the Kukkiwon Taekwondo Demonstration Team.

The amount of height they can get, it is nuts.

It's like he's going up two flights of stairs in two steps.

Dan: You see the powder from the wood.

It's a double spin. Oh!

Gav: Just walking through the air.

- That is madness. - Dan: What?

Oh, man.

Well, I feel incredibly inadequate.

- I know, right? - I can't do any of that.

Just huge impressive jumps everywhere.

Some of those jumps, sort of springing off each other,

I think went higher than I've ever been on a ladder.

Bloody impressive. Even some of the intros

and sort of interstitial moments were really impressive to watch.

Yeah, their, like, show introduction piece.

( shouting )

I thought it was so good watching it

that we actually filmed it in slo-mo as well.

They're so incredibly in sync the entire time.

Yeah, to find out more about taekwondo

and the history of the Kukkiwon team,

we had a few questions for their head coach.

We're here with Master Park,

who is the head coach of the Kukkiwon team.

- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.

Thanks very much. So, um, do people ever

get hit in the face accidentally

when they're holding the boards?

( speaking Korean )

A lot.

( speaking Korean )

Kim: As you saw, kicks are really strong.

So sometimes if a kicker hits a holder's hand,

sometimes the holder's hand is broken.

Or because when the board is broken,

there's all this debris, like, everywhere--

so sometimes it can cause deep cuts on your skin.

I'm glad I wasn't holding one of those,

because I was thinking I could probably try that.

But then I saw the first demonstration.

- I was like, "Nope!" - ( shouting )

- Whoa. - ( shouting )

Approximately how long does it take

to get good enough to be on this team?

( speaking Korean )

Kim: Most of the members start their training

when they are in elementary school.

It requires about seven to eight years

of training to join the team.

And we select who will be the demonstrators

- through an annual audition. - Seven to eight years just to--

And that's just to be good enough to get on the team.

And then you have to audition

- to be able to perform on the team. - Blimey.

So how long does it take to become a black belt?

( speaking Korean )

Kim: So to get a black belt initially,

it requires about one to two years of training.

But to join the team, you need to train

for at least 15 years, because after 15 years

you can get the fifth-rank black belt.

So you need the fifth-rank black belt to even be on the team?

- Yes. - 15 years.

Seriously? So, you can get a black belt,

which I always thought was like, "Oh, he's a black belt,"

in, like, two years, like it's nothing.

Then 15 years later, you might get a shot at being on the team.

"I just got my black belt." Child's play.

Yeah, good luck, pal.

Wow. Does it hurt to kick the boards?

- ( speaking Korean ) - Yes.

During your training, you get to have a thicker skin,

so it gets less painful over time.

It's still painful, but again, through your training,

you know how to absorb the heat and endure the pain.

So how many hours per week do you train?

( speaking Korean )

Kim: So, our Kukkiwon team

usually trains about 10 hours a day--

six hours of physical training

and four hours of creating new moves.

You mentioned before about how people start in elementary school.

Could I have started in elementary school and be this good?

Or does it require certain physical aspects and mental strengths?

( speaking Korean )

Kim: Starting early is not enough.

At some point you have to get professional training.

But at the same time, you need mental skills

such as endurance, patience, and challenging yourself.

So if you are patient enough,

I guess you could be as good as our demonstrators.

- No discipline. - No chance.

So, what makes the Kukkiwon team so special?

( speaking Korean )

Kim: What makes it special is two reasons.

First is we are the first demonstration team that was established,

and we've set up this system.

There are many demonstration teams in Korea,

but the way that the team is recognized

or what kind of moves should be included in our performance,

all this are things that we first started.

Then the other reason that we're so special

is that we are a government-funded agency.

We travel to 20 countries across the world every year

to perform and to promote taekwondo and Korea.

Dan: Wow. That's a full-on professional OG team.

Yeah, and for the good of the industry as well.

- Yeah, exactly. - Love it.

Thanks very much, Master Park,

for shattering my dreams of becoming a taekwondo performer.

It's just not going to happen for you.

Not going to happen, is it?

Well, that was good. Back to you, Gav and Dan.

Thanks, us. That was very interesting.

It's very interesting doing an interview with a translator,

- and how quickly she could relay information. - It's very impressive.

I was very impressed by that alone.

He said how hard it was and how much time it takes.

- Yeah. - I wanted to give it a go.

But, really, I just wanted to do a training montage.

I could tell. You didn't actually want

to accomplish anything long term.

Don't want to learn any skills.

- Just wanted the montage. - Just wanted the montage.

Dan, do you want to show me your montage?

- Yes, I do. - Okay, go on then.

( synth music playing )

( panting )

( shouts )

( muttering )

( shouts )

Oh, wait. I told them not to put that in!

( shouts )

( ding )

Don't cringe.

( cheers and applause )

Wow. Good montage, Dan.

- Learned some skills. - Very inspiring.

Why don't we put those skills to use?

I've got some boards that we can break.

- Okay. - Yeah.

Already done this, so, no worries.

You're a professional at this, so I'll give it a go.

Why don't you hold out this board,

and I'll punch through it.

- Okay. - Yeah.

You sure? You got to give it a bit of power.

Yeah, just a little bit of power?

- Yeah, yeah. - Just like--

- Yeah, that's good. - Yeah.

Obviously, it's quite easy to...

Simple. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

...to break.

I'll just take that off of you.

- All right, your turn. - Okay.

All right.

- Yep. - You ready?

- Whenever you're ready. - Okay.

- Aah! - Ooh.

Didn't quite get through there.

Give me that board. That's never going to break.

Well, what happened was I bought a plank, but there was only one.

So I had to get a different kind of plank for yours.

- And-- a little bit harder. - This one's solid.

( music playing )

Ooh, nasty punch, that one, wasn't it?

Idiot. Thanks for that, yeah.

So, I thought it would be good next

to test to see if you could take a kick.

So I challenged you to find a taekwondo expert who could kick you.

I did find an expert. A local expert.

- Yeah. - Um, Danica?

Lovely to meet you. This is our taekwondo expert.