about him.
A: He looks exactly like he does in the magazines except he’s a lot paler. His entourage is incredibly choreographed. We were told he would walk on this angle and be with us for three minutes. He came over and asked us to teach him some moves that he could execute on the paparazzi that were annoying him that day. He was very nice and very gentle, but he looked a bit plastic, like he hadn’t been outside.
Q: Have you ever had to use your skills in self-defence?
A: Not yet, but I’m looking forward to using them one day, which is probably a terrible thing to say. I specialise in defence for women, so I go to schools and teach young girls self-defence.
Q: What’s the first thing you would advise a woman in that situation to do?
A: The first thing is walk away and try and deal with it verbally. But if they grab you, you react. It’s an easy equation - hard weapon, soft target. Your body has soft targets like the nose, throat or groin area for guys, and you have lots of hard weapons like your hands, knees, feet and head. You need to apply a hard weapon to a soft target. It’s a winning combo.
Q: How do people react when you tell them your job?
A: Girls look at me like “You don’t look like you do tae kwon do” like you’re supposed to have big biceps and a nose ring. And guys sometimes get threatened. Quite often they will grab me and say “What would you do if I grabbed you like this?” and try to test me. Now I just say I’m in the fitness industry because it saves me a lot of hassles.
