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ciroccojSo, the post I wrote the other day about the tournament. Probably only of interest to myself and possibly other TKD geeks ;)
I wasn't nervous about today's tournament for myself, but I was desperately hoping the boys would do well. Especially Justin. What with being the little brother - especially the little brother of a kid as effortlessly bright as Daniel - and being far less popular than Daniel and what with his memory issues, Justin has a real problem with self esteem. And he had worked so hard in tournament training. And... I just wanted him to win.
He lost quite badly in patterns, but then his first sparring match, he won, against a really good opponent. And the first thing he did after they were done was tell the other kid, "WOW! You were REALLY good!"
I went off to see Daniel's age group, secure in the knowledge that at least Justin had had one good experience and if he didn't win again, he'd be OK. His age group is one of the biggest (10-15 kids) so he knows medals are hardly guaranteed.
Went back a little while later, just in time to catch the last twenty seconds or so of Justin's second sparring match.
He was crying. I went up to Chris, who was filming, and asked him what was going on. "Justin's getting pummelled," he said. The match ended and Justin was crying so hard they had to pause before announcing the winner (it was the other kid, by unanimous vote). Chris was quietly livid. Not because Justin had lost or because Justin was crying, but because he was crying with pain from being hit repeatedly, hard, in the face, and with anger because the ref only gave the other kid two warnings for excessive force. Which would have been in direct contravention of the stated strict "no-contact" rule anyway, but was made worse by the fact that the same ref had repeatedly told Justin "NO contact WHATSOEVER" during our last sparring practice last week.
Justin knows how to fight. He knows how to take a hit. It's supposed to be no contact, but we all know contact is going to happen, and refs usually let it go unless it's excessive. This kid was pummeling Justin in the face and nobody was doing anything about it. I think Justin would have been OK with not earning any medals, if he hadn't been so upset over doing exactly what he was told to do - and then losing because someone else was allowed to break the rules.
Anyway. In the end, he got bronze for sparring, so I guess even after being beaten in the second round, he'd amassed enough points to get a medal. Still. Not cool. Chris talked to the head of our dojang, because the same thing was happening in other rings.
I mean, we expect to get hurt at TKD. We accept it. We don't expect to get completely confused.
Daniel also lost, badly, in both pattern and sparring, but apparently also amassed enough points in both to still get silver in sparring and bronze in patterns. Had a bit of a semi-contained hissy fit when he thought he'd been totally obliterated. Must work on the Don't Be A Sore Loser aspect of training for next time :(
I did the best I've ever done in my pattern. I had the moves down cold, I had the sine wave thingy going, I had the crisp little snap at the end, I had the stances, the rhythm, the focus, the absolutely everything, OMG, best pattern of my life, except for the part where I lost completely to my opponent :D :D :D
Still, my performance earned me a bronze! And gosh does that ever sound impressive if I leave out the part where my division only had four competitors, so I was third out of four. ::ahem::
Got pummeled in sparring, despite some very helpful coaching from the black belts. "Kick! Get some room! Kick!" they would call out, and I'd think, "Dude, I so totally would if I could, but I'm thirty-nine and let's face it, this leg is just not leaving the ground again today..."
Ended up with a silver. Out of three competitors. Hey, better than bronze ;)
Chris did awesome. Bronze pattern, and gold in sparring. In a decent-sized group! Huzzah!!
So, that's our medal tally. And we're all feeling pretty good about it, in the end. The boys were pretty much OK by the time we left the tournament, and their OK-ness was solidified in part during the banquet when they talked to one of the black belts who hadn't seen their matches.
"How'd you do?" he asked.
"I thought I did really well in my pattern, but then I got completely beaten when they voted!" said Daniel. "All the votes went to the my opponent!"
"Ah, just like me, then!" said the black belt cheerfully. "Completely blown out of the water!"
"Really?"
"Yeah - I expected it, though, seeing as I forgot three of my moves!"
The boys giggled at the idea of this guy, who teaches them all about concentration and precision and who, just the day before, had gotten onto the Canadian team for the World Championships in Korea 2011, totally losing his focus and blowing his pattern.
That's one of the things we love about our dojang: the black belts can be really stern and demanding, but they're the first to admit that everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes all your hard work comes to nothing, and that's just the way life is. You learn from it, make fun of yourself if you can, then move on.
Though I'm not sure how well one of our other black belts was doing with that this weekend. What with going in to compete for a spot on the Canadian team and ending up in the hospital with a broken jaw instead. And no sparring for six months. That's gotta be disappointing :(
I wasn't nervous about today's tournament for myself, but I was desperately hoping the boys would do well. Especially Justin. What with being the little brother - especially the little brother of a kid as effortlessly bright as Daniel - and being far less popular than Daniel and what with his memory issues, Justin has a real problem with self esteem. And he had worked so hard in tournament training. And... I just wanted him to win.
He lost quite badly in patterns, but then his first sparring match, he won, against a really good opponent. And the first thing he did after they were done was tell the other kid, "WOW! You were REALLY good!"
I went off to see Daniel's age group, secure in the knowledge that at least Justin had had one good experience and if he didn't win again, he'd be OK. His age group is one of the biggest (10-15 kids) so he knows medals are hardly guaranteed.
Went back a little while later, just in time to catch the last twenty seconds or so of Justin's second sparring match.
He was crying. I went up to Chris, who was filming, and asked him what was going on. "Justin's getting pummelled," he said. The match ended and Justin was crying so hard they had to pause before announcing the winner (it was the other kid, by unanimous vote). Chris was quietly livid. Not because Justin had lost or because Justin was crying, but because he was crying with pain from being hit repeatedly, hard, in the face, and with anger because the ref only gave the other kid two warnings for excessive force. Which would have been in direct contravention of the stated strict "no-contact" rule anyway, but was made worse by the fact that the same ref had repeatedly told Justin "NO contact WHATSOEVER" during our last sparring practice last week.
Justin knows how to fight. He knows how to take a hit. It's supposed to be no contact, but we all know contact is going to happen, and refs usually let it go unless it's excessive. This kid was pummeling Justin in the face and nobody was doing anything about it. I think Justin would have been OK with not earning any medals, if he hadn't been so upset over doing exactly what he was told to do - and then losing because someone else was allowed to break the rules.
Anyway. In the end, he got bronze for sparring, so I guess even after being beaten in the second round, he'd amassed enough points to get a medal. Still. Not cool. Chris talked to the head of our dojang, because the same thing was happening in other rings.
I mean, we expect to get hurt at TKD. We accept it. We don't expect to get completely confused.
Daniel also lost, badly, in both pattern and sparring, but apparently also amassed enough points in both to still get silver in sparring and bronze in patterns. Had a bit of a semi-contained hissy fit when he thought he'd been totally obliterated. Must work on the Don't Be A Sore Loser aspect of training for next time :(
I did the best I've ever done in my pattern. I had the moves down cold, I had the sine wave thingy going, I had the crisp little snap at the end, I had the stances, the rhythm, the focus, the absolutely everything, OMG, best pattern of my life, except for the part where I lost completely to my opponent :D :D :D
Still, my performance earned me a bronze! And gosh does that ever sound impressive if I leave out the part where my division only had four competitors, so I was third out of four. ::ahem::
Got pummeled in sparring, despite some very helpful coaching from the black belts. "Kick! Get some room! Kick!" they would call out, and I'd think, "Dude, I so totally would if I could, but I'm thirty-nine and let's face it, this leg is just not leaving the ground again today..."
Ended up with a silver. Out of three competitors. Hey, better than bronze ;)
Chris did awesome. Bronze pattern, and gold in sparring. In a decent-sized group! Huzzah!!
So, that's our medal tally. And we're all feeling pretty good about it, in the end. The boys were pretty much OK by the time we left the tournament, and their OK-ness was solidified in part during the banquet when they talked to one of the black belts who hadn't seen their matches.
"How'd you do?" he asked.
"I thought I did really well in my pattern, but then I got completely beaten when they voted!" said Daniel. "All the votes went to the my opponent!"
"Ah, just like me, then!" said the black belt cheerfully. "Completely blown out of the water!"
"Really?"
"Yeah - I expected it, though, seeing as I forgot three of my moves!"
The boys giggled at the idea of this guy, who teaches them all about concentration and precision and who, just the day before, had gotten onto the Canadian team for the World Championships in Korea 2011, totally losing his focus and blowing his pattern.
That's one of the things we love about our dojang: the black belts can be really stern and demanding, but they're the first to admit that everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes all your hard work comes to nothing, and that's just the way life is. You learn from it, make fun of yourself if you can, then move on.
Though I'm not sure how well one of our other black belts was doing with that this weekend. What with going in to compete for a spot on the Canadian team and ending up in the hospital with a broken jaw instead. And no sparring for six months. That's gotta be disappointing :(
