A Taekwondo Story

My Taekwondo Story

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art characterized by its emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, and fast kicking techniques.

I have been doing it for about 8 years now. When I first came to Petra I had a hard time transitioning from going to my dance lessons 3 times a week to not doing anything because I didn’t have anything close to dance in my vicinity.

So, I was desperate to do something in my free time. It just so happened that my brothers godfather owned a gym and in it he taught these taekwondo lessons.

When I first heard about it I was ambivalent about it, and had the stereotypical thought "taekwondo is for boys! » Βut soon enough I would want to take back my silly allocation... I grew to love it more than anything.

Taekwondo was just a fun hobby for my 7-12 year old self and I took practices lightly and not very seriously.

A kick higher

But fast forward a few years, my coach told me that I was old enough and good enough to join the "big kids group" in which kids older than me trained in. There were about 12 of them and I was always thought of as the youngest and I think they were apprehensive of hitting me too hard. After about a year I noticed that I was getting better and was taking it rather seriously. So when my coach recommended I went to these competitions in Athens, to be honest, at first I was terrified! Ha-ha but I agreed as my parents were very willing to let me go (even if my dad was with me).

Making my team proud

It was me and another 5 girls and boys, all of them 2 years older than me. Going to these kinds of games is very intimidating for us because living on an island, you don’t get given enough chances and opportunities to have different opponents and it’s something unprecedented to us. It was very amusing looking at one of the guys faces when he went on the airplane for the first time. Thankfully and gratefully I am very familiar to planes and traveling having grown up traveling to Greece and the UK continuously. The stadium on the other side was something that left me speechless as it was massive and I had never seen so many taekwondo athletes all together at once.

The competitions last 3 days plus one extra day, for the athletes who play on the first day, to weigh in, as you get split into categories depending on your weight. I was the only one of us competing on the last day so my teammates all played beforehand and sadly didn’t get any medals nor qualified. Before my match, discouraged a bit, my heart was beating a thousand beats a minute and I couldn’t feel my legs... I got onto the matt, with my teammates cheering me on and giving

me hopes and played my game. The score was 6-5 and had to get another point to

beat her and thankfully I got a great aim and got +3 to the head! I had just won my first match!! I was profoundly proud and so were my fellow team mates 

as one of them was in tears of joy. 

I had to win another game in order to get a medal, just 1! I couldn’t believe my luck when I heard that my next game was a "bye" meaning that my opponent didn’t show up, and this meant I had unintentionally won a medal. My first medal and my team’s first medal in 4 years or so. Unfortunately I lost my last game for 2 points even though I tried my hardest to get a silver medal. Even so, I returned home excited and proud to bring my team victory. Since then I have been 2 more times to taekwondo games but didnt get qualified but I also participated in these Mini Olympic games and won second place

Obstacles’ in my way

Another year passed and more and more of my team mates dropped out. They either chose to do that because they were bored of it or because of school (more H/W etc.). In 2015 almost all of the "big kids" had dropped out and found myself alone with another boy training with the younger class. If it weren’t for him in not sure that I would have physically been able to keep going. Taekwondo is a partnered sport so if you don’t have a suitable partner you can’t train properly. 

Unfortunately for me, last year he also took a break from it so I was left entirely alone and was made to go to the younger group and train with them which was annoying and difficult. You might be wondering why I kept hold on it for so long...

 Taekwondo isn't  just a sport or an extra activity for me but it is a passion and I fell in love with it and am dedicated to it now. Doing something for that long leaves a mark in your heart and I can’t just give up on it if im in a difficult position. 

Last October I decided to enter some more competitions alone, at the 2nd of December. Sad to say, those games got cancelled and I was devastated. Not because I was not going to get to go to those games but because I had worked so hard for it and had to go to a dietitian to lose more weight all to be shattered in front of me. 

I fell to the ground and wanted to give up. I felt like it wasn’t enough and the universe was preventing me from doing so. I decided it would be wise to take a break for a while, but instead I started teaching toddlers helping my coach voluntarily. A few months past and it was April and I saw that a few kids had returned to the lessons so decided to give it a go again. I did a tremendous demo at the beggining of the summer at this big open air night club we have that let us use the space and got my groove back ;)

Can’t just run away from it 

I am currently going regularly to lessons since 

we have formed a small group of 6 that are the new "big kids group" and am training to go to some championships in December. 

I changed from being the youngest in my group to being the oldest and wisest.

I have to admit. I am scared, intimidated and anxious about these games... this is my little secret, I may seem confident and a previous medal winner but deep down I feel as though I’m not good enough, not experienced enough... 

What I have to say though is that I have a special place in my heart for this sport and it's a part of me. It’s shaped my life and it’s something I cant just back down on, I love it and everything it’s provided me. I could write even more here but ill stop now ':) 

I have learnt so much during my occupation with taekwondo, and have matured a lot. I have my whole life ahead me and it has helped me understand things and helped me understand how I should deal with tricky situations.

 Still, I’m going to keep my head high and believe in myself because if I don’t I’m bound to fail. 
I have always been an advocate of sports and hobbys and this just goes to show how the road to success may be hard but dont give up!

This was my taekwondo story, my hobby that is a bit more than just a hobby...

Thank you for taking the time to read this, 

Tina x