Tournament

Yesterday the Artist participated in a Tae Kwon Do tournament. She competed in two events, poomse (forms) and board breaking. She performed her form the best the Quipper and I had seen from her yet. Drat! I never took my camera from its case during the forms competition! In this competition she merited a third place medal. Board breaking was something new for her. She had an idea of what she was supposed to do. She had practiced without boards many times. She had practiced with wood boards once. At the tournament rebreakable boards were used. I like this because they don't splinter. But even better, they require more force to break than the wood student boards. Best of all, they require an accurate aim and a precise strike in order to break.

Board Breaking competitors await competition instructions. Each competitor is responsible for positioning their board holders and informing them how to hold the board (angle & height level) for the break to be executed. The artist gives a fearsome "KIAPP" during her axe kick, but her foot glances off the board. Her hammer fist strike, however is a resounding success. The man kneeling on the right is holding a board destined to receive a spin-round kick. What the Artist imagined might be something "really cool" to do to demonstrate her skills yielded a less than stellar success rate of completed breaks and some scraped up feet. (No worries, not too much damage on the feet). By Divine providence she took a third place medal from this competition. The other two contestants got the first and second!!!

Here she is with her good friend and first place finisher in the two events, happy that her work is done.