This past weekend DS10 competed at the American Taekwondo Association (ATA) Northeastern District Championships in 9-10 Blackbelt forms and traditional weapons. Qualification was somewhat of a surprise to us. The ATA uses a NASCAR style points system for qualifying. You get points for placing in the many competitions hosted around the country during the year. Then at the end of the year, state champions are determined for each of the categories based on accumulated points, and the qualifiers for districts are determined. Because of COVID-19, last year's competitions were cancelled, and this year's qualifiers were based on last year's competitions. While we knew that DS10 had points from last year, we were surprised to find out that he had enough to qualify (we found out when the ATA sent notices to the schools that their students qualified for District Championships). We suspect that many of those who would have otherwise qualified had dropped out of the ATA and TKD during COVID (while DS10 had continued training through his school that supported virtual classes). But, since both of us (parents) are in fields where careers are marked by perseverance through the events of life, the COVID-19 pandemic is merely one of those life events, but experienced by everyone, and everyone made decisions that allowed them to progress or not in their chosen areas.
After learning that he qualified for Districts, DS10 now joined the ranks of those who travel for tournaments. We have typically only gone to tournaments that were local (i.e. no hotel stay required), but we always noticed the number of competitors that traveled to tournaments from other states (in most cases, because the points to be gained were valid in their pursuit of their state and district qualifiers at the end, but there were some traveling competitors at the novice sections as well). When he was younger, our philosophy of tournaments was that DS10 needed to be exposed to the quality of those outside his immediate circle (school). Again, both parents have the philosophy that the only way of assessing the quality of a person in an area is to see how they fare when directly compared to a larger population. Because until you are compared outside your home, you can never know how good you really are. And then knowing what is possible gives one intrinsic motivation to become better. And not just in the area of competition, but in all areas of life (i.e. become a better human being).
In preparing for the tournament, TKD had gone from a sideline during the pandemic to an area of focus (it helped that he just had piano competitions that meant these areas were ramping down). This meant regular sessions with dad in the basement and weekly private lessons at the ATA school to ramp up his TKD over two months.
For the competition itself, we did not have high expectations. The majority of the competitors in the ring had state and district champion patches (meaning they were state or district champions in past years). So the goal was to do well (i.e. not get last :-) ) And his scores were in line with reasonably good, but not exceptional.
More useful was the post-competition talk. DS10 reports that during competition his world got very small, and he noticed nothing but himself and the judge. So we explained that this was the feeling that he wants to have, that sense of being able to concentrate and focus so that nothing else matters and he enters the zone. This for us is the value of the competition, not winning or loosing, but understanding what it means to prepare to do your best in the moment, and how that moment feels when you are doing your best (and contrast to when you did not do your best). Because that is a feeling that can be repeated in all parts of your life. Next, exposure to the reality that the world is bigger than your day to day life, and the people around you are not competition, but fellow travelers on that path (even if we are regularly reminded that people around us do not agree with this belief).
