One of our students competed at his second tournament yesterday, and his first sparring division!
I’d like to highlight a few lessons learned from the 2026 Bill Auvenshine Memorial Tournament at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Illinois!
3rd Place In Forms
Weston competed in forms for the second time, first competing last July at the Midwest Cup.
This time, he competed for the first time with our orange belt form, Pinan Shodan.
He placed third overall in a group of eight, which I thought was a fantastic showing for someone who’s only done this twice.
3rd Place In Sparring
Here’s where we can learn a few things!
Weston competed in his first-ever sparring competition with relatively limited experience sparring and in-class practice time. As a karate class, the bulk of our classes don’t focus on taekwondo-style sparring, so I let him and his parents know from the get-go that we weren’t training to win—we were training to get experience.
Overall, here are some tips that will help any younger student with sparring:
- Keep your hands up. When your hands drop, your opponent hunts for head kicks. Make it hard for them to land a kick to your head by keeping your hands up.
- Kick the body, not their hands. You don’t get points for kicking their hands.
- Sparring can be scary. It’s tough to punch and kick when you’re having punches and kicks thrown at you, especially when your opponent is taller.
- Focus on your effort, not the result. I do not care whether a student gets first place, last place, or somewhere in between. What I care about is their effort. Did they try? Did they listen? Were they respectful? Did they win or lose gracefully? Did they shake hands? Did they not slam their gear down on the ground after the match if they lost?
- Set a goal for next time. Let’s say you get dead last in your division. You have two choices: Try to do better at the next one, or stop competing. I don’t think our students fail if they at least try. Our students fail when we let them get discouraged. So, plan how you’ll do better for your next tournament. Will you work on more combinations? Using distance as a defense? Keeping your hands up? Be in better shape? All of the above?
Thanks to Weston’s family, and to our fellow student Dorian and his mom for making the trip to support us!
What I’m Looking For With Forms
I had the privilege once again to be a forms judge. Some things I noticed competitors do that I’d like to coach our students on…
- End as strong as your start. I noticed one competitor yesterday with a strong start to her form, but she seemed to lose steam as she finished. This was critical since she and her fellow competitor performed the same form—her opponent had a stronger finish.
- Footwork matters. Stances should look balanced, like I shouldn’t be able to push you over.
- Breathing matters. Some students seem to only breathe on their kiai/kihap. I’d love to see students actively breathing more during their form.
- Eye contact. If two students are running the same form side by side, I’ll say the one who is looking forward and not down on the floor will be the winner. They look engaged, not like they’re just going through the motions.
- If you mess up, keep going and don’t let people know you messed up. It’s okay to mess up your form in a tournament! I know this sounds crazy. I saw a student yesterday compete with a form I didn’t recognize. He was doing okay until about halfway through when he paused and started looking around. If he’d paused, collected himself, and continued, I wouldn’t have known the difference. Keep going! Your judges may not know your forms. This event was mostly taekwondo stylists. I don’t know these forms, so I don’t know what you left out or added if you messed up. Just take a second to figure out where you’re at, make something up, and keep going.
Overall, I noticed all athletes and judges display good sportsmanship and respect. I’m looking forward to attending next year and seeing these athletes progress at more tournaments throughout our region.
