This weekend brought a flurry of fists, board breaks and back kicks as the Tae Kwon Do tournament rolled through Monroe. It was a fun filled day of watching kids through adults test there mettle against each other and themselves as they demonstrate their ability to kick the crap out of one another. It was Dylan’s first tournament and he did very well as evidenced by his collection of medals. First was his gold metal, earning him the coveted title of champion of his division. The event: board breaking. While the other kids chose to break their board with a side kick, or a back kick, my kid goes for the “flying” sidekick. Which is pretty tough. He has to run and jump over a kid (the flying part) while in classic flying kick formation, then break the board and land in a pose ready for more action. He is judged on not only his ability to break the board, but also his form and landing. This complicated kick has a difficulty degree of +2 which means you multiply the judges points by 2, This put him light years above his competition, even though it took 2 tries to break the board. I was very proud of not only his accomplishment, but the guts it took to pick such a tough kick in front of a gymnasium full of people.
From there, we join our young champion in the sparring ring. It’s his first time sparring outside the classroom and I had my reservations, but he wanted to do it and Master Martin felt he was ready. I think I was more concerned for the other kids safety as this was also the first time Kim watched him spar. I had visions of her running into the ring and pummeling the other kid for kicking her son. She did good too though. If they handed out medals for most restrained parent, we would have two champions in the house. As the saying goes, nothings easy right? Well Dylan ends up in the wrong weight class when they split the division. So now he gets to spar kids much bigger than him. I missed the first match, but he seemed to come through it ok. Lost by a point but not too beat up. The next match I watched from ringside and it was way tough to watch. This kid was pounding him. but then Dylan gets in a back kick that not only scores him a point, it takes the wind right out of the kids sails. Dylan gets kicked in the chin and the groin, but hangs in there and keeps kicking and punching. He’s upset and hurt but keeps managing to score on the kid. They end up 4/3 other kid. Dylan is pretty upset and didn’t enjoy being kicked in the face or groin, but I’m giving him a hug and telling him how proud I am of him. We get him out of his pads only to be called right back up for another match.
The opposing kid is a good foot taller and doesn’t seem too concerned with our little hero. So I tell myself this is what the tournament is about and I flash back to my wrestling days and how much I hated the tournaments and being bent into a pretzel by bigger stronger more knowledgeable kids.
They get to sparring and Dylan is holding his own and then some. The kid scores and Dylan comes right back and evens it, this goes on for awhile and in the last few seconds, Dylan hammers him with a spinning back kick and takes the match and the kids unbeaten streak and heads to the podium to collect his bronze metal. I was very impressed.
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