It has been about a year and a half since Patrick's last Tae Kwon Do tournament (above). He did okay at that tournament but was unnerved by the sparring experience, which was still a little new to him at that time (sparring against strangers...he was used to sparring with friends). He was a "Green Stripe" at that time (white, yellow stripe, yellow, green stripe).

This year was a different story. Now he is a Blue Stripe (white, yellow stripe, yellow, green stripe, green, blue stripe) and has developed a confidence that he didn't have last time. Here, standing at the registration table, he has a better idea what to expect. He has been training every week for the sparring portion of the tournament. He has learned more forms and has another year of experience on which to dreaw when he enters the ring.

There are three rings where the groups gather; Girls, Boys, and upper ranks. Here, middle ring, are the boys (you can see Patrick standing with his face toward the camera on the left, in a small group of three boys - Patrick in his blue stripe and another boy from his studio in a red belt. (They are comparing group numbers written on their hands.)

There are two parts to the tournament. First they are tested on their "Forms". There are two boys on the matt at one time and each is competing against himself, or more accurately, against the form that he chooses to do. The forms are called Poomsae or Taegeuk and are a series of patterns in both attack and defense movements. Taegeuk is the Korean word for T'ai Chi...a more commonly known exercise. Students must learn one new Poomsae or Taegeuk for each belt test and must demonstrate it well before achieving the next belt.

In the tournament setting each boy demonstrates his chosen form and must execute it to the best of his ability. The judges watch both boys and vote for the boy they feel did the best job on the technical (no mistakes) and stylistic (crisp motion, intentional movements) elements of the form.

Each boy may be doing a different form so it is important that they each know their forms well because he can't copy off his neighbor. Not only that, but he must be able to focus so that what is going on next to him does throw him of course and cause confusion. It is surprisingly quiet in the gym during these excercises.

Each kid gets a chance to do their forms twice as they compete to get the most votes from the judges. I took photos during Patrick's first round and video for his second. Here is the video of his second round. Sadly, his second round wasnot as flawless as his first, but you will see that the judges voted unanimously. His first round was much cleaner, but he "lost" that round by one vote.

Once the forms are done then the kids are called out in their groups to suit of for sparring.

Everything gets covered with padding.

There's Patrick's chearing squad.

Prefight instructions by his Coach and instructor Master White.

Prefight check by the referee.

This is what Katherine sees from the bleachers.

Patrick wins his first round.

Patrick is in red pads (on the left), getting ready to score a point.

He has excellent form here as he gets ready to score again.

His distance is off as he makes this fantastic high kick so there is no point, but it makes a great photo of his form.

(Right) is the same photo close up.

Video of his second sparring competition.

There are three judges sitting around the matt, each with a red and a blue "trigger". When the red fighter makes a point the judges hit the red trigger and visa versa when blue scores. The referee moves around on the matt while the sparring takes place making sure that they fight "by the rules" and to halt fighting if one of them falls or gets hurt.

In addition to the three "trigger" judges and the referee there is a coach for each competitor in the ring. Competitions are usually between schools so each coach is from a different schoo.

There are two rounds to each match. And each match has a different sparring partner. There are two matches for each competitor. Here, Patrick gets a little coaching between rounds in his first match.

Most of the kids take this pretty seriously. Enlarged to the right, you can see the look on Patrick's face as he lands a kick and does a "kihap" (the yell that is designed to intimidate ones competitor).

From a distance this shot just looks like so many others, but if you look more closely (to the right) you can see Patrick's foot on a direct path to his competitor's head. Those are his toes over the boy's left shoulder.

Two second place wins today. He put out an excellent effort and can enjoy the rewards of his work.

May 30, 2009