Tae Kwon Do Tournament 2013

Last weekend the boys had their TKD tournament -- it was little Max's first time.

He was competing in three 'events':  1) Family form -- where he and his dad would do the gold belt form together (in sync); 2) his individual gold belt form; and 3) board breaking).

I was hoping he wouldn't be nervous or anxious...since it was something new and sometimes he gets overly hesitant when he doesn't know what to expect. But, we had been practicing his form all.week.long, so he knew what to do and was at least prepared to do that part.

First up, right away when we got there, the boys did their family form together.  I had tears in my eyes.  They ROCKED it!  Not a single mistake!!  Way to GO Maxes!!

And the best part is they won FIRST PLACE!  Little Max was SO excited!

Then he went on to perform his individual form (same thing just by himself).  We think the 'guide' messed him up a little bit, but he still did a fantastic job.  I should mention this was after over 1.5 hrs of WAITING...waiting in a line marked '5 year olds', and then waiting and watching ALL the other belts go first.  I was surprised he wasn't a hot mess at that point...because I was!

And he won first place again!  They set up the tournament in a really great way to build self esteem in these kids.  Basically, when you get up to 'compete' you are competing against 4 other peers.  At the end, each one of you will get SOMETHING...1st-4th place.  And at 5 years old, the kids can't really differentiate between a first place trophy and a 4th place medal.  In fact, I think Max was more excited about his medal than his trophy...until he figured out his trophy was bigger than his dad's trophy.  Then, he just kept pointing out that 'his was bigger'.  LOL

After that, MORE waiting to do board breaking.  We hadn't originally signed him up to break any boards, but he really wanted to.  So he broke two boards with kicks.

He won fourth place for  his board breaking.  Overall it was a great time.  It was a great way to build his self-esteem and show him that there are rewards for what he is working so hard to do/learn.  We were all super proud of him, and he loves showing off his trophies! (Beware if you come to visit!)