Getting Ready for Competition

My first Taekwondo competition is next weekend. I will be competing in three different categories: forms, breaking, and a team demonstration. I have been training for this competition since I first heard about it 4 months ago. Every day I have been practicing forms, strengthening my leg muscles, and stretching so I can have a wider and longer range in my kicks. I have also kicked it up a notch to lose a few more pounds. I lost 5 more pounds and have been building more muscle, by doing cardio and strength training.

This is a small competition from what I hear, I believe about 200 men, women and children will be competing. However, I have been taking it very seriously. For me it's a way to prove to myself what I am capable of achieving with hard work and practice.

Form, also known as Poomsae in Korean, is one of the four things we learn for each belt we earn. We earn a total of thirteen belts before testing for the Black belt.

However, we learn only eight forms for the first eight belts. For the remaining 4 belts we go back and re-train in all eight forms perfecting them before we can test for the Black belt. Below is a great video showing all eight forms. Forms are choreographed offensive and defensive movements. We are trained to pretend that when we perform these forms that there is someone in front of us that we are delivering kicks and punches to. For the competition I will be performing the fourth form, Taejuk Sa Jang.

The video below does a good job showing all eight forms.

In addition to competing in forms, I will also be competing with my school in a team demo. We have about 50 students from our school all participating in the team demo.

Lastly, I will also compete in the breaking category. I have to perform three different breaks of my choice.

I will be performing the following:

1. A spinning knife hand break, quickly followed by a jumping hammer fist break.
2. A double round house kick or a side kick or a spinning hook kick
3. A flying front kick.

Below is a good example of three stations of breaking that will be similar to mine. She starts with a spinning knife hand break. Her second break is a spinning hook kick, which I have been thinking about doing instead of a double round house kick, but I haven't been officially taught that kick and break yet, so my Master doesn't think I should perform it unless I am confident I can.

In the video she missed and during a competition missing is not an option, if you miss you will not get another opportunity to re-try to break and you will be deducted points.

This week during my regular scheduled training sessions at the dojo I will be practicing breaking boards. And I will be learning more about the rules and etiquette of a competition, for example when I should bow, how many times I have to yell "ki-hap" during the breaking competition.

I am lucky because we have an Instructor in my class who also judges TKD tournaments , so I hope to pick his brain this week to learn some insider tips on what they are looking for. I am also hoping to get a female point of view on things like how I should wear my hair, should I not wear any make-up or jewelry. It's hard to ask these types of things to my male Master, so I am hoping I can find an upper belt in my class who has competed and could let me know.