A Proud Dad…

Yesterday Sammy had a major taekwondo tournament, the first since switching dojangs last spring. Large enough that there were students from all over WA, from OR, ID, MT, and even Canada.

I was both nervous and excited for him, as he was himself. He had decided to not only do poomse (forms, which are by far his favorite and best), but also sparring. He’s one test away from black belt now, so the competition is much harder, and he hadn’t yet done sparring in a tournament.

Poomse were first, and in the first round, he won unanimously. Second round, though, was disappointing, not so much by his performance, which to me seemed on par with the first round, but because it’s unfortunately so subjective. And in the second round he lost, also unanimously, which I didn’t agree with. He ended up taking bronze, and i could tell he was disappointed, even a bit upset by that, and I feared how that would affect him in sparring.

As it turns out, perhaps it helped him focus more. In the first match of sparring, he won handily, 5-1. Second match was bizarre–first round they were both warned about holding, but apparently the opponent did again after that and got a 1/2 point deduction. But the round ended 0-0. Second round was again very close, but no solid-enough kicks landed to get points (in electronic scoring there are 3 judges at various locations along the ring, and the scoring must agree between 2 of the 3 judges to count). So the second round also ended 0-0. First time I’d ever seen that.

So they went to a sudden death round…first point wins (though I didn’t know that at the time). So after 2 rounds of no scoring, Sammy comes out and scores to win the match, and with it, the gold medal.

A great ending, a happy kid, and a proud dad…

Yesterday Sammy had a major taekwondo tournament, the first since switching dojangs last spring. Large enough that there were students from all over WA, from OR, ID, MT, and even Canada. I was both nervous and excited for him, as he was himself. He had decided to not only do poomse (forms, which are by…