My first tournament. Against two orange belts and two other yellow belts, I placed first in the forms category with Yun Tung. I felt like I gave a good solid performance. My balance was off a little on the double kick combos, and I think I rushed through the last half of the form, but apparently it was good enough to get me the winning slot. One of the other yellow belts really screwed up his form, and the other seemed kind of weak, but the orange belt who got second place was really good. I felt great about winning. I think I’ve finally got a pretty decent grasp on the formal salutation.

In the sparring category, I got placed against a big guy from Gymme’s Taekwondo in Petal and he trounced me. I think it was called at 6-1. I went into the fight with a plan to attack the head, but because he wasn’t wearing headgear, he kept his head well protected and because I was focusing on that one target, I left myself wide open to his kicks. I stuck to that plan even though it obviously wasn’t working. I need more time in the ring. A lot more. I need work on my footwork, especially entering, especially against guys who focus on the long range.

One of the main frustrations was that after sitting there for six hours, I got one fight in, lost it badly, and got handed a second place trophy. The guy in the other yellow belt division got screwed even worse. He fucked up his form, so he got nothing there, and then he got one fight, lost it, and got handed a third place trophy. AND he got to watch Adam fight Rob to see which of them got the first place and which got the second. Total rip-off. I felt horrible for the guy. At least I got my forms trophy, he just got jacked.