Glasgow 23 October 2011
The TTA Taekwondo Championships 每 a trip into the unknown
The Venue
It was with a feeling of venturing into the unknown that Andrew and I drove up to Glasgow to the 28th Annual TTA Taekwondo championships at the Time Capsule in Coatbridge (just south of Glasgow). We were booked into a Premier Inn, of which there are several not far from the venue.
Apart from the big Sports Hall in which the championships were being held, the Time Capsule is a leisure complex with an indoor water park that my 11 year old described as ＆epic＊. After battling the waves and swirling round the rapids, I screamed my way down a slide on a 2 person ring. So remember to bring your swimming gear!
On the Sunday morning we arrived to find the venue packed with children and adults of all ages and all belts (Yellow to 3rd Dan) and all raring to go. The majority of people came from clubs ranging from North Yorkshire (Harrogate 每 with some nice ※Go Harrogate§ flags) to North of Glasgow, as well as the Nottingham University group and some from London and Cornwall.
So what happens at a Championship?
This was our first ever visit, we knew there would be a Patterns or Poomse competition followed by a sparring or Kyorugi competition but had never seen either before. Medals and trophies are awarded to the winners. Andrew had entered the patterns competition.
The hall was set up with 3 rings (mat squares), each with a judges table, each holding several judges, with Grand Master Loh overseeing all. Our own Dr Higashi was one of the judges this year, and we recognised Nottingham University Black Belts refereeing fights.
Poomse
The yellow, green and blue belts were called up to rings 1, 2 and 3. The person in charge of the ring called up 3 people at a time to perform their belt pattern, starting with the children and ending with the adults. Each person had to identify themselves and follow the etiquette required while performing their patterns. After deliberating the judges asked selected contestants to perform a second pattern of their choice so that they could decide whom to award medals too.
After the yellow, green and blue belts had completed their patterns, only the centre ring was used. First it was the turn of the red belts, then the junior black belts (poome grades), then the senior black belts by dan. Our own Dr Brown competed in the 3rd Dan category and was asked to perform a pattern of her choice twice 每 the judges were obviously having a hard time deciding!
As a parent I was a bag of nerves 每 this was the first competition my son had entered and, as a red belt, he had to compete with 2 others while being watched by several hundred spectators. He did very well and was asked to perform a second pattern, I was so proud!
Kyorugi
It was then on to the sparring competition. Competitors are split by weight and gender and all have to wear full protective gear: body protector, head guard, shin and arm protectors, mouth guard, hand and feet protectors and groin guards.
Judges are placed around the ring with a button to press when a hit is scored. This is linked to an electronic scoreboard and timer. The reversible red and blue body protectors identify the two fighters with the colour coded scores on the board. Competitors have two timed rounds and points are scored for landing kicks on the body armour (and deducted for fouls). A referee follows the fighters around and intervenes as necessary. We were very impressed with the safety and etiquette of the fighting environment.
It was quite an eye opener to see the fun the children (from age 5-6 upwards) had with the sparring. It also got very noisy as everyone cheered the competitors on. While the kids were very enthusiastic there was an added dimension of seriousness to the adult competitions. We cheered our own Dr Brown to victory in her category.
After the competition had finished there were demonstrations from Nottingham University and Glasgow. There was some seriously impressive breaking of blocks of wood, not the least being Dr Higashi＊s straight fingered punch through a block of wood.
The day ended with the presentation of medals and trophies 每 with congratulations to all those on the Nottingham University team whose tally was impressive.
We finished the day tired but impressed and my son is all fired up to go for sparring next time. I think it would be great if we could get a team of children together to enter the team championships next year. The competitive side of Taekwondo is an aspect that we had not seen before, but I think that it would be great if the kids in Nottingham were able to take up this opportunity too.
Liz 每 a Taekwondo mum safely returned from a trip into the unknown!
