On Saturday I entered my first ever Tae Kwon-Do tournament. Liam had been in this same tournament last year, so I had an idea of how it would run and what to expect. Liam had no desire to enter it this year. He did come along and helped carry my gear, cheer me on and took some pictures for me on the Ipod. I also ran into a co-worker from years ago who borrowed my camera to take pictures of his kids and also got some great shots of me.
The tournament consisted of 2 competitions - patterns and sparring and I took Silver in both. There were only 3 adult women in my division, so we only had to compete against each other. We did patterns in the morning. I wasn't at all nervous until I finished my pattern and was waiting for the judges decision. Then my legs started to shake. Luckily, they didn't take long and I was able to hold it together.
For my first sparring round I went up against Ashley who was a powerhouse! She came out swinging and I have the bruises to show for it today. Unfortunately she seriously hurt her wrist blocking one of my kicks and had to withdraw from the match. It turned out to be just a bad sprain and not broken. I then sparred against Amanda, who I often practice with at my Dojang, so it made for a pretty even match, but she took the gold. The fact that both of these women are 20 years my junior made me feel pretty dang good about myself.
All in all I'm glad I went and I'm pretty sure I'll do it again. Here are some shots from the day.
Patterns
Sparring
