Here is where we can exchange all kinds of advice and tips for travel both inside and outside of Korea. Please share your experiences so others can benefit from what you have learned.
Sports Adventure in Mongolia- Wrestling
Name : adventure
Date : 2012-06-13 PM 4:06:09, Read : 393
Mongolia Sports Adventure Travel Research
Supporting volunteer students was one of my goals for this adventure travel but of course my main goal for this adventure travel was to research Mongolia for sports adventure travels.
What I had in my mind for sports adventure travel in Mongolia was 3 sports adventures like joining ¡®Mongolian Wrestling¡¯ which is Mongolia National Sports, meeting ¡®Mongolia Bike Challenge¡¯ Team who race Mongolia¡¯s dessert and vast plain every year, and experiencing horse trekking in great Mongolia nature.
-Mongolian Wrestling
In Mongolia, Mongolian Wrestling is considered as Warrior¡¯s Martial Art and if a Mongolian wrestler win wrestling tournament of ¡®Naadam Festival¡¯ which is one of world 10 famous festivals, he will get the name of ¡®Hero¡¯ and his biography, pictures, and documentary movie will be on TV or magazines.
That¡¯s how Mongolian wrestling is being loved by Mongolian people.
Mongolian wrestling¡¯s stature is very high as a National Sports because Mongolian people so love it.
Before Naadam festival, Mongolian wrestling players have tournaments which are held in their towns, cities, and provinces. And the winners from each tournament will have a main tournament for a final tournament for Naadam festival.
Finally, players who get in certain ranking will have Mongolian wrestling competition at Ulaanbaatar where is the capital of Mongolia.
Naadam festival¡¯s Mongolian wrestling is a tournament and they will fight regardless of their age or weight class.
The reason why I got into Mongolian wrestling was because of Mongolian wrestling videos which I found while collecting sports videos from Mongolia.
Mongolia is Asian country but their wrestling is quite different from Korea¡¯s but is very similar to old Rome¡¯s wrestling and USA¡¯s MMA wrestling. However their hand technique was very similar to Japanese¡¯s Judo technique.
Suddenly I who had MMA training in USA really wanted to have sparring with them in their vast plain.
However it was situation that those Koreans who work for Mongolia and I had no information about Mongolian wrestling, so I decided to go to Mongolia directly, then get information about how Korean players can join their Mongolia wrestling competitions as meeting people related to Mongolian wrestling.
Above of all, I believed that I would get the best answer if I compete with Mongolian wrestling players face to face.
I was looking for any member of Mongolian wrestling committee constantly since I had arrived at Mongolia, I got introduced one Mongolian man who works for this kinder garden while I was supporting volunteer students in that kinder garden in Gurduk.
Kinder garden teachers told me that he was very famous ex-Mongolian wrestler in this city, so I checked his body and I thought his body was not ordinary people¡¯s body.
So I asked him for a Mongolian wrestling lesson, and he took it with pleasure.
Before we started, they explained about the rules of Mongolian wrestling in short version, it was that you would lose if any part of your body except for palms and feet touches ground.
The more the time was passing, the more excited I was getting as reminding of the time when I got MMA training in USA.
I believe American, French, or Korea wrestlers would love this Mongolian wrestling.
After that wrestling lesson, Mr. Jung helped me get a contact with this man who is in charge of chief of Mongolia Sports University in Ulaabaatar.
I ran to there with high hope, unfortunately, he said all of players went back home since it was vacation season.
So there was no students in this school, it seemed hard to have a Mongolian wrestling competition.
Well also even I could not ask that chief with silver hair for a sparring¡¦ lol
However he looked interested in my business suggestion of Mongolian wrestling training and sparring for International friend-ship, and I really made a big step forward to my goal.
We exchanged email addresses and we decided to keep in touch through email since he was good at English.
At the entrance of the university, I got reverent in front of pictures of Olympic medalists from this university.
I had deep conversation with the chief of this university and I hoped there would be good chances for grapplers from all over the world to experience Mongolian wrestling and cultures.
But I felt there was something missing even though I made a big step.
Yes, because I came here to fight.
While I was disappointed, Naya who took Mr. Jung and me to everywhere by car told me that he would introduce his police friend to me.
That police friend¡¯s brother is a very famous player and places high ranking in Mongolia and also that police friend got trained for Mongolian wrestling.
That¡¯s how it started that all of us went to Trelji National Park for horse trekking and I and police friend have Mongolian wrestling sparring on that vast plain.
Naya¡¯s friend name is Jimmie and he is much taller than me.
Of course he has long reach, so it was difficult to get close to me.
But I nailed it and finally I made it to hold Jimmie¡¯s one leg so I won.
<1st sparring with Jimmie>
You should dance if you win for Mongolian wrestling competition.
It¡¯s very similar to ¡®Wai Cru¡¯ which is like ¡®Muay Thai Dance¡¯ and fighters dance for their masters, parents, and their countries before competition.
Common things between two dances are that they swing their arms as looking like eagle¡¯s wing.
Well it is bad that there is no ceremony like dancing in Korea¡¯s Martial Arts.
I got a problem.
Well I guess I broke Mongolia wrestling¡¯s pride or something, our horse trekking guide, Turu stepped up as asking me for one more round after I won.
Turu is 21 year old young handsome guy who lives in Terelji National Park as doing horse trekking guide with his parents, and he speaks Korean very fluently because he has been guiding Korean tourists since he was 7 years old.
Anyway let¡¯s say he is very wild, aggressive and very strong.
I was already out of breath but I had to have one more sparring with Turu.
When he grabbed my wrist, I got surprised.
<2nd run with Turu>
It¡¯s because I couldn¡¯t get my wrist out of his hand since Turu¡¯s hand power was too strong.
I thought his hand power would be strong, but I couldn¡¯t know his power would be much stronger than I expected.
I struggled for long time, and I almost lost on several times.
However when I was forced into a corner, I got my concentration back and didn¡¯t¡¯ want to let him win that easy.
So I watched a chance, and I made it to catch Turu¡¯s leg so I slammed Turu¡¯s back on the ground.
Right after he lost, he might be came to me and asked me for another round, but I refused it as running out of breath and I was thinking,
¡®If Turu learns USA¡¯s Modern MMA techniques, he will be a much stronger opponent¡¯
We became friends via Sports, so we exchanged email addresses, and promised to meet someday again.
Turu was taking about 10 horses with his father into the forest as say;
.jpg)
.jpg)
