Tournament!

I just finished my grad school application--put it in the mailbox, can't touch it again finished. In light of my current stage of freaking out, I've decided to blog.


The tournament on Saturday was a lot of fun! It's been three years since I've been to a taekwondo tournament, and I'd forgotten just how much I love them. I think that (for me) they're even more fun as a black belt, because I get to be so much more involved. You know me--I'm an organizer. And nothing needs organization more desperately than your average taekwondo tournament.

Our contingent from Beyond Sports arrived just before 9, just in time for an impromptu judging/refereeing training. We HOPE that most black belts know how to judge the normal TKD events, but it's not always the case. Anyway, then it was off to compete in forms. The black belts go first in forms so they then can judge the color belts. For similar reasons, they usually spar last. It also works as an interest grabber/event climax, respectively.

Anyway, my competition in forms went really well. There were three in my division. The first girl was obviously brand new both to her black belt and to Koryo, her form. The second was a guy who performed Keumgang, the second degree form, and he did fairly well, but nothing extraordinary. I also performed Keumgang, which I learned about a month ago and fell in love with. There were several small goofs on my part, but overall I think I performed well. I received the gold medal!

Then it was off to another ring to judge color belt forms. That went by quickly and without much excitement. However, I was then asked to help judge demo teams. I'd never done this before, and it was exciting. Demo teams are an interesting, multi-headed, and variable creature. Three schools competed, and each performance was very different. There are a lot of unison techniques, and the better the unison, the better the score. But I learned that live music definitely adds to the atmosphere! Very fun.

Next came sparring. I started as the center referee in one of the rings. In Olympic TKD, you have three corner judges who are responsible for scoring points. You also have a center referee, who is responsible for ensuring that all the rules are obeyed, and dispensing point deductions when they are not. I've been a corner judge before, but this was my first time as a center ref at a tournament. It was very interesting! Definitely keeps you on your toes.

I had to opportunity to cheer for most of my teammates during their fights. They all did quite well, with few losses, and even those were close calls. Mine was among the very last sparring matches.

My opponent was a girl named Liz from Logan. She is a front-legged kicker, which isn't something you see in Olympic style very often. About thirty seconds into the match, she kicked me across the face with a front leg hook kick. We had to stop the match (kyeshi=medical time-out) so I could recover. But when the ref asked if I wanted to continue I said, "Yes sir, let's go."

Sparring is as much a psychological game as a physical one. When someone hurts you, you have to get right back up and get them back, otherwise they get the upper hand. Coming back in, I attacked--and pretty much chased her out of the ring and onto her butt. This response, I've seen watching other matches, can sometimes be taken for anger--like you're mad that they kicked you. In my case, that's rarely the case. But sometimes a little acting and lots of ferocious kiyaping can win the match.

Anyway, we continued on into our second round. I kept getting called for pushing. We can only punch with one hand; if you get caught punching with both hands, you can receive a half-point deduction for pushing. I really need to train this habit out of myself, because it was costing me points that I didn't have to give. Her style of kicking was frustrating, because I couldn't use my usual compliment of counters against her. We were down to the wire, and from the screams I could tell it was very close. She came in once again with that front leg kick, and I turned to back kick--and kicked her square under the chin.

Time was up, so they called the match in my favor, but I didn't feel triumphant, I felt rather guilty. She was off having an asthma attack. *sigh* I don't like to totally demoralize my opponents--and I've done that more than once--because I like sparring, and I want everybody to like sparring. Anyway, they took her off to the medic, and my coach soon dragged me off that way too to make sure I was okay after the head kick.

From the medic's impromptu station, we watched as the breaking competition got under way, and I had a chance to talk to Liz for a few minutes. Turns out that she was coming back from a 3-year hiatus from TKD--this week. !!! I can't even imagine. I mean, I was gone for almost that long, but I've been back and reconditioning since May. I can't imagine coming back and that same week fighting in a tournament--her FIRST EVER Olympic-style tournament. Foolish, foolish coaches. Anyway, we talked for a few minutes, and I don't know if it made her feel any better, but at least I felt like less of a monster!

Our team reconvened at TGI Friday's for a celebratory meal, and lots of pictures. We were able to discuss things that we did well, things we need to work on, but mostly we just enjoyed eating for pretty much the first time all day, and enjoying each others' company. I loved the camaraderie, and I hope that we can encourage more of our students to come out to tournaments. They're a blast!