Noah Smith, 17, was about 6 years old when he started training in the sport and since then had represented Southland and New Zealand in national and international competitions.
These included the World Taekwondo Junior Championships in South Korea last September.
However, last month, he was invited to something completely new — he was one of two New Zealand representatives at the inaugural World Taekwondo Virtual Championships in Singapore.
More than 120 athletes from 23 countries were part of the event which aimed to showcase the sport’s innovation, diversity and inclusiveness.
"It was great. I made lots of friends and got to have a good go in the system, a good run — won a couple of fights, which was good.
"It was definitely cool, and a pleasure to represent New Zealand and be the only male doing that."
While he felt it was an honour to be part of such an event, Smith said the experience was completely new to him.
Instead of a real opponent, he had a video game character to fight against which copied the opponent’s movement, he said.
"It’s very, very different — it is not like taekwondo. It’s like a completely different sport.
"Different kicks are used, different movements and eliminates the height advantage and weight advantage. It’s good especially as a shorter fighter to have a real chance against the tall people in the division."
Used to practising every day for the competitions, he said the training this time was also very different.
"So for the VR training, you kind of just really want to work on the movement aspect of it, where in the normal [taekwondo] you train the top and low, it’s kind of just defensive and different kicks — completely different kicks. It’s kind of crazy."
Smith went to the competition along with Jamie Carpenter, of Tauranga.
He said while it was an "incredible experience", he still preferred the traditional taekwondo and he would continue to be focusing on improving and getting international experience to reach his goal of representing the country at an Olympic Games.
"I definitely will stick to the traditional taekwondo, but if another tournament like this comes up, I won’t say no."
