The first Singapore Virtual Taekwondo Boot Camp welcomed 30 aspiring athletes on 27 and 28 Jan 2024 and kick-started 2024 in an innovative fashion. These athletes of both genders, aged from 13 to 23 years old, donned on VR headset and motion tracking nodes and used their bodies as game controller to compete against the avatar of their opponent for a fast pace 90 secs challenge each round of Virtual Taekwondo.
The experience at the VT Boot Camp have proven to be immersive and stimulating whereby athletes stayed on beyond the session and challenged themselves further. Many thanks to STF Virtual Taekwondo Committee led by Mr Johnny Lim and Mr Tan Cheng Hui, the active
involvement of technical officials/technical assistants and volunteers in staging this inaugural boot camp and co-created these new learning experiences together with the coaches and participating athletes.
“The boot camp experience has emphasised the inherent disparities between esports taekwondo and its physical counterpart. In the esports domain, achievement relies on endurance and precise execution of rapid kicks, whereas physical taekwondo involves unique
factors. Additionally, for the seamless operation of Virtual Taekwondo (VTKD), the participation of players, volunteers, dependable tech support, and a stable network connection is indispensable.” (Mr Johnny Lim, Chair of Virtual Taekwondo).
Virtual Taekwondo is fun and inclusive and it is non-contact sparring unlike kyorugi taekwondo. Thus, virtual taekwondo enables people of different ages, weight class and gender to compete against one another without barrier. This new version of taekwondo is developed by Refract Technologies with strong support of World Taekwondo.
The STF is staging the inaugural Singapore Open Virtual Taekwondo in the last weekend of April 2024 to promote and develop virtual taekwondo. Details will be shared soon. Enquiries @ stfvtc@gmail.com.