Bright and early Saturday morning, the family woke up and drove to Alpharetta for Mason's first Taekwondo tournament. He wasn't nervous or excited, but he was prepared. He practiced and practiced and knew that he had done everything he could to get ready for this day.
We discovered that a lot of tournaments is waiting and watching. First was bow in, then the demo team competition (there is a special surprise at the end of this post for that) and then the kids are broken down into groups. Everything is done by age group and gender.
At long last, the boys were called out and ready to begin. The kids are introduced to the judges and each judge has a specialty they judge on. Then, they bow in (again).
It was funny to see each kid down the line turn around to see where their parents were. All business, this one...
...and a wave to mom and dad.
Mason and his classmate, Christopher, were the two lowest ranks competing. They are both camouflage belts. Not every belt rank does the same form, so it was fun to see the forms some of the higher belts were performing. Mason's form is a 32-move form and is called Songham 5. He performed it better than he ever had!
He lost his balance a little on one of his kicks, but still scored a 7–7–6. From what I am told, that is a very high score for someone of his belt rank. He didn't place in forms, but had nothing to hang his head over. The kids he was up against had been in Taekwondo for several years!
Next up: sparring. With all of that gear on, the only way I can tell this is Mason is because his name is on his chest protector! The sparring partners are drawn randomly, and Mason sparred against a red belt – the next to highest before black belt. He faired well, but lost his round.
I think he gained valuable knowledge for his next tournament by watching the other students.
Overall, another camouflage belt from another school won sparring and a red belt won forms.
It was funny to see each kid down the line turn around to see where their parents were. All business, this one...
...and a wave to mom and dad.
Mason and his classmate, Christopher, were the two lowest ranks competing. They are both camouflage belts. Not every belt rank does the same form, so it was fun to see the forms some of the higher belts were performing. Mason's form is a 32-move form and is called Songham 5. He performed it better than he ever had!
He lost his balance a little on one of his kicks, but still scored a 7–7–6. From what I am told, that is a very high score for someone of his belt rank. He didn't place in forms, but had nothing to hang his head over. The kids he was up against had been in Taekwondo for several years!
Next up: sparring. With all of that gear on, the only way I can tell this is Mason is because his name is on his chest protector! The sparring partners are drawn randomly, and Mason sparred against a red belt – the next to highest before black belt. He faired well, but lost his round.
I think he gained valuable knowledge for his next tournament by watching the other students.
Overall, another camouflage belt from another school won sparring and a red belt won forms.
Mason did receive a participation medal. I'm not going to go into why I think that's not a good idea.
The judges then asked the kids if they had fun and if they wanted to compete again. Each of them said, "Yes SIR!" Then they all flexed their muscles. Awesome.
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