First tournamnet

JJ had his first TKD tournament at his school (ATA in Stevenson Ranch) last Fri. He did his form really well and was tied for 3rd place in the first round. They had a runoff and he lost so he was fourth in a group of 7 kids. The girl who won during the runoff (chosen by majority of 3 judges) did just half the form ( up to knive hand strike of the blue belt form).Not sure why she was able to get away with it. ACcording to official ATA rules, she should have gotten the lowest score of 9.0. Oh well.

in sparring, JJ went up against Mako(a red belt tournamant kid with many tournament wins under his belt) and got shut out (0-5). Mako was good and Jay did his best. No complaints. Mako also shut out Marcus (another brown belt). This kid was good and had had lots of training. Well deserved and easy victory for Mako.


I was very pround of JJ's performance even though he did not place. As I had told him before the event - Doesn't matter if you win or not as long as you did your best. The best he did. The most important thing is that he wants to go to more tournaments because had a good time. I was impressed by his strength in handling disappointment. I wish I could be as strong.

As for the issue with the 3rd place kid for Form competition, I decided not to push it since JJ did not seem to be affected by it too much even though he was disappointed.

All in all, a good experience for JJ!