Hyeon Mu Taekwondo Success!

Rayyan Balasmeh from Room 11 recently competed and won in the Hyeon Mu Taekwondo national tournament in Christchurch.

In this year's competition, Rayyan won a bronze medal in Colourbelt Individual Poomsae Competition and one gold medal in Colourbelt Team Poomsae Competition. The Grand Master from the Dunedin Taekwondo Club described Rayyan as a diligent athlete who works very hard and accepts new things positively and quickly. What a fantastic achievement. This is Rayyan's recount on his tournament success. 

On the 7th of August, my family and I set off to Christchurch because my Dad and I were participating in the Hyeon Mu Taekwondo tournament. There were 24 clubs that participated from 16 cities/towns all around New Zealand. There were 4 categories in the tournament: Kyogre(Sparring)/individual, Poomsae/Partner Poomsae/Team

Kyorugi

Kyorugi or more known as 'Sparring' is one of the disciplines of Taekwond.  It’s a free form fight between two people. You are wearing body pads on and and head gear  to protect yourself from the hits. A hit to the body is 2 points, a hit to the head guard is 3 and a punch to the body is 1 point. The back turn kick on either head or body gives you an extra point, and a knockout is an automatic win. When you are high belts you wear sensors on the shoes and there are sensors on the body pad to make it easier to know if you scored a point or not. I didn’t fight because I am still new and not skilled enough to fight. My club had people involved in Sparring and won Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Poomsae

Poomsae is a pattern of defence and attack motion, it’s everything that your belt learns put into one. I completed in the individual poomsae, team poomsae and partner poomsae. I’m on the orange belt which means I have to do two Poomsae.

In the team Poomsae they focus more on the speed and power of your blocks and attacks and also see if everyone is doing the same thing at the same pace and time. In that category, my team won the gold medal and it was my first medal to win in Taekwondo. I was happy about that and it gave me more confidence. Next I had the partner Poomsae, it's basically the same thing but a bit more strict. My final Poomsae was up. I was the last one to go and I believe I did the best in terms of speed, strength and my stance. I won a bronze medal which I guess isn’t bad, my master believes the reason I lost was because I was going too hard and didn’t relax and in Poomsae, you're meant to only tense up a bit when you do your motion.