This was Joseph’s third Tae Kwon Do tournament. This time around, he decided to do weapons (staff), sparring and board break.
The girls accompanyed us today …
and even Emily’s little giraffe was watching…
Joseph was initially placed into a group of lower ranked belts with girls. But, the father of one of the kids at an equivalent rank — whom Joseph has competed against previously and is the same age as — and was in a group of only boys, asked why we weren’t in that group. Our response was that we didn’t know and turns out it didn’t really matter, so he got to move groups.
So, from this group…
to this group…
Weapons was the first event. Joseph did his staff form from last tournament. He did a great job, but it wasn’t as “flashy” as two other kids — nor did it have as many “yells” in it, so he placed 3rd. He did a great job though!
Sparring was next. Joseph lost in the first round unfortunately. We have the entire thing on tape, so I may post some video of it. Ultimately what happened is that he was winning and each time the kid would come after him, he would ONLY block and not kick or punch for points. But if Joseph went after the kid, he’d get the point. He just wasn’t aggresive enough. Next time…
After the main competition was completed the kids took their pictures with their instructor. Here is Mr. Changho with Joseph.
The kids were posing too… that’s Joseph’s friend from school, Cam on the right, and Garrett, another student from the Tae Kwon Do school on the left.
We were waiting (and waiting and waiting and waiting) for the board breaks afterward.
Then, they (they being the powers that be in running the event) had the black belts go first with board breaks which meant we were going to wait even longer. They offered, however, to have Joseph go with that group. But, because that group didn’t have safety gear on their hands or feet, Joseph didn’t want to wear his and got into a funk. So, despite really wanting to, we nixed board breaks this time. He was VERY upset, but he’s got to learn consequences to his actions. Bad attitude = no play! Next time then!
So, we made our way out of the event (with Joseph in a snit asking to give him “just one more chance!”) 🙂
Until next time ya’ll!
