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.
Liam on the right, blocking the kick
Liam on the right, blocking the punch and landing a point
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.
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.
Liam has been a student of Tae Kwon-Do for a year and a half now. In that time he has gone from a clumsy, awkward white belt to a blue belt with control, balance, and a certain grace. I am immensely proud of all he has accomplished through his hard work.
Today he participated in his very first tournament and he did so very well. This was an inter-school tournament that included all 9 of Grandmaster Kong's dojangs. So, there were a lot of kids there that Liam has never met, never sparred against, never seen their skills.
This was only half of the gym full of kids
Liam competed in patterns and sparring. They also had categories for breaking but as he hasn't done that yet, we didn't sign him up for that.
First, he did his pattern. This is the same pattern he will do next month when he tests for his red stripe. I apologize for the camera work - we were in the bleachers with lots of other people.
When all of the kids in his group had demonstrated their pattern and been scored, they awarded medals and certificates. They gave a gold, silver, and bronze medal to the top three kids and certificates to the others.
Liam won a bronze!
Look! I got a medal!
These aren't chintzy participation medals either. They're heavy and large with emblems on both sides.
After the patterns were finished, they moved onto sparring. Liam sparred twice, losing the first bout but winning the second. The bout he won was against a red belt.
Liam is on the right.
Liam on the left, facing the camera.
And he medaled again! He won another bronze for his sparring.
Getting his medal (Liam second from left)
Grinning from ear to ear
He's worked very hard over the last year and a half and this is such a marvelous validation of all that hard work. He earned those medals. We couldn't be more proud of him. More importantly, he couldn't be more proud of himself.
