The AETA Open English on October 5th and 6th, it was a weekend of mixed results, mixed emotions and stress coping strategies. I want to say a huge well done to all Banstead TaeKwon-Do students who took part, all parents that spent their time at the event, and all members that volunteered their time.
Taking part in a large competition like this takes courage as many of the entrants at these events are of a very high level, and in this particular case, using the event to test themselves before taking part in the World Cup in Argentina.
The AETA competition was spread over two days, October 5th and 6th, with under 15s on Saturday and 15s and overs on Sunday.
Day 1
The Banstead Under 15s that took part are:
Luke
Anna
Hadeel
Billy
...and respect is due for the all for taking part. There were some medals of course, but a big shout out to Luke for his sparring: Luke showed a HUGE amount of heart and Indomitable Spirit in his sparring category were he was grouped with 1st and 2nd Degree Blackbelts who have all been on the international competition circuit for sometime and have lots of confidence built up from some success in the past.
Luke did some excellent sparring against very strong opponents.
Day 2
Day 2 was harder, in all senses. Older students, Blackbelts, level of sparring contact.
Edie, being away at University, was competing for Cambridge TKD and she did very well in patterns and sparring. Her patterns could do with some tidy up and improved accuracy but she has a good natural approach to how patterns are performed. She came 2nd in the Adult Female Blackbelt 1st Degree patterns with some very good performances and only lost to a woman from a very competitive school. With a bit more focussed practice she really could do well. Her sparring was a straight final because being so light (45kg?) there are not many adult females to compete against. She won the first round but then again, same as all Banstead fighters, her lack of fitness let her down and the match swayed in the opponents favour. She did great and felt good about her performance and realised was needs improvement.
Georgia only entered sparring and in Adult female sparring she was in a very difficult category. Georgia has great sparring skills and does very well at competition however her category contained experienced international competitors and national team members. She did very well in her matches and giving problems to her competitors, but in each match it was clear her fitness level let her down. The level of contact in this category was high, Georgia caused some damage but also took a fair amount.
Jack took part in Sparring, Special Technique and Power. Same story, Jack performed well in all areas and his fitness and athletic ability kept him going (he was able to cope with the fitness demands, he is very fit). However, with his categories containing national team members the standard was again very high indeed. He did great at power test winning a Bronze medal.
Ethan had a tough time. He only entered sparring and therefore was waiting around all day, because he had to come with me in the morning. The sparring again was very heavy, fast, ferocious and Ethan coped well, apart from spending too much time fiddling about with a poor fitting head guard, but in his first bout took a nasty kick to his eye which shook his brain. After his 1st bout the Jury President only gave him 30 seconds rest before his next bout, and he took more head contact and despite getting a few points here and there his fitness let him down and he became very slow. Credit to his opponent in this bout because he noticed Ethan was struggling and laid off the intensity. Unfortunately Ethan was taken away by the medics and following strict concussion protocols was signed off for 3 weeks, so he couldn't continue in the event.
Hollie also had a hard time in her events, the standard of patterns was very high as was the sparring. I managed to watch her sparring bout, which happened to be the very last bout of the entire two day competition so she had been waiting around for many hours. It was a straight final, 2 rounds, and true to form after getting punched on the nose and kicked in the side of the head Hollie suffered a continuous nose bleed (same thing happened one year earlier). I think the medics managed to stuff her nose and allow her to continue but Hollie her opponent was strong and skilled. The medics assessed Hollie at the end of the round and also decided to sign Hollie off contact sports for 3 weeks.
So despite only 1 medal (2 if we count Edie's) there was a huge amount learned and experienced, and all the Banstead team know that fitness is one thing that can easily be improved.
Results in a minute, but before I give the good news, it is clear all Banstead TKD people need to be fitter to cope with the extended sparring rounds. All of us over the two days struggled towards the end of each bout and sometimes this allowed a swing of points and for the opponent to be awarded the win.
Banstead Results
Even though it was a tough competition Banstead still came away with 7 medals and of those 4 were Gold. Top competitor of the weekend from Banstead was Billy with two Golds, awesome work there.
CONGRATULATIONS
Seriously, a super well done to all competitors who took part in this competition. This tournament draws many high level competitors who train far more than twice a week. So, for a small club where we prioritise TaeKwon-Do aspects other than just medals we have done very well indeed.
THANK YOU
Thank you to the organisers for putting on a well run tournament with good timings; thanks to all the umpires and officials; thanks to Jason Ogden from TaeKwon-Do Impact with whom we teamed up for the weekend for coaching duties; thanks to all the parents who took time out of their weekends.
GALLERY (videos to follow)
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