This weekend our school hosted a friendship tournament with over 120 competitors and it was so fun to see all the young kids who have never competed before. Since I wasn’t competing I spent the day either judging or coaching and it was so rewarding. So much focus is always placed on the Black Belts in competition that it was great to have a tournament where the Coloured Belts were the center of the attention. Hopefully it will encourage them for future tournaments so it’s not always about the ‘Black Belts’. The earlier these guys feel comfortable competing the better they’ll do later on and the bigger Taekwon-do will grow.
I’ll never forget my first tournament when I was 5 years old. I was so excited but I was also a bit overwhelmed with all the people and ‘rules’ that I really wasn’t aware of. Fortunately for me there were a few older teenagers that took care of me and kept it fun. That is hopefully what I can do for these kids.
I met Cameron a few years ago at another dojang and we have been following each others progress along the way. I was so proud that he competed. Competing takes a lot of courage so I think it’s great when people will test themselves like that. Great job. I also would like to thank Cameron and his family for all their positive emails to me while I was training and competing for the Nationals. It’s so nice to have support like that!
Standing on the podium for my very first time felt just as special to me then as it was to standing on the podium last week as the Jr. National Champion in Patterns!
Now it’s my turn to be one of ‘those teenagers’ to help the coloured belts. I got a rush when I was coaching them. It was rewarding when I saw them do so well. It’s cool to think that someday one of these little kids will be helping out someone at their first tournament in a few years.
The thing I love about TKD is that it’s a lifetime sport. At the tournaments I ran into instructors and fellow competitors that I’ve known for 11 years. When you meet up again it’s as if no time has passed and you just pick up from where you left off. It’s the common bond.
I was asked to coach three sparring teams: Junior Girls, Junior Boys and the Men’s team. I was so proud of them to be able to handle all the crowd cheering them on. Everyone was going crazy. The kids really stepped up to the plate and did their very best. Congrats to my three sparring teams!
As usual my mom took hundreds of pictures of the day.
Click on on the picture below to open a new page with all the images. A new page will open up and you can move your mouse to the top of EACH picture to select some additional viewing options. To quickly scroll through all 500 images move your cursor to the bottom of a picture and you’ll see a slider.
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Enjoy!