The UAE Karate and Taekwondo Association (UAE KTA) will be organising a four-day seminar on 'Poomsae' (forms) just after the UAE International Taekwondo Championships, to be held in Dubai next month.

Though organised to mark the UAE's hosting of such a prestigious international competition for the first time, the seminar will be conducted by an experts' panel from the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF).

The competition is scheduled to be held from July 19-22, while the seminar is timed from July 24-27. Poomsae, or the forms of Taekwondo, is the established pattern focused on skills, while corresponds to a sort of training method in the sport.

The inaugural seminar for Poomsae was organised by the WTF in South Korea last year.

"This seminar will be good for the UAE. On the one hand, we have the competition and on the other, we will have an educative process to further strengthen the sport at the grassroots level," noted Essa Saif, general secretary of the UAE KTA.

The UAE will be fielding two teams for the competition - an eight-member men's team and a four-member team of girls led by Sheikha Maitha bint Mohammed Al Maktoum.

The men will be taking part as two separate entities - one comprising of only UAE nationals and the other of expatriates.

The men are training at the UAE KTA premises in Deira, under the watchful eye of their Korean coach Kim Ki Song, while the girls are having their training camp at the Zabeel Club hall.

"We are on schedule as far as the planning for the competition goes," Saif said.

France and the US are the other countries who have voiced their interest in participating. "It's only a matter of time as France and the US have promised to confirm their participation at the earliest," Saif stated.

Countries like Korea, Belgium, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Spain have already confirmed their participation at the four-day event.

Meanwhile, a group of sponsors visited the venue of the competition last week.

The Dubai Sports Channel has also agreed to telecast the event live next month.