Instructor Camille Pruckmuller (centre) with some of her Bay City charges who returned with a swag of medals from the NZ Union Taekwondo Championship in Porirua last weekend. Photo/Duncan Brown
Instructor Camille Pruckmuller (centre) with some of her Bay City charges who returned with a swag of medals from the NZ Union Taekwondo Championship in Porirua last weekend. Photo/Duncan Brown
Children endlessly pushing and pulling in the struggle for independence from their elders is part of growing up despite the frustration and, at times, resignation from both parties.
But Hendrix Pruckmuller-Brown is swimming against that tide of expected, if not accepted, behaviour.
Pruckmuller-Brown, you can say, has been exchanging grapples and pummels with his maternal grandmother, Camille, in almost five years of hanging out tough in a mutually civilised manner.
"Oh man, it's honestly great fun just hanging out with her," says the 16-year-old from Hastings whose nana is the fourth dan blackbelt instructor/owner of the Bay City Taekwondo dojang.
Pruckmuller-Brown is among 19 Bay City members who have returned from the New Zealand Union Taekwondo Championship in Porirua last weekend.
They claimed 21 medals, including nine gold and silver each, as well as three bronze.
Pruckmuller-Brown, who claimed gold in the over-80kg blackbelt grade, says it's a family reunion of sorts every time they travel with his grandmother to tournaments around the country.
His siblings — Lilah, 14, Harlem, 10, and 7-year-old twins Lennix, older by two minutes, and Korahn — also join the Bay City contingent who co-habit like an extended family.
"After we win fights it's like being with the family at Christmas," he says, revealing they collectively enjoy the support of all the club members' relatives.
His mother, Barbara Pruckmuller, and father Mohi Brown, join the caravan of support but work commitments often dictate terms.
Brown, a painter by trade, is into his guitars so no points for guessing who the son is named after (Jimi Hendrix) although the teenager fancies himself as a drummer.
Pruckmuller-Brown says his grandmother is "one of the best people" he knows. She was his first taekwondo instructor and her son, Robby, helped him, too.
That isn't just limited to the ins and outs of the martial art but also coming to terms with life skills, such as taking wins and losses in one's stride.
It's the precision and accuracy of the sport that appeals to him.
"It doesn't necessarily have to be hard but if you're accurate you'll get the point so what I like about it is all the thinking you have to do to make it work because it's kind of like an art."
A former Hastings Boys' High School student, who switched to the Eastern Institute of Technology in Taradale to pursue a course in mechanical engineering, he finds taekwondo instils the value of self-control.
Grandmother Camille Pruckmuller and coach/son Robby Pruckmuller (left) watch grandson Hendrix Pruckmuller-Brown execute a kick. Photo/Duncan Brown
A "mischievous little fellow" growing up, he doesn't feel the urge to stray and sees benefits in that into adulthood.
That tends to rub off on Bay City members whose ages range from 3 to 60.
To make sure the team were prepared last weekend, they gave up 10 Sundays leading up to the championship.
The two-hour sessions sometimes entailed running up Te Mata Peak and the Lowry Stand at the HB Racecourse to boost fitness on top of their weekly six-hour training.
"You get a bit knackered but, honestly, I could fight at least another three rounds with those guys," he says the first dan blackbelt.
Competing in their weight, belt and age groups, Dawson Howarth was a first timer who entered two divisions.
Howarth clinched silver against a taller Fiji exponent but the 13-year-old won gold in his own weight and age group.
Newbies Briarne Taylor, 12, Jacob Mawson, 11, Ataahua Te Aho, 10, Harlem Pruckmuller-Brown, 10, Ryan Wu, 9, and Oscar Green, 7, also won gold medals.
In a league of her own, Lorraine Bainbridge, 34, the only special needs blackbelt competitor, took on able-bodied females in both poomse and fighting to claim gold and silver, respectively.
"Every match was exciting and my students all put 100 per cent into it," says Camille Pruckmuller, revealing the rest of the team only lost by a point or two.
She says the team are new and young but are training in the lead up to the Gold Coast in May next year.
On December 15, six members will attend a blackbelt grading session with Grand Master Oh of South Korea, an eighth dan blackbelt.
It will mark the biggest blackbelt grading for the club since it opened its doors in 2004.
