Barbara Siraut
Barbara Siraut, 44, is President of the International Taekwondo Federation of Belgium and has recently been awarded her fifth degree black belt. She prides herself on creating a multilingual Taekwondo family
I first became interested in Taekwondo 26 years ago through a visiting friend who was already a black belt. Some of his passion rubbed off on me and when he returned home to the United Arab Emirates, I knew I wanted to take up Taekwondo myself.
At that time, it was an unusual sport, hardly known in Belgium. At first I learned karate because I couldn’t find a Taekwondo teacher. Then, when I did find a Taekwondo club, it was a British one. My mother tongue is French and my English wasn’t very good, but it quickly improved thanks to the Taekwondo camps I attended in England. I have very good memories of those times, starting out in Taekwondo and discovering this lovely, big friendly Taekwondo family in the UK.
I passed my black belt exam in England in 1995 and still remember the fantastic elation I felt coming back on the ferry as a new black belt. It coincided with my thirtieth birthday. A week later I started my own club in Tervuren and my first student is now my husband!
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and its history has been fraught with political tensions. Korean culture was suppressed when the country was occupied by Japan in the first half of the twentieth century and the practice of Korean martial arts was forbidden. After the occupation, a Korean general, Choi Hong Hi, revived the ancient martial art and named it Taekwondo, which means ‘the art of kicking and punching’.
General Choi was very active in promoting Taekwondo worldwide. I was so passionate about it, that I used to travel around Europe to wherever he was giving a seminar. Whether it was in Poland, Germany or Ireland, I would always be there.
The first time I met him, I was a brand new black belt attending my first seminar. I happened to see General Choi in the hotel lobby and felt I just had to go over and speak to him. I was so naive, I had no idea that ordinary black belts weren’t expected to do that. But Choi was a humble man and was charming. He invited me to sit with him and talk about Taekwondo. Over the years I got to know him very well and it was a great honour when he appointed me President of the International Taekwondo Federation of Belgium.
Sadly, Taekwondo became mired in Korean politics and General Choi died in exile in 2002, but he is still an inspiration to me. He wanted to make a martial art which would unite people through its philosophy of dedication, perseverance and honesty. Although Taekwondo hasn’t succeeded in uniting Korea, it certainly unites students of many nationalities in our club here in Belgium. We are proud to give multilingual lessons often speaking four languages in one class. I love building this international Taekwondo family.
For a long time, I felt it was more important to nurture my students than to pursue my own Taekwondo goals, but I’ve recently been awarded my black belt fifth dan. Having seen what an inspiration this has been to my students, I’m now determined to push on with my own training and get to the level of Master. I’m no longer as flexible as I used to be, so the training is hard, but of course it’s worth it. I’m like the locomotive of a train, with all my students following along behind me. The further I go, the further they go too.
I also continue with my work as a Taekwondo umpire and am always proud to see my students doing so well in international competitions. This summer we’re hoping to have some new black belts in our club too. Then we’ll have a great party!
www.taekwondo-itf.be
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Comments
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I'm sorry to disappoint all of you but Barbara Siraut is NOT the president of ITF Belgium!!
FELICITATIONS
Bravo à toi. Pour ma part , tu es exceptionnelle et ce que tu as fait, ce que tu fait encore mérite toute la reconnaissance possible ! Toute mon admiration !
Boo Sabum
Dag Barbara,
Ik las net je bericht over het behalen van je 5e Dan, gefeliciteerd, een super prestatie! Leuk te zien dat het allemaal goed gaat.
Ik heb ook voornemens dit jaar weer eens te gaan werken aan een hogere graad. Einde van het jaar wil ik voor mijn 3e Dan slagen.
Groeten aan Jean-Paul en tot mails/ziens.
Sportieve groet,
John v Dam
Soo Bak-Gi Asten (NL)
www.soobakgi-asten.nl
Dear Sabum,
how were your holidays? You know how much happiness you put into your jeja's hearts, don't you? Sport is essential in our lives and Taekwondo gives to most of us a second family, the dojang becomes a place of relaxation, of motivation, of discussion, of hard-working, of respect, of learning! You are a great leader and a great teacher. And what a nice picture of you at Dosan club!
See you this evening for training...
Taekwon :)
Thanks
Many thanks to Sabum and Jean paul ! Big family club with discipline and a lot of humor !
perseverance & proudness
After trying different kinds of sports, Ivan discvered Taekwondo 5 years ago at an open door week-end at the sports center. Since then he has become blue belt and his punctuatung his week with his 2 training sessions, sometimes 3. It is always a drama when, for some reason, he's unable to attend. Thank you Sabum and Jean-Paul for this school of effort, of sels-discupline, of perseverance and rewards you are teaching him (us).
Great Sabum
I know Sabum for 10 years now and she's a wonderful person ! She taught me so much and thanks to her I achieved many goals. Goals I could only dream about but they became reality !
She's an inspiration to us all !!
Pipo
Sabum is a super theacher, she's so funny, I like her a lot!!!!
Tales from the Dojang
Barbara & Jean Paul inspire their students to achievement with skill, humour, respect, energy - and bags of patience. We are priviledged to have such excellent tuition for our budding ninjas!
Best teacher ever
I love all the lessons and I never want to stop Taekwondo. They are absolutely amazing.
The best
Barbara is the best! My whole family is proud to be Barbara and JP's greatest fans - and most of us are also their pupils. Long may they continue. She's already a Master to us - she just doesn't have the belt yet...but she will.
Our Sabum is brilliant!
Sabum is a great teacher and we all love her. We are so proud of her getting her fifth dan. Congrats!!
What a Great Person She Is
Barbra and her husband Jean Paul, are two wonderful people. Our oldest son takes Taekwondo from them and they really do care for the kids. The class always is kept in stiches by the antics of Jean Paul, but still learning at the same time. Barbra will personnel watch each student, quick to show them the correct way to do a move or tell them when they are doing it correct. She really is the cream of the crop of instructors.