Many of you have already signed up for the upcoming national martial arts Tournament. I cannot stress to everyone enough how important it is to compete in tournaments. I have been in Taekwondo for over 15 years and I am telling you that tournament participation has a direct effect on becoming a more confident person.  

Contrary to what a lot of people might think, my husband and I never pushed any of our kids to take Taekwondo, or to keep up with it once they’d started. It was always something that each of them wanted to do on their own, and they all competed in their first tournaments as Lil’ Tigers and then Ninjas.

I truly believe that the motivation of participating in tournaments and the drive it gave them to get better as martial artists is one of the biggest reasons that they’ve stuck with Taekwondo for over 3 years now. Never once did they ask to quit. Everyone wants to be the best at something, and tournaments give you an excellent opportunity to see just how good you can be (and push you to try and be just a little bit better next time).

I don’t know how many parents get the chance to watch how much harder their children work in the few weeks leading up to their Belt Testing, but I always love to see how much harder the students work when they realize how close it is. 

They answer louder, bend their knees more in their stances, and become so focused on their goal of a new belt that in those two weeks they look forward to getting to class and doing their best every day. Belt Testings motivate students to be the absolute best that they can be, but tournaments will motivate them to be even better than their own best.

Taekwondo is an individual sport. As a school, we are one big team, but each student is constantly measured against his or her own personal best. There are very few chances for students to see how they truly measure up against other Taekwondo students who are close to the same age and rank. In fact, tournaments are one of the only chances we have to do just that.

Several children have told me they cannot compete because they have basketball practice, skating practice or that their parents just said “No”. 

These students will be missing out on an opportunity to compete with the country’s leading martial artists in Taekwondo. This is our OLYMPICS! There will NOT be another chance for you to compete in Dallas on such a NATIONAL stage for another two years.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity because you have other practice - there is a practice every week. Don’t miss out because you are not ready - we have free tournament clinics for that reason. And we can schedule private lessons too. 

This is a golden chance to make yourself better – TAKE IT!