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

hey everyone, for those who don’t know, Alicia, RDC and I are going to be competing at Senior Nationals one week from today. (No, not senior as in senior citizen.) We’ll be in Detroit on July 1st, weighing in and then pigging out, and competing on the 2nd. Others you might know will also be there - Jayson Grant, know for his on court dances, and Ana K from CW and some friday practices.

But that means this week we’re going to be miserable, because we are cutting weight. If you think dropping 6 pounds by next tuesday is impossible, you haven’t eaten Trader Joe’s High Fiber Cereal (yea yea that’s my real blog too. everyone and their mother has one). The good thing about it, i guess, is i will be beach ready next week. So Mary, plan a beach trip soon please!

If you’re around this summer, it would be awesome to bring some new people to the club. I’m having a great time teaching the beginners, and would love to have a large group of awesome new people like we did after last summer. And if you’re around, lets play more ultimate frisbee…even if i’m not just doing it to cut weight.