It was a family affair for three ADF members who took home gold from the NSW Taekwondo State Championships.
Flight Lieutenant Leah Park, Musician Robin Park, and their father Air Force Chaplain Dennis Park - all members of the ADF Combat Sports Association - cleaned up, with each claiming gold medals in Sydney on August 4.
The Parks compete in poomsae, a sequence of taekwondo techniques that link to form a pattern of blocks, kicks and punches.
It's judged on accuracy, power, timing and artistic expression of each poomsae.
"No two people would render a pattern in exactly the same way," Chaplain Park said.
"Martial arts is a good way to describe it, because they are fighting techniques, but there is also an art to it."
Chaplain Park won gold in traditional and world taekwondo individual divisions of the 5th Dan, 51-60 age group.
He hopes to represent Australia at the 2024 World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Hong Kong, six years after he last made it, but this time in an older age group.
"It might make it a little easier, but there are accomplished and skilled athletes in Australia, and also overseas, so it will be a tough competition. But I'm going to have a crack at it," he said.
Flight Lieutenant Park won gold in traditional and bronze in world taekwondo individual divisions in the 4th Dan 18-30 age group.
Her favourite pattern is Koryo, because of its impressive moves.
"First you do a double side-kick, one at hip level and one at head level. It's a pretty cool movement," Flight Lieutenant Park said.
"There's also quite a lot of knife hands in the rest of the pattern, so it's a very powerful, impressive pattern."
Also in 4th Dan 18-30 age level, Musician Park won gold in the men's traditional individual division.
He said fitness and flexibility from taekwondo helped his military job in unexpected ways.
"It's really great for shooting. I'm able to do shooting positions that other people can't because of flexibility," he said.
The brother-sister duo also took gold in the pair's competition, earning a spot at an international competition in Taiwan later this year.
Group competitions, like pairs, are assessed on criteria of individual patterns, but with emphasis on synchronised movements.
"I think I enjoy doing the pair a lot more; it's always fun to train with other people, not always fun to train by yourself," Musician Park said.
"Trying to get everything to be in time and in sync with another person can be quite challenging at times."
Despite being posted to different cities, they train together most weekends and coach each other when apart, critiquing training videos to ensure perfect form.
"We watch through frame by frame and say 'at this moment my hand's over here, but your hand's over there, why is that and how are we going to fix that?'," Flight Lieutenant Park said.
"If you train a lot together, you get that muscle memory and rhythm and then an intuitive feeling."
Seeing his children take gold in the sport he introduced them to was a proud moment for Chaplain Park.
"It just makes me very happy to see our kids doing something together other than their work or study," he said.
The siblings started taekwondo as children while living in Korea, and credit their parents with keeping them involved in it.
"I would have probably stopped multiple times, but they were always encouraging and saying 'this is something we're doing together'," Flight Lieutenant Park said.
The wins have given the golden trio entry to the Australian National Championships in November.
