Season to date TKD update

TKD season has started off irregular.

Ace is no longer doing TKD due to a knee injury and his dad moving too far away so all of our carpooling sharing has ended. We miss him! He and Billy are such good friends and I miss seeing him everyday.  But, it sounds like he's healing up for basketball season, his 1st love.

Billy home dojang is Twin Cities Taekwondo, they split from WTA in July and that's were he does his  black belt training, kick boxing, jr leadership and works the family class. Its awesome that he's getting real work experience at a place he loves (and they love him!)

He on the MN Star Martial Arts sparring team (they split from WTA last March) and while its a smaller dojang and team, Master Franklin is great and funny (which is a nice change of pace).  The team is becoming pretty tight knit and its fun to see the kids getting close.

We've only had 2 tournaments this fall, which is fairly typical. The MN Hamandang was in Spring Lake Park and Billy competed in weapons (bostaff) and pomsea. He beat Adam in weapons and it was fun to see since they are always neck and neck. It was also super fun to catch up with the Rogers team/family and others in WTA.  When Billy was "up" all his former teammates were cheering for him. I love the sportsmanship of his friends. They are amazing.

We traveled to Sioux Falls and knew it would be a small tournament since it was their 1st year.  Again, we missed having Ace along and the comaratory of a big team. Billy and I had a great meal at Chevys and watched all our favorite science alien shows in the hotel room.  Billy competed in pomsea and sparring. He actually beat Ross in pomsea for the gold. Ross is a year older and has always been on the competition pomsea AND sparring team so Billy has always been a little intimidated by him.. He was over the moon to have beaten Ross. A huge confidence boost which was fun to see.  Unfortunately, there werent any other kids in his sparring division so they had him doing an expedition match with Ross. But, GML decided that his kids werent going to do any expedition matches so... it was back to square 1 to find Billy a match. They had him spar in 12-14 since there were some kids and he is still technically 14 (even though in sanctioned matches he needs to fight 15-17 since he'll be 15 by the end of December). He fought a former teammate and got beat. I'm not sure his head and heart were in at as there was so much uncertainty leading up to the match but...it was good to get him on the matt and for Master Franklin to coach him for the 1st time.

We blasted out of there and found an amazing greek place for lunch. Its a wonder neither of us fell asleep the way home.

It'll be slow now until after the holidays when it'll take off.. state tournaments, the US Open, camp in Florida...of course, this is also the time where Jimmy will be doing any final college visits. Nothing like january road trips in the upper midwest...

Billy continues to love TKD and we love watching him.  Check him out!!

Sioux Falls Pomsea Gold 

Sioux Falls Sparring final round

Weapons Hanmadang 

Pomsea Hanmadang