This past Saturday, on January 28th, there was a junior Olympic style TKD tournament sponsored by Competitive Taekwondo of Lindon,
There were three matted rings with qualified, paid referees. They used electronic scoring. The pairings were solidified before the tournament day arrived so there was no last minute juggling that can make a tournament a nightmare for everyone. The competitors were given cards to wear around their neck that told them which ring they were to compete in forms and spar in and which match number they were. All they had to do was keep an eye on their ring where the match number was clearly displayed. It worked very well.
The sparring was exciting to watch. It was that fast, all-out, hard kicking kind of sparring that, although rather sloppy at times, was much more fun to view than the more cautious and slow paced Olympic level sparring.
Even the under 12 categories had some fun matches to watch. There were tears and some matches had to be called because one of the opponents lost the will to fight. One young fellow vomited on the mat. I’m not sure if it was illness, nerves, exhaustion, or just eating too much before the match. The featured match from BMA, though, is Manuel. First I need to speak about a kid in his division from another school. This kid (I will call him Jose) wiped the floor with two others he fought. He accidentally kicked them in the face four or five times even though no head kicks in this division and pretty much had them in tears. He was good. But Manuel (Batmanuel as I like to call him) went in on his first fight and clobbered his opponent with fast round houses and back kicks. I yelled out once, “Do a double, Manuel,” and he immediately landed a double roundhouse. Mr. Knowlton, his coach had to call him off and tell him to save his energy for the next fight. In his next fight he had to fight Jose. I was a little worried because I didn’t know if the sudden shock of fighting someone his own caliber would fluster Manuel. It didn’t. It was a hard fight, but Manuel never flinched. He didn’t seem to know that the other kid was as good as him. By the end of the fight the other kid was backing away defensively from Manuel. Manuel’s sparring was a thing of beauty for a 10 year old.
The 14 to 17 year old black belts put on quite a show. There was blood and knockouts. One girl went through three fights and took them all and looked great. Megan from Black Diamond nearly stopped her, but her opponent got in the last point just as the clock turned zero. The score ended at 13 – 12. There was a young man there with Olympic aspirations from Vo’s who finished one fight in 15 seconds. The referee began the fight and the young man landed all three kicks of a lightning fast triple, another roundhouse, and then a back kick that doubled his opponent over. That all seemed to happen in about seven seconds. That was it, the opponent wisely bowed out of the fight. I say wisely because his next opponent didn’t bow out until he got knocked out. In spite of the fact that he was taking a terrible beating he went after the young man from Vo’s with a little skill and a lot of courage and determination. He took fast triples to the gut. Wicked crescents to the head, and powerful back kicks to the gut. He got his mouthpiece stripped from his face with an axe kick. His helmet was nearly kicked off his head, but he wouldn’t give up. Then, even though the young man from Vo’s was up by 25 points, he lured his opponent into the corner and knocked him out with a spin heel to the face.
The young man from Vo’s really put on a show and I was impressed until I started thinking about it. As I watched the tape enthusiasm for the match diminished. The winning young man’s demeanor while on the mat was one of great arrogance and his apparent desire to destroy his opponents using far more force than was necessary was distasteful. He attacked his opponent as his opponent was trying to strap up his helmet (it had come loose). Sure, he hadn’t called time-out and it was legal for him to do so, but he was already up 15 points and there was clearly no danger of that lead diminishing. That attack wasn’t an example of wanting badly to win, but of wanting badly to humiliate your opponent. Then the final knock-out kick was just too much. Sure, his competitor was coming tentatively toward him to throw a kick, but to defend with a knockout kick when you are up by nearly 30 points is petty. Yes, it was legal, but if you didn’t know the score you would have thought the winning competitor was fighting a close fight for the gold medal in the Olympics instead of an honorable opponent in a local tournament who was trying to maintain his self-respect by fighting to the end of the match. I don’t know who the losing opponent was, but I was impressed with his courage and commitment to finish with as much effort and skill as he could find.
Every competitor needs to fight to win and the better competitor should win. This young man from Vo’s was definitely the better competitor, but it was disappointing that he showed no grace of character during his exhibition. Grace of character is not required in winning competitors, but when I see it I know I’ve seen something worth remembering. This exhibition wasn’t.
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