Profile - Mr Mark Banicevich

by Glen Kenny, I dan
Paul M Glendowie

How did you get started in Taekwon-Do?

I have been interested in martial arts since I was young. I didn’t get to watch all the old Hong Kong movies, but my cousin’s uncle did kung fu or something, and my cousin kept showing me little bits and pieces.

My opportunity came in August 1989, when a close school friend worked with a guy who did Taekwon-Do. Brad asked Mike to come along, and Mike asked me to join him. So we went along to Rosehill Intermediate to train with a 4th dan named Mr Paul McPhail.

A couple of weeks later, Mike asked another school friend (Kyle, who I didn’t know) to come along, so I asked a friend from my job at Georgie Pie, Shaun Tolley to come along. Kyle lasted a couple of weeks, Mike to 7th gup, and Shaun and I are still here 17 years later.

	Mr Banicevich’s instructor and mentor, Master Paul McPhail, early 1994.
	Centre: with Mr Sandy Dunbar and Master Wim Bos, 1995.
	Right: with Mr David Sutrisna and friends in Jakarta, 1999.

What has kept you involved so long?

I strongly believe that a good social circle produces people who stay – one that is run by the students, not by the instructor. When I started at Papakura Taekwon-Do, the yellow belts had a strong core group led by Margaret and Trish Pepper who welcomed us, and got the club involved in everything. That core group stayed in the club for around 10 years, and we continue to be friends now!

We did everything – regional camps, tournaments, fundraising activities such as car washes and sausage sizzles, and social gatherings. My fi rst regional activities were a regional camp on Mototapu Island, and involvement in the opening ceremony of the IVth Commonwealth Games (months of practice for over 100 Taekwon-Do students!) – I was hooked!

I started because I was interested in martial arts and wanted to learn self defence. I got involved in tournaments and competition. Then I became intrigued by the academic pursuit of Taekwon-Do. Throughout, strong friendships and social ties formed. Now it is my students, and my dream for ITFNZ Taekwon-Do, that drives me.

When did you attain 1st dan black belt?

Shaun Tolley and I trained twice per week at each of Mr McPhail’s clubs (Papakura and Manurewa) between 8th gup and about 3rd gup. Then we trained twice at Mr McPhail’s Papakura club and twice at Mr Pellow’s Papakura club (a tiny hall in the back of Papakura which was full with ten guys free sparring – that toughened us up!). I also recall training many Friday nights at City club with Mr Steve McQuillan, but that may have been later.

In December 1992 I was the fi rst ITFNZ student to attain a Pass with Distinction to 1st dan after it was introduced a few years earlier. The examiners were talking about lowering the mark required from 85% to 80% because they thought it must be too hard (they later did lower it).

What happened next?

I travelled. I always wanted to travel. It started at the World Camp in Palmerston North in early 1992, when a team of Americans attended. (A week of Taekwon-Do from 6am until the socialising ended about 2am – amazing time!) I got on very well with one of the Americans. Then in June 1993, Shaun, Steve Pellow, Gray Patterson, a kid from Palmerston North and I went to the Sereff Camp in Denver, Colorado. (Here I partnered Mr Pellow at his 4th dan grading, which was an honour!)

There we met Katja Hansen and Ally Souter from Scotland and had many laughs. The event led naturally into my OE. Shaun Tolley and I left for Europe, via Denver, in March 1994. We lasted two days in London, bought a Ford Cortina for £200, and drove up to the Highlands of Scotland to spend ten months with Katja and Ally. We ate fi ve meals a day, trained six or seven days a week, and I became the fi ttest I have ever been. Our instructor, Mr Sandy Dunbar 4th dan, didn’t charge us the entire time – a gift I will never forget. We didn’t earn the biggest incomes in Scotland, but we made amazing friends, lived Taekwon-Do, and left with many incredible memories.

We entered or umpired at a stack of UK tournaments, most notably winning the silver trophy in team sparring at the Bathgate Open in 1994 with a throw-together “Inverness B” team (Shaun and I from New Zealand, two guys from Narin in the Highlands and one from the Netherlands). Mr Dunbar returned from the World Championships in Malaysia with the title “World’s Best Referee”, and he inspired me to become an umpire.

Note this is before email and the internet. Contact was by regular letter and fortnightly phone call (there were no calling cards, either). In this environment, Shaun and I wanted to grade for 2nd dan. We were writing letters to Mr McPhail; we knew the ITFNZ syllabus but not the Scottish syllabus; we wrote our 2nd dan essays and submitted them, to the confusion of the Scottish examiners. And then we failed. Yes, I failed my 2nd dan grading fi rst attempt. Three months later, a couple of weeks before we left the Highlands to tour Europe, we re-sat part of the grading and attained 2nd dan.

Mr Dunbar gave us a list of Taekwon-Do contacts in various European countries. We trained in Wales, England (with Mr, now Master, Donatto Nadizzi) and Spain, and everywhere we went we found Taekwon-Do hospitality was amazing.

Spain was incredible. We spent almost three months there. Our Taekwon-Do experience began in Alicante, with Vicente Ibañez 2nd dan. Neither Shaun nor I speak any European languages – but we certainly gave it a go. We got by with a phrasebook, dos manos, and Vicente’s English friend Frank. Our meeting is a story in itself; suffi ce it to say we were warmly welcomed and overwhelmingly looked after. (In ten days, we were shouted dinner fi ve times. Recall that we didn’t earn well in Scotland, so we were travelling on a very tight budget!)

Here we trained with Sr Mario Pons and Sra LolesMasia, childhood sweethearts, both 4th dan, with a class of students who could all hold a front snap kick steady at shoulder height (while Shaun and I quavered just over belt height).

When we met Antonio “Dache” Blanco 3rd dan (and regular international competitor), he didn’t even get a letter in warning. When we met, we extended a Taekwon-Do handshake, and he said, “Aah, Taekwon-Do,” and took us home to join him for dinner!

I must also mention Mr Agustin Trigo 5th dan Taekwon-Do and 6th dan Hapkido. He fi rst saw us writing a note and trying to attach it to his door. He spoke little more English than we did Spanish, but he gave us a bottle of oil for the Combie and refused to charge us. This man had the ultimate setup. He lived on the ground fl oor, his permanent dojang was in the basement (fully kitted with showers and mats), and his auto parts shop was next door. Oh, and there was a pub directly across the street!

Where else have you trained?

Let’s see. Formally, in New Zealand, Australia, the USA, Scotland, England, Wales, Spain, Indonesia and Jamaica. Informally, pretty much everywhere I have travelled. One piece of advice for every student: if you travel overseas, always take your dobok and look up the local ITF Taekwon-Do club!

Indonesia was another highlight. Mr David Sutrisna, President of the Indonesian ITF, visited New Zealand for a seminar with General Choi in 1998, and he stayed with my family for a few weeks. The following year, I worked on a consulting project in Jakarta, and Mr Sutrisna and his students collected me from work each night and on weekends for dinner, training and sightseeing. It was a wonderful experience. (Ironically, I ate local food while my work colleagues ate at the hotel, and I was the only one not to fall sick.)

More recently I lived two years in Sydney, and Master Michael Daher was wonderful to me. He would drop me at the train station after training, or drive me across Sydney home after one of his incredible barbeques (one of few things I miss about Sydney!).

Travelling had a major impact on me. After receiving amazing hospitality everywhere I went, I now offer a bed, or at least dinner, to any ITF Taekwon-Doin traveller I meet in New Zealand. I have hosted visitors I had not previously met from Ireland, Wales, Indonesia, Sweden and other countries. If your parents are willing, I highly recommend this, too!

Have you trained with General Choi?

I attended half a dozen of the General’s seminars between 1991 and 2001. I was 5th gup at my fi rst, and attended as “videographer”. That was great, because I knew what questions to expect at my fi rst offi cial course in 1993! “Who your instructor? Aah, Paul McPhail very good instructor!” I was also very fortunate to attend General Choi’s last seminar in full health, with Master McPhail and Mr Patterson in Jamaica in 2001. Thanks to Master McPhail for the inspiration to go to that one!

General Choi was an amazing man, and a very scientifi c teacher. He wasn’t tolerant of ignorance, that’s for sure. Most of his seminar focussed on the details of our patterns, so it wasn’t until my third or fourth seminar when I fi nally clicked that he was teaching us how to teach Taekwon-Do!

Who inspires you in Taekwon-Do?

My instructor, Master McPhail, is forever an inspiration. I believe he is one of the world’s fi nest instructors, with outstanding knowledge, amazing technical ability, unparalleled dedication and incredible humility.

Mr Steve Pellow is another key inspiration. He is a very rounded martial artist, and possibly the mostdangerous person I know. A superb teacher, and a splendid person.

What are your future goals in Taekwon-Do?

One day I aspire to become a Master Instructor.

Further, I want to live to see ITFNZ become one of the largest sport organisations in New Zealand (although we are more than just a sport, of course), without sacrifi cing our quality and our ideals. I dream of a thousand clubs averaging a hundred members; posters of our best athletes and instructors on the walls of regular New Zealand homes; regular media attention on whatever medium replaces television, and an audience ten times the size of our membership. “I have a dream…”!