Two of our students represented Metamora Martial Arts recently at the 2024 Midwest Open Taekwondo Championship in Decatur, Illinois.
This is the latest competition for our crew.
Paul Takes 1st In Forms, 1st In Sparring
This is Paul’s latest competition, with his most recent outing at the 2024 Bill Auvenshine Memorial Tournament back in March.
Paul competed in forms with Anaku.
As a result of his 1st-place win in his division, Paul entered the 17-and-under grand championships, competing with more than a dozen other athletes who all won their divisions.
Corbin Takes 2nd In Forms
Corbin competed in forms at his very first tournament with Pinan Shodan.
Despite a scheduling snafu, his mom said they were glad to experience their first competition.
Lessons Learned
- Show up at the start of the event. This event’s flyer had a schedule of events in it and asked competitors to arrive an hour before their scheduled start time. Those are the times I gave our competitors. However, this tournament ran ahead of schedule. Long story short, going forward, all competitors will be required to be at the event at the start time so as not to miss their event.
- Parents & coaches: Converse, don’t confront. One of the key tenets of martial arts is respect. So imagine my surprise after a sparring match I judged when a man walked by me and shouted, “Tell that old lady she sucks!” (referring to one of the other judges). He was fuming about a call she had made, but I don’t remember the details. Regardless, we had another coach come up to us after his match. He was frustrated, but ultimately stood down once he realized what rules that match went by. This is one of the reasons I always want to attend tournaments with our students—if you have an issue, you should come to me and not pop off on a tournament official. Officials are almost always volunteers doing the best they can to make it fair for everyone.
- This event is a great learning experience. Students who compete here should expect a friendly competition with coaches, judges, and referees who want to see their athletes do their best. I don’t believe (despite hearing some grumblings) that anybody has it out or plays favorites for anyone.
- As a judge, I liked scoring for this event. For sparring, we went low-tech with whiteboards. Each ring had 3 judges – the competitor who scored the most points in each round would win A competitor needed to win two rounds to win the match, so matches were either two or three rounds.
Want To Compete?
Students interested in competing can join our 7 p.m. class on Wednesdays!
