Tae Kwon Do tournament

We had our regional TaeKwonDo tournament this past Saturday.  It turned out to be an all day affair. Too many people for the space.  We needed at least 10 rings, and we only had 7.  So, the process became slow. New schools have joined our regional tournaments.  These "sister schools" are more agressive and hit and kick hard. You have different versions of TaeKwonDo, but the basics are the same. Korean styles with a lot of foot techniques.

I've spent most of the day judging.  I was assigned one of the kids group, which was nice.  I could hear the teenagers having at each other hard around our ring.  Yes, some people got hurt, which was unfortunate.  But, nothing serious. We show a lot of control in our schools. But if some people are not showing control at tournaments, then of course, everybody start kicking and hitting hard.  After the kids did their forms and sparring (fighting), some of the parents went home with their precious little ones.  That gave us more space.  We pretty much cleared the floor for the adult men black belt competitions.  These are the ones you want to watch.

Three divisions for all black belt men. Yes, you have to be a black belt for these divisions. The women had their own black belt divisions but do not compete for the grand championship.  That's not fair because some of the women are pretty good.  Each division has 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies.  The 1st place winners of the divisions meet for the Grand Championship.  All three winners came from Georgia and a Macon student won. A good friend of mine, Austin McWaters. We train together.  I usually loose fights with him.  He is good, and super nice.  Austin is fast and young, just 19 years old.  He started very early. You can see the people in my division on these two pictures.  Too many people fighting for just 3 trophies.

Sometimes, people forget that these are mainly plastic trophies!  Overall, there was good sportmanship and everyone was pretty much pleasant and friendly, except when the fights were going on.  Then you have no friends.  

 I came home with a 3rd place trophy.  I'm happy.  If I'm going to compete again in these tournaments, I will really have to train better.  It's getting more and more competitive.