Tournament and Bowling

Updated

 Other than Frodo, who has done many tournaments  (though his first as a black belt), this was the first tournament outside the school that the other 7 have done. Everyone placed at least once...
Updated...
Winnings:  

• Sam -  1st - combat sparring,  2nd - forms,  sparring
• Frodo - 1st - creative forms, xtreme forms, xtreme weapons, sparring, combat sparring
              - 2nd - creative weapons, forms, weapons
• Rosie - 1st - forms, combat sparring 2nd - sparring
• Eleanor - 1st - forms, 2nd - sparring
• Merry - 1st -  forms, sparring, weapons, combat sparring
• Pippin - 1st - sparring, combat sparring
• Bilbo - 2nd - forms
• Poppy - 3rd - sparring, [tied 3rd for form but lost the tie breaker] 

 We found a water park deal around Christmas that we used some Christmas money for.

 Mind you it was MINUS 17 degrees, makes you want to get into your swimming duds.

 The waterpark offered a soup kitchen free pizza/spaghetti but the glitch is that we had go outside to hop over there.   So we ran very fast as it was, as I said minus 17.... brrr...

 Karate Kid pool?

 Our TKD school hosted this tournament (the first one!)

Here the black belt judges got their talking to.

 Singing of the Korean National Anthem

And the playing of our National Anthem (orchestral)

 Mr. Moh gives a opening speech.

 The demo team did an awesome job. You can perhaps find Frodo in there.

 Judges taking an oath of honesty and fairness.

 Participants taking an oath.

 The gift to Mr. and Mrs. Moh as a thank you from 

the school members.

 Poppy was scared out of her mind, right to tears until she met up with a familiar TKD "family" face. A tournament is pretty much a 24 ring circus.  And just as much fun.

 Poppy's form.

 Poppy does a great job sparring as well.

 I cannot remember what places everyone placed so I will update that when I get home. I am currently in Chicago taking Maria and Emily to the airport early in the morning.... internet is good here so good time to upload photos! :D

 Bilbo's form and sparring

 Frodo's Extreme and Creative forms and weapons (4 competitions)

Frodo was holding 8 state champ titles as a colored belt in his age bracket. However he made the sacrifice to black belt test and risk those state champ titles. He can keep them if no one surpasses him.  Between this tournament and one more he hopes to obtain a black belt state title.  We shall see... Titles are fun, but not the be all and end all. There is so much more to our TKD school than titles, but there sure are alot of titles obtained.

 Pippin's form and sparring and combat sparring

 Things got crazy at this point as Rosie, Eleanor, Frodo and Merry all competed at the same time. 3 were in rings next to each other and one was clear across the room.

 Eleanor competed in forms and sparring

 Rosie: forms, sparring, and combat sparring

 Merry: forms, sparring, weapons and combat sparring.

 Frodo also competed in forms, sparring, weapons and combat weapons.

 Samwise competed in forms, sparring and combat sparring. He really likes sparring!

 Gets to be a long day.

 

 We went out with some of the extended family for one of Aragorn's brother's birthday. Just a few of us went.

 New sign at our TKD school. There are alot of reasons we enjoy martial arts from the self-discipline to the skills learned. But our school also concerns itself with character training.

Some words taken from our student handbook: The word Taekwondo itself is made up of three Chinese/Korean words: Tae, meaning to kick or jump; Kwon, meaning fist or hand; and Do, which means "the way." Loosely (if not literally), it can be thought of as "The Way of the Hand and Foot."
ATA “Songahm Spirit”
At the beginning of each class/event the oath is as follows: 
"Sir/Ma'am, I shall practice in the spirit of Taekwondo; with courtesy for fellow students, loyalty for my instructor and respect for my juniors and seniors, sir/ma'am"
At the end of the event, the promise is targeted more for behavior
 outside of class:

"Sir/Ma'am, I shall live with perseverance in the spirit of Taekwondo; having honor for others, integrity within myself and self control in my actions, sir/ma'am"

Each 2 month cycle has it's own discipline like these:
Discipline is to obey what is right.
Respect is not what you know, it's what you do.
Honesty is the first step to an abundant life.

 A visit from a peacock

 Said peacock was not thrilled with my chasing him with my phone/camera.

 We went bowling with our small homeschooling group.