Liam had another tournament for Tae Kwon-Do this morning and he did fantastically well. I'm tired so this is going to be a bit of a truncated post in terms of narrative but you can get the idea from the pictures.
Liam competed in patterns, sparring, and breaking. He did not place in pattern, took 1st in his sparring group, and 3rd in his breaking group. Competition was tougher this time around. He's now in a group of kids that are more practiced and to win you have to be really on point. I wasn't too surprised he didn't place in pattern. He was by no means the worst in his ring, but there were other kids who were note perfect.
But that's OK with me because of two things. 1) He got up and he did his best and 2) I love watching him do it at all. No matter where he places I'm proud of him.
When it came time for sparring I was practically bursting watching him. Sparring has never been Liam's strong suit - he does pretty well but he does tend to back down to more aggressive kids. I don't know what exactly changed his mind today (not placing in pattern?) but he just refused to back down. He blocked his opponents and went on the offensive from the word 'spar.' That earned him the first place trophy in his group. It's nearly as tall as he is.
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| Liam on the right, blocking the kick |
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| Liam on the right, blocking the punch and landing a point |
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| First place! |
For breaking, he broke three boards individually (some kids were stacking boards; Liam chose not to) with various foot strikes. I saw several much more complicated breaks in his group but those kids didn't place because they either failed to break the board or it took them multiple tries. Liam had to try twice on one board but otherwise broke on the first strike. This was enough to land him in third.
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| An extremely proud Spud |
All in all it was a really great day for him. There was a lot of waiting and waiting and waiting (and more waiting) involved but he sat through it all without a single complaint. He did his best, tried his hardest, and showed off his skills. I couldn't be prouder.
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| Liam and his trophies |
*applauds*
ReplyDeleteI don't think "yay" is a strong enough word for what I feel for what your son has accomplished.
Perhaps "totally blown away by his progress and excited to see what the future holds for him as he moves through the classes and gets even better at this and more than likely gets to a level at which they're teaching him things that kids his age don't even start learning until a few more years go by because he's just that good" will suffice.
You go, Liam. We're all cheering for you!
He told me in the car the other day that he doesn't understand why kids quit once they reach black belt. He said "I want to become a Master." Hearing my baby set a goal like that - magic!
DeleteHe'll end up in movies doing stuntwork if he keeps this going. Or on Ninja Warrior.
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