Medalists!

Daniel and EmmaLee competed in a TKD tournament over the weekend. It was EmmaLee's first competition and they both did great. It was a LONG day for us. Check in was at 8:30 and it started at 9am. The blackbelts went first with patterns. The adult men and women went first so that they could judge the younger ones. So Daniel went fairly early. Then he got to judge the colored belts for their patterns and sparring. He LOVED it. It was a learning experience for him, but he really did great. Then they started with white belts (beginners) and moved up to red belts (advanced, right before black belts). EmmaLee is a green belt, so she was smack dab in the middle of all of them. She won a bronze in patterns. Then she got to spar and got punched in the face 3 times. She didn't cry though til it was all over. She got a good uppercut to the jaw, which she says is still hurting. She won the bronze in sparring too. Then we waited for a LONG time til all the colored belts were finished and then they started black belt sparring. Of course, the adult men/women went first again. Daniel didn't finish until 4pm! Most tournaments are like that so I guess we'll have get used to it. My mom and Kim had Lucy so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Daniel got a bronze in patterns and sparring. They both had to do a break off in board breaking and EmmaLee won hers to get the silver and Daniel lost his to get the silver.

We are so proud of both of them. Pictures below.

Robbie Webre, Alex Dillion and Daniel -
they all train together and were the only boys in their age group.

Daniel doing his pattern. He blanked out on his pattern and forgot part of it,
otherwise I think he would have gotten the silver. Oh well, there's always next time.

Patterns Medalists - Alex got the gold, Robbie got the silver, Daniel got the bronze.

Now the fun part, getting to be a judge. Several people were upset because children were
judging adults, but to be fair, these kids have earned the right to be judges. They know the patterns and where the mistakes are and can tell which one did a better job.

EmmaLee doing her pattern.

EmmaLee getting her bronze medal in patterns. I don't know the other girls.

Mr. Howard instructing the boys on how to judge fairly.

EmmaLee sparring.

Daniel judging the sparring.

Sharing the bronze in sparring.

Breaking with a knife hand. We were impressed that he did that!

Breaking two yellow boards on the first try (you only get one try).

Someone stood in front of me when EmmaLee did her knife hand, which she did break. But this is the break off, this is one yellow board. She and the other girl, broke the knife hand, but not the kick, so they had to do it again and neither of them broke it. So they did it one more time, and EmmaLee broke it. I think I was more excited than she was!

Getting her silver medal in breaking.

Daniel and Robbie sparring. Robbie won.

Bronze in sparring. Yes that's a girl that got the gold! She was tough and
Robbie and Daniel didn't want to hurt her!

Robbie and Daniel had to do a break off and Daniel tried to break 4 yellow boards, but didn't. Robbie then only had to break 1 to win and he did easily.