February 23, 2004
tournament
Jay did decent yesterday. He received a silver medal in poomse (forms) and a bronze medal in sparring. He was very mad at himself for losing the gold, since he kyopped in the wrong place (yelled), and he's the one who screwed up. He lost it by 4 tenths of a point. The sparring was a whole other matter. He was put up against someone about 6 inches taller and about 50 pounds heavier. It's supposed to be physically an even match so that it's skill that gets you that medal. So not so in this case. He got his assed whipped. But he didn't mind that so much as the other, as he knows he did his best, and someone else was better. In the poomse, though, he screwed up himself, so he was angry about that.He has two really heavy medals to add to our collection of TKD stuff we have no place for. We've got our previous belts, our certificates for each advance (in korean). The boards we've broken. And now these medals. I think I'm going to have to hand it all ijn our hallway where we have pictures. there's just no where else to put it. It's the perfect thing to hang in an office, if we had one, but we don't.
I was very proud of him yesterday. In spite of lots and lots of rude people, lots of people in general, The lack of interest in us by our own Master (which I'm going to be bringing up tomorrow after class, and the long length of time between his competitions, he was a very shining example of what a competitor should be. He was polite, gracious, used good sportsmanship, was friendly to his competitors, and humbly congratulated those that bested him. Believe me when I say in that crowd, this is a big deal - even if it's how he is all the time.
To complete the black belt (so not there yet), one must complete 2 public tournaments. Jay has one under his belt now. I'm probably going to enter into the next one. I have no idea how I'll do. It's a very scary prospect. Lots of people watching. VERY full house, at this last one.
I test for my orange belt on tomorrow.
Ack!
