MIT Sport TKD Blog

Tonight, olympic taekwondo started in Beijing.

First, let me say that it looks like fighting at the olympics would be AWESOME. There is one center stage, raised on a pyramid structure, with four corner judges sitting outside the yellow boundaries. The coach sits at the base of the pyramid while the two competitors fight, like gladiators on a pyre.

(from Day Life)

Tonight (rather, starting on Aug 20 at 9 AM Beijing time), the men’s and women’s fin/flyweight divisions fought. Included was American team member Charlotte Craig, the least spotlighted member of the US Olympian team, otherwise known somewhat simplistically as “All in the family.” You hear so much about the Lopezes that sometimes, it’s easy to overlook Charlotte, who also normally trains at a different studio (Jiro in LA, instead of Elite in Texas.)

But I have to say she came out blazing and her kicks were solid. You can see matches at nbcolympics.com, although I’m sure the finals matches will be much more interesting. I guess around this time (3 am) they are going to start the 2nd round of sparring, but I will probably be asleep soon, and will simply read about the results tomorrow.

I hope everyone gets a chance to watch the US team, as well as the other international superstars, fight through their brackets. On one hand, olympic taekwondo is such a high level of competition and is amazing to watch. On the other hand, you can really see that the basics we are learning are all that you need, but simply raised to a very high level of athleticism and experience. As we watched the match between Venezuela and Portugal, Master Sinn and I began to spar and kick hogu in my small studio apartment, trying to imitate the girls with the amazing left leg turning kicks. Yes, even the flyweight girls would beat me down.

The schedule and links to streaming taekwondo:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/taekwondo/index.html

mmm, this is my last week of interning. i can’t wait. as much as i enjoyed working at bose, i really can’t keep up this wacky sleep schedule. sleeping at 11PM is a lot harder than you’d think, especially if your friends sleep much later. i also don’t like having the option of napping during work. sadness.

anyway, onto the real purpose of this blog post. out of spontaneity, i decided to make a video of the mit sport taekwondo girls, specifically the A/B team girls. yes, just for fun maybe it’ll be used for orientation. then girls can see that they can do this kind of hard physical contact sport despite their athleticism.  sorry alum, there were too many girls ~.~ i got really of doing the video by the time i finished all the current members.

check it out:

avi version (~800mb): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LF4L5YE5
mp4 version (~80mb): http://web.mit.edu/chui/www/sport%20taekwondo/tkdgirls.mp4

i’ll try to upload a wmv and mp4 version on the gallery.  enjoy!

HOME!

 

I got home on June 11^th, flew in at Zia International Airport in Dhaka at night which is Bangladesh’s capital and not my home. Home sweet home is Chittagong.  The first person I saw was Abba (Bengali for dad).  I put out my T-mobile phone card from my razor and inserted my local SIM card and dialed my father.  We talked through the glass coz I hadn’t been cleared through my immigration paperwork yet.  A year is a long time not to see abba.

 

I couldn’t rest very long at Chittagong.  Although I am home, I have a HUMONGOUS project to carry out. I am working, with a friend, to implement a youth leadership training program that incorporates three different types of kids in my hometown.  There are three schooling systems here: English (of which yours sincerely is a product of) a.k.a. rich, spoilt kids, (which yours sincerely is NOT), Bengali (the state language and state supported schools) more middle class, and Islamic madrassas (which focus a lot on Islamic/religious education).  There is great disconnect between peers of these three mediums.  We want to bring these kids together in the spirit of responsible leadership through community service.  The project was one of the winners of the Davis Peace Prize 2008 (

 

English kid: OMG! Doooddee, I just learnt this killer break dance move from Step Up2.

 

Bengali kid:  I must have perfect grades so that I can go to a good university to support my family.

 

Madrassa kid: I am sidelined because people think I am a ‘Islamic fundamentalist’.  I will get rejected from a top-brass job because I have a beard and wear the Islamic cap.

 

Disclaimer: I am grossly stereotyping and would probably get shot if any of the kids saw this blog!

 

I started work on this almost immediately after I got here.  We are working here with a partner organization.  So the rest of June and the WHOLE of July has been swallowed up in getting applicants for the program, screening applications, getting a venue, training facilitators, keeping track of thousands of dollars, making ten gazillions phone calls, answering ten gazillion phone calls, and basically going nuts.  But by the grace of God, the program has kicked and is running with AMAZING colors.  The kids are so enthusiastic, so positive, they have been bonding really well, and they really believe they can make a change in their community and country.  We went for a field trip to a local slum yesterday.  The kids have to design community service projects that cater to the need of the slum dwellers. Example: one group came up with the idea of directing a play with the children of the slum to demonstrate the dangers of illiteracy, so that families send their children to school.

 

Program will end on August 16^th with a huge graduation ceremony inshAllaah. The kids deserve it, they have been working their gluts off.  True my summer is being swallowed whole with backbreaking work, and I am actually looking forward to the time when I will be back on campus doing solid mechanics classes and annoying psets (aaahhh good times ))  But this will be an experience for me to remember for the rest of my life and it might have even changed the course of my life. 

 

P.S.  I am also guilty of treason.  I have returned to my karate club, and have been training there for the whole summer. BUT I have been practicing my TKD kicks on my kicking bag and on my karate-mates.  I made my club use the same warm-up drills like plyo jumps that we do at practice. There were a lot of groans when I made everyone do the plank for 40s!

 

P.P.S  The whole credit for this entry to THE Mary.  She threatened never to cut weight to make me spar heavy for the rest of my life.