This Saturday, May 8, 2004, Jared, April, and Zach entered their first Tae Kwon Do AAU Regional Championship in Waldorf, Maryland. While Suzanne and I hoped the best for our young athletes, we had few expectations of cleaning up.

Medals at left shown actual size.

 

Things started out with Jared performing a flawless series of moves, for which he received . . .

 

a BRONZE MEDAL! (Jared at top left of photo.)

Please note GOLIATH (far right of photo). Tae Kwon Do is not based so much on size as on belt level. Presumably, one should be equally as skilled at fighting a large opponent as a small one.

 

April prepares to wow the judges. Yes, she really is that tall!

 

April danced through effortlessly and also received a BRONZE MEDAL (below, second girl from the left).

 

 

 Next, Zach's age group was up. His performance earned him a . . . 

 

SILVER MEDAL. In this shot you can see how the forms were judged. Judges sat in three corners of the mat, and as each contestant finished, they held up a small tablet with flippable numbered cards. The results were entered into a computer.

 
confidence

You can imagine that Suzanne and I were surprised and delighted that our kids were rewarded for all their hard work. (Yes, yes, we had prepared the kids by reminding them that hard work and perseverence are the REAL rewards. So we were wrong! The gentle clink of multiple medals is very addicting!)

Next up, after an interminable wait (while every three year-old also did their forms for the judges), was the sparring portion of the competition. We were frankly nervous, and our worst fears were suddenly realized when slender Jared was paired-up with none other than . . .

. . . the huge fellow we had seen earlier (he weighed only 180 lbs compared to Jared's scrawny 85. That's right -- Jared's opponent weighed 100 lbs MORE than Jared. There was quite a bit of discussion on the part of the judges, and several false starts, but finally, to our horror, the lumbering oaf faced -- and attacked -- Jared!

 

Click here to see a big version of the action! We wished that we could CLICK Jared to enlarge him! Several times the larger boy lost points for illegal moves (we later found out he had been trying to rake down the side of Jared's face with his exposed fingernails). Nonetheless, Jared prevailed, and won a . . .

 

. . . second BRONZE MEDAL. (Jared at left.)

If you CLICK to enlarge this photo, you'll discover, as we did, that April had already been called and was in mid-spar (upper right corner of photo). I ran around to snap a quick shot of her, as Zach was suddenly summoned on a third mat for his sparring. After hours of tortuous anticipation, it turned out that all three kids were up simultaneously.

 

The sparring elimination portion of the competition was refereed by two judges, each having a double-flagged baton (blue and red, note the judge on the left). When April or her partner scored a point (a blow or kick to the head or chest, or dropping them to the floor), the judges held up the appropriate end of their baton. We saw lots of red flags as April competed!

 
Above, April prepares to handily defeat her opponent with her special hook kick. Below, she gets the GOLD!!!

I joined Suzanne on the other side of the gym watching Zach, but his lightning-fast moves were too quick for the camera (red arrow, below).

 

 
Above, Zach looses the gold by a mere 10th of a point (one of the judges didn't raise her flag in time. Coincidentally, the winner of this match is her student (!). Zach receives a second SILVER MEDAL for his stunning performance (below. Click to enlarge)
Mom and April
Everybody's exhaustion was evident. Click to enlarge -- you'll be sorry if you don't.

Naturally, proud parents had to take a few more photos (for the grandparents, of course!) Smiles all around. (C'mon Dad, not ANOTHER picture!)

Click to enlarge.