Tournament time!
This coming Saturday morning, the dojang will be holding its annual children’s tournament. It has always been a big event for us — since we’re not a tournament type of school, this is the only tournament experience for most of the kids. We spend plenty of time on forms and sparring, but very few students or instructors choose to participate in outside tournaments. Our late instructor got fed up with inconsistent/bad judging several years back and stopped encouraging us to participate in the one or two tournaments per year some of us had been going to.
Last Saturday was Dojang Cleanup Day where we really get after some of the accumulated dirt and dust. The folding thick blue mats got mopped, windows and mirrors were washed, fans were cleaned, and a bathroom was painted, among other things. Plenty of people pitched in, so we were out of there after a couple of hours. The weather was gorgeous that day, making the tasks a bit more pleasant.
Last week I ran tournament-specific classes during the beginner and intermediate classes. I’m planning on something similar this week. We don’t often work on setting boards up for 3-station breaks, but it is always interesting to figure out how one technique sets up the positioning of another. We also worked on how to address the judges when performing poomsae. This week I’ll probably spend a little more time on point scoring. That’s something I feel a bit less comfortable with, as I’m not very fond of tournament TKD sparring.
Friday will be the day we set up rings and arrange the dojang for the tournament. The tournament itself gets started at 9AM Saturday morning. It looks like turnout will be very light this year, which is a shame. I’ve been strongly encouraging students in the adult/teen classes to participate, but haven’t gotten much response. Turnout will be higher for those under the age of ten, but might be very, very small for those older than that.
We’ll see how it goes, and hopefully we’ll get a few students to change their minds this week.