Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

While Sideline Sid is an avid boxing fan, he's always had a passing interest in other gladiatorial sports, which have their roots in men being trained to fight in public shows in ancient Rome.

A recent online search reveals the Western Bay of Plenty has myriad of martial arts schools, ranging from Capoeira, Jujitsu, Kung Fu, Mixed Martial Arts, to Taekwondo, Judo, Muay Thai and Karate.

One martial art Sideline Sid has had a little to do with is Taekwondo, which has a number of academies and schools in the Western Bay of Plenty. The sport is a recent Olympic entrant, although it had been plagued by different disciplines and organisations, which held back Olympic recognition.

In Australia, amateur boxing is hamstrung by three bodies – the Australian Boxing Association, Australian Boxing League and the Global Boxing Association. However it's only the ABA that's affiliated to the Olympic movement, which means they alone hold the pathway to the Olympics for aspiring pugilists.

Likewise in New Zealand, it is only Taekwondo New Zealand, through affiliation to the World Taekwondo Federation, giving Kiwi Taekwondo players a passageway to Olympic participation.

A visit to the Taekwondo New Zealand website reveals the WTF has more than 80 million registered members in 191 countries, making it the eighth most played sport in the world.

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art, which combines combat and self defence with sport and exercise. The sport is known for its high kicking and fast hand techniques, which distinguish it from other martial arts. The WTF believe because the leg is the longest and strongest limb, the kicks have the greatest potential powerful strikes without successful retaliation.

The attraction for Sideline Sid to Olympic-style Taekwondo is the sport is equably suitable for both men and women, either as an exercise regime on the way to regular good health or as a serious combat sport. Competition sparring is either Point-style, where all strikes are light contact and the clock is stopped when a point is scored, or Olympic-style, where full contact sparring takes centre stage.

However Taekwondo is much more than sparring, with non-combat breaking and patterns also a major attraction of the sport. The sport attracts a large number of youngsters in the Western Bay, with initial instruction focusing on patterns (which are systematic, prearranged sequences of martial techniques).

However, for me the most spectacular form of Taekwondo is breaking, where a union of mental and physical strengths combines to break such as wooden boards, bricks and tiles. The discipline is described as requiring both the physical mastery of the technique and the concentration to focus one's mind – however, the sight of players splintering a number of wooden boards or tiles, is as dramatic as it is impressive.

Sideline Sid believes along with such codes as cricket and football – Taekwondo is an ideal introductory sport for youngsters, because of the development of the eye-to-hand coordination skills that are a base tool for most sports.