I would like to provide this report to the head of teams and the organizing committee of the 3rd V-VVD Championships 2007. This report focuses on the constructive views of team leaders and contestants that attended the organised events during the championships, 20-22 July 2007 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

 came to the 3rd Championships with an intention to learn from liaising with V-VVD students from around the world. I did not travel to Vietnam to win. What I wanted to learn from other V-VVD students was their experience and challenges in teaching V-VVD to people who knew nothing about it. I also wanted to learn about the non-Vietnamese V-VVD students’ views on the V-VVD techniques and how it is taught.

When I say V-VVD students I include masters, instructors and blue belts. I am of the view that all students of V-VVD or Mon sinhs can provide direction and input in regard to non martial art techniques side of V-VVD development. The Mon sinhs, I believe have the capability to contribute greatly to the development of V-VVD because they have different formal educational training, specialized knowledge, contacts and life experience that current V-VVD masters and instructors may not have.

I arrived at my house in Ward 12, Tan Binh, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam at around 6.10pm, on Wednesday 18th July 2007. I quickly changed and took a motor bike taxi or xe om to To Duong at about 6.40pm. I had a quick talk to Master NGUYEN Van Sen then I went to the District 8 training hall at about 7.15pm. I saw no V-VVD students and I was told that they were at Phu Tho Sports complex. I arrived at Phu Tho Sports Complex at about 8pm.

I met Master Cam Binh, Nguyen Van Chieu and Nguyen Van Hieu. I saw Master Sudo Rusland from France and Master Quach Chi Cuong from Norway. I then learn that there was a meeting organized for Thursday 19th of July at Phu Tho Sports Complex, the meeting was to be held at 8 am. I was given no formal documents about the information of the championship until this night.

I arrived at Phu Tho Sports Complex at around 7.45am and the meeting started at about 9.25am. I was asked to be the English translator and Master Sudo Rusland as the French translator for this meeting. Due to the 3 languages used for the meeting, discussions took longer than the Championships Organising Committee (COC) anticipated. Team leaders at this meeting were provided water as the only refreshment for a meeting from 8am to about 3pm. The main issues focused on at this meeting were understanding judges and referees signals, contestants draws and weigh ins for free fighting contestants. This was the first time all team leaders were provided with information about the important aspect of technical areas of the championships.

All teams were asked to attend a meeting at To Duong to pay respect to Grand Master, LE Sang, and the founder, the Late Grand Master Nguyen Loc. Each team was asked to bring the maximum of 5 persons to To Duong. The meting was to be held at 5pm. I believe the rule of 5 persons per team was ignored by most countries as they thought that the opportunity to see the Grand Master, LE Sang and to pay respect to the V-VVD Founder, the Late Grand Master Nguyen Loc, was too big an occasion to miss and also the opportunity to share this with others who love V-VVD. So, we cramped into the space available at To Duong and the ceremony went ahead and we were all happy to be there. Master Judorruslan and I were asked to be the translators in French and English at To Duong. The meeting at To Duong was also the last event before the Championships which were to start the next day, Friday 20th July 2007 at 8am.

I arrived at Phu Tho Sport complex at about 7.50am. I was a little worried when I did not see my three (3) students at the gate at 8am. The finally arrived at about 8.20am. When we walked into the main hall of the championships, we had to find a space to call our corner or space. I had 3 children aged 7, 9 and 10 years old with me and I learnt at the meeting the previous day that only one of my students would contest in the Long Ho Quyen and there was no competition for Thap Tu Quyen. All three students I had with me were Blue Belts level 1.

At about 8.45am, I was asked to be the translator for the judges and referees meeting. At this meeting, team leaders, non-Vietnamese judges and referees were provided with information about how to award points for Quyens (Patterns or Katas) and free fighting.

At about 9.25 the main event took place and I was asked to be the non Vietnamese Liaison person for events at the Championships. My main objective for attending these championships was to learn and being a liaison person for all non Vietnamese contestants and teams was an ideal position to be given to do this.

The Public announcing (PA) system and the room was not good acoustically as sound echoed and was distorted together with contestants and team leaders talking and not hearing the announcements anyway. Some contestants did not understand English – so my job was a lot harder than I thought it was.

At first, the points awarded to contestants from judges were confusing as they have their own views on how to judge a Quyen, song luyen or da luyen. But these matters were quickly resolved and the events at the championships progressed as well they could be under the circumstances. Language barriers, time management, lack of human resources and lack of prior knowledge or understanding of administrative and clerical regulations about the rules of events and the rights of appeal by contestants were issues that arose and need addressing to better improve this event.

I missed most of the Official Opening performances because all teams were assembled behind the main event arena and my presence was required there. I also had to assist the lady who led the Australian team to the main area because she was feeling faint. The Official Opening was held in the evening of the first day of the competition, Friday 20th July, at 6.30pm.

I fulfilled my duty to the best of my ability. I had to modify my tasks to minimize confusion to contestants. This means that after making my announcements, I checked the information I had then I walked to the team leaders and contestants involved in the announcement to tell them directly of their responsibilities in the next event/s. I found this task improved the organizational aspects for contestants and the championships as a whole. This also gave me a great opportunity to meet all team leaders and team contestants. I finished the first day of the competition at 11.45pm and the second day finished at about 9.30pm. When I arrived at my house, I had to read the documents on the establishment of the World VOVINAM Viet Vo Dao Federation so that I had some understanding of its content before the meeting on Sunday 22nd July 2007. So I would have rested my poor jet lagged and weary body well after 3am most nights.

After two days of competition, there were medal winners and friendships formed. Most contestants and team leaders were surprised to learn that I was not one of the Championship Organizing Committee (COC) members. There were lots of smiles and laughs at the medal ceremony. I was happy to see the contestants stay back for the big group picture.

So the championships ended with some people unhappy with some judges’ scores and decisions. Confusion about how the COC determined who was the winner in the situation of equal scores for an event, the appeal process and time for an appeal was unclear. Some people held the view that some judges were biased and there were not enough non Vietnamese judges and referees.

The next task for the team leaders was the World Vovinam-Viet Vo Dao Federation (WVF) establishment meeting on 22nd July. I believe all countries attended the 3rd championship wishing for V-VVD to be recognized as a sport to be included in world events such as Asian Indoor Championships, World Martial Arts Championships, the Olympics, Continental Championship events etc.

V-VVD is in a unique position in that V-VVD expansion to the world stage at the conclusion of a bloody war. Most mature or aged masters and instructors escaped Vietnam for political reasons and they still hold very strong views against the current Vietnamese Government. These masters and instructors make up the majority of leaders of V-VVD clubs around the world outside of Vietnam.

More than 30 years have passed; V-VVD has accelerated its development to more than 35 countries in the world. There are many challenges ahead for the WVF, some of which are: human and financial resources, technical knowledge and transparency.

Most countries lack the financial and human resources to make contributions to the WVF. Most V-VVD club managers, Masters and Instructors, around the world teach V-VVD without earning an income from it. This makes the financial contribution to the WVF of $300, $500 and $500 USD for membership difficult. I do not know of a country in the world that pays a V-VVD master to teach V-VVD full time apart from Vietnam. People who can contribute to the constitutional and policy discussions are limited and their contributions are not costed against V-VVD, so why should they pay for their membership to WVF? From this point of view, I believe the interim members elected to be representatives in the WVF Management Committee (MC) should be waived from the WVF membership payment.

The interim WVF MC should focus on administrative tasks in preparation for its future directions including a workable and inclusive constitution, procedures that are administratively fair for future championships and that all V-VVD Martial Art technical examinable techniques are understood by all future contestants and team leaders.

Most countries’ representatives that attended the WVF establishment meeting indicated that the specialized and technical unique aspects of V-VVD should be preserved. This special knowledge of martial art techniques is the main reason they became involved in V-VVD. All future V-VVD competitions should have detailed information regarding the rulings of technical aspects of techniques so that judges can be consistent. Training also needs to be provided to non Vietnamese judges and referees. Referees and judges should only appointed to events or bouts where there is no conflict of interest and where they can make decisions free of bias.

The free fighting regulations in V-VVD must be re-examined so that professional kick boxers and boxers are excluded from V-VVD championships. Rules in other martial arts such as Taekwondo and Karate are modified so that it is unique for their art. If V-VVD does not modifying its free fighting rules, most of those attending the 3rd Championship will not participate in free fighting events at future championships.

All competition rules and regulations should be made available publicly. They can be published or stored in the internet and available at all competitions sanctioned by the WVF and well ahead of the championship starting. All contestants’ scores from judges, without the judge’s names, should be display publicly soon after the event is completed.

I have not added the farewell dinner and the trip to Vung Tau beach to my evaluation because these were social functions and they provided contestants with opportunities to tell me the things they wanted to improve at future championship events. I am sure they say the same thing to other people as well, but most of them thought I was a member of the COC and that I could help improve certain aspects of future championships. I was asked to help out at the 3rd V-VVD Championships and I hope I carried out my duties as required by the COC and according to your teams’ expectations.

I was privilege and honour to be asked to do a job central to the operation of the 3rd V-VVD Championships. I would like to say that I had no say in the referees and judges selection of any events at the championship. I did not even have time to prepare my only student for her competition. I can say to all of you that, what I heard at the referees and judges’ selection meeting for all events was discussion about the knowledge and the ability of judges in regard tot V-VVD techniques and I heard nothing about favoritism or selection bias so that decisions would favor some contestants. I have said to some of you, from my chair position, I would see technical aspects that judges could not see and this reflected on different judges’ scores in most events. This is why scores are averaged as in any international events of this kind. I see this as a positive thing. I did not say any thing of what I saw or heard to any judges or referees during the championship. This is the first time when asked to provide my independent evaluation of the Championships.



I walked away from the 3rd V-VVD Championships very happy to see that 21 countries participated; we went to Vietnam because we are all committed to VOVINAM – Viet Vo Dao and its moral principles. We all had different languages and cultural barriers and we overcame these differences and barriers because of V-VVD. I am pleased to say that the only politics I heard from the whole event was the politics within V-VVD on judges and referees biases. I am happy to say that this is a simple matter that can be fixed and I am 100% certain that the same issues will again be an item for discussion and evaluation at future championships.

I would like to make the following recommendations for future championships:

1. All future championship team meetings must follow strict structured schedules.

2. Time management: All meetings and events should start on time as indicated in the preplanned program. Representatives and team managers that fail to attend to their responsibilities and get their contestants on time to events announced by the organizing committee should face immediate disqualification as a result.

3. All team managers or leaders are responsible for liaising with the event organizers and hearing announcements as appropriate to his/her team/contestants.

4. A written Code of conduct must be follow by all contestants, instructors/masters, referees, team support persons, team managers and officials.

5. Policies and regulations on championship events should be made available to all teams and at the championship venue.

6. Strict guidelines on contestants’ attire, i.e. all contestants MUST wear full VOVINAM – Viet Vo Dao uniform with belt or their national team uniform. Failure to dress appropriate to this rule would disqualify the contestant from the event or the medal.

7. Refreshments and food should be provided, if available and affordable by the organizing committee for judges, referees and officials, or representatives advised to bring their own food.

8. Provide regular breaks to Judges, referees and official.

9. Contestants score be made available as soon as possible after an event is completed without the judges’ names.

10. Refreshments should be provide to judges, referees and officials if affordable for those who perform tasks that continue for more than 4 hours, and

11. Referees and judges. Training must be provided in the form of written documents available on internet available and before the championship. Appointment of judges and referees MUST be free of bias and conflict of interest free. This means that no judge is allowed to judge a contestant of his/her country.

I want to thank all team leaders, contestants, judges, referees and the Organizing Committee for your friendships, guidance, understanding, kindness and the patience shown to me during the championship and social events. I am very happy to have met you all. I am sorry for not having more time to spend with you. I would always be happy to see all of you again and I have only the best wishes for you and your families.



Yours in VOVINAM – Viet Vo Dao.

Samuel Nguyen.

VOVINAM – Viet Vo Dao Sydney

Master Samuel Nguyễn (Copy Vovinam Library)