Sunday 13th February was the first of 2022’s tournaments that we had scheduled in the calendar.  It took place at Perdiswell Leisure centre in Worcester. 

It was a slightly smaller group than the last time but was great to take a some students that had never entered before.  

It was an ace day, really well organised with great refereeing and judging being done. 

To say I was proud of all the students that took place is an understatement. They all did brilliantly whether they took home  a medal or not.  There was some great competitors on the mats.

Our first student entering was young Chloe who chose to enter the forms. Again due to not many competitors doing Chinese forms, she was put into the Korean category meaning she was up against mainly Tae Kwon Do entries.  There was 6 people in her division and nearly all of them were Black belts and a lot older than Chloe.  

Chloe was extremely nervous before entering and needed a lot of reassurance before she was due to do her stuff.  At one point I thought she was going to pull out.  I do like to be proved wrong though and to be honest, I should of known better as Chloe is not someone that shy’s away from challenges. 

Once her name was called, she pulled herself together and went straight to work. 

Chloe has been practicing Charp Choi all week before and after lessons, working on performing it nice and slow but with sharp techniques and it really showed.  Since her last time entering, you could really see the improvements. 

Unfortunately the other competitors had a lot more experience than her and stole the winning spots but I was so proud of the way she handled herself.  This was also reinforced by another coach from another club coming up to her and said that she did awesome and he thought that her form was one of the best there. 

Next up was Emma  and Tristian for their points category. This was first time Tristian had entered a competition and really impressed me with his attitude and calmness leading up to the bout. Emma, again took everything in her stride.  She lost her bout but you could see some really good improvements since her since last time, and she actually listened to me shouting from the mats.  

Tristian also lost but did extremely well for his first go. He also had a go in the continuous which happened almost straight after his points category.  Again, he got stuck in and lost to someone with a lot more experience than himself. 

Despite Tristan losing, he still came away with a silver in the continuous as there was only 2 in the category. Tristian was a bit upset as he didn’t win to get the medal but I let him know that he deserved it for stepping onto the mats in the first place and fought like a true champion. 

Owen was next up in his Points category who was on fire and winning 3 nil in the first few seconds.  4-3 up until almost the final bell when his opponent managed to get a win with 6-4. His opponent was a good kicker and as this was Owen’s only 2nd time at competing, can hold his head up high. As I kept saying, its all experience and most of the competitors on the day had a lot more competitions under their belt. 

The last of our kids to enter was Oscar who came away with Silver in his first ever competition he entered last year.  This time, he was as confident as ever and really wanted to win the Gold Trophy. 

His first fight was in the points where he fought brilliantly and lost in the quarter finals which took him home the Bronze medal. 

Again, there was only the 2 entries in his Continuous bout but it was up against a great kicker that beat him in his points fight.  As a true champ he got stuck in straight away and out boxed his opponent and came away with his gold trophy that he was so determined to win. Not bad for  only his 2nd time competing eh. 

Next up was one of our new adult members, Ronan. 

Ronan is always practicing and puts everything into his training, he has excellent kicking and punching skills on the pads but has never tested it out in a real comp. He was quite nervous on how he would cope with it.

He was also up against it as he was in the over 2 years experience category due to not being enough in the under 2 years and to top it off, he had over estimated his height, meaning that he was the smallest person there. Looking across at his opponents, all were high grades and had legs up to their arm pits.

He didn’t have to worry thou as he started off on the points, he beat his first opponent easily. He lost his 2nd but still earned himself the silver medal. 

His continuous bout went great too, beating his first opponent and losing in the quarter finals against a much bigger and stronger opponent which earned him a bronze medal. 

Ronan fought brilliantly against the odds and will go onto win many more in the future. 

Our last competitor to fight was George who was returning back to competition after a long break. He is new to our club but has trained in Tae Kwon Do for a few years before coming to us. 

George entered the points category to ease himself back into it and he did not disappoint.  His opponent was quite a bit taller than him but George took the fight to him and was winning until the last second and his opponent just pipped the post to win Gold leaving George with the silver but fair play, he impressed me with his grit and determination. 

Well that was that, I know I’m biased and sound like I’m always proud of how my students do but to step up on the mats in front of your team mates and family takes guts and courage and all them fought brilliantly. You could really see the improvements in the ones that entered the last one. 

I would just like to say a massive thank you to Deadly Dicker for going up and beyond on the organisation of this event.

Looking forward to the next one now. 

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