On 12/9/06 several clubs members competed in the 1st annual Refield
Taekwondo Tournament in Redfield, SD. The event was held at the
high school gym.

This was a good tournament for those who had never competed before.
It was small enough to be fun where you didn't have to worry about
getting lost in the crowd yet big enough for some good action.

Zack was first up from the AKKA team. He was a little fireball and
gave it his all. He did a great job of blocking their kicks and
countering with strikes of his own. He won the first match but had
to fight again right away against a kid that was fresh and had not
fought yet. Zack only got a minute break between matches. He did an
outstanding job and ended up getting 2nd place in his division. Had
he had longer to recover or if the other kid wouldn't have been
fresh there's no doubt in my mind that Zack would've gotten 1st
place.

Murphy and Madison were up next. Murphy got a pass on the first
event. During her fight the high score kept going back and forth
between her and the other little girl she was sparring. In the
second round with a minute to go the score was 5 to 7 with Murphy
down by 2 points. She went to kick the same time the other girl
went to kick and their knees collided. The other girl fell to the
mat and started crying. She was unable to continue. Murphy was
able to shake it off and was ready to continue. The match was
stopped as they announced the other little girl as the winner. I
did not agree with call and it was address after the division was
done. According to the rules if a competitor is injured and unable
to continue they forfit and the other person wins automatically.
This is how it is in karate and all other types of sports unless the
injury resulted from an illegal/prohibited strike/kick. I talked to
one of the corner judges who agreed that Murphy should have won but
it was too late. Murphy got 3 place over all.

Madison was in the same division. She did a good job and has made a
noticable improvement in sparring. She lost the first match but won
the second match when the other girl quit and did not want to spar
anymore. Because of the mix up with Murphy's fight, Madison was
awarded 5th place.

Shae stepped into the ring next. His first opponent was a jack
rabbit. The kid kept running all over the ring, which was a very
large ring (way bigger than karate regulation size). The kid, who
was a green belt would be running away from Shae then jump up and
throw a back kick. Add to that the kid was a lot taller than Shae
and had a very small chest protector that about at Shae's head level
made it an interesting fight. Shae did good in round 2 and let the
kid run around and did not chase him to conserve energy. Shae
started picking his shots and got some good ones in.

During the second match Shae did a better job and mixed it up good
with the other kid. He took a hard shot to the nose but shaked it
off and kept on kicking. In the second round he took a full force
kick to the throat which stopped the match. I did not see the other
kid get a warning for kicking to the throat and I went with Shae to
the medic station so I don't know if anything was said or not. This
was Shae's first tournament and he was only 11 years old but had to
spar 12 and 13 year olds. At age 12 kicks are allowed to the head
(not the neck or throat however). Shae had never practiced kicking
to the head or having to block kicks to the head. He did an
outstanding job fighting older more experienced kids and got 4th
place in his division.

Next up from the AKKA team was JD. This was JD's first tournament.
He got matched up against a brown belt who had close to 100lbs on
JD. The brown belt was also a cop. Round one was good with JD
coming out swinging. The brown belt did deliver some very hard
kicks. Towards the end of the first round he delivered a kick to
JD's head knocking him to the ground. JD was dazed (I could see his
eyes rolling in his head) but he got back up and wanted to
continue. Round 2 was tough. At one point the brown belt grabbed a
hold of JD (which I was told was not allowed in TKD tournaments).
JD took several more ahrd shots but was finally able to start
scoring. He did a good job for his first tournament and ened up
with a 3rd place medal.

I ended up fighting Big Jake for the championship black belt
division. Now there are not that many people I have to look up to
considering I'm 6'3" tall. I had to look up to Big Jake, who had to
be at least 6'6". It was a good fight and probabyl the most evenly
matched all day. Jake kept trying to kick to my head but I was able
to block his attempts. Several times he tried coming in with a kick
and I fired one of my own and he ate the full force of the kick. I
came close once to knocking him down but no luck. I was ahead by 2
points after the first round. Going into round it was more fo the
same. We delivered hard blows to one another. We kept getting
locked up and it was all I could do to resist sweeping him and
taking him to the ground for a choke. At one piont her locked up my
arm and wouldn't let go. The ref didn't step in as I think he was
afraid of accidentally getting hit. A few times my (!*@#^$
mouthguard went flying. It was a hard fight and I thought I had won
it but in the end Jake's hand was raised in victory by 1 point. Oh
well. It was fun. I had not been to a tournament (as a fighter) in
about 5 years. I hadn't been to a TKD tournment as a fighter in
almost a decade so it was good to get back into it.

Over all it was a good time. I think everyone learned a lot and
hopefully had fun. It's good to network with other martial art
schools throughout the state. Master Sanchez invited our dojo to a
tournament in Puerto Rico this next spring. The tournment is an all
day event and the rest of days you relax on the beahc and just hang
out. Maybe I'll win the lottery by then, as I don't know how I'm
even going to pay the dojo rent in March...but that's another post.