The first effort I made in a TKD competition

This was originally posted on blogger here.

The final result? I tied for second in the over 35 category.

I had managed to catch a flu bug going into this effort, so had serious second thoughts. If my father had not shown, I'm sure I would have just forfeited. However, since my father was coming, I had no choice but to compete. Therefore I'm glad he came, because it was worth the experience.

My fellow competitors in my age group were a nice bunch of guys. We joked about our age and encouraged each other on. I certainly cheered when they did their forms. I hope to see them again in the future.

A few general things first before my form commentary: During the form my vision narrowed down amazingly. I could not hear a thing besides my own thoughts, which were loud.

And now the specific commentary:

• I need to get my uniform pants hemmed.

• My deep stances were shallow.

• My first two front stances had bent knees. Brandon Winegarden fixed this but I did not!

• My high side kicks at the beginning had poor extension and sucked.

• The high side kicks in the middle looked good, but the landing on one of them was iffy.

• My front kicks were good.

• My hand techniques were crisp.

• I leaned too far forward on the knee strikes.

• The last four stances were stepped through incorrectly. Scott Sawicki pointed this out to me 30 minues and while I thought I corrected it in the form, I obviously did not.

• I made a big mistake on the last hand technique and I was facing to the side. This might have cost my first place.

• In general my form could have used more energy. Watching the video I look like a robot.