South West Bunbury Invitational Tournament a Challenge
The Club level invitational organised by the South West Taekwondo Academy ended up being a bit of a challenge for the ATA members who competed there. You can view the results here. The competition was held over two days at the Bunbury PCYC on Saturday August 2 and Sunday August 3.
Being a good tournament to get our Nationals players ready and prepped, it turned out to be a bit on the small side. As it sometimes is with club invitationals, there may not be enough players to fill up certain categories. As it turned out, there were some entries that had no divisions, so they did not journey down south to Bunbury for the tournament. Being 4 weeks away from the Nationals in Sydney – this was a well timed tournament so that players can gain more insight to improve and have enough time for recovery from injury.
The ATA Poomsae contingent was dominated by Richard Huynh, our highest ranked, longest practiced taekwondo competitor that day. He topped scored for the day with a score of 89 for Individual Traditional Poomsae and then 94 for Individual Creative Poomsae – clearly above the rest of the field. Roy Khoh entered the same divisions for a little competition and found it very, VERY challenging indeed to meet up to Richard’s level. Roy ended up with 87 for Traditional and 86 for Creative. There was a clear difference in style in their creative poomsae; Roy was first with a more quick flowing sparring style creative, then Richard stepped up and showed the spectators how it was meant to be done, with mainly slow control in tempo and rhythm combined with finesse and power.
Sunday brought the fighters and referees from ATA group. Jed Calicdan, Roy Khoh and Aleisha Vincent officiated that entire day. It gave valuable experience for Jed and Roy since we also centre-refereed. The fighters found a rough time of it in their endeavours to become champion. Warming up was a hard task in the ever-so-cold hall. Being a South West Tournament, a lot of our competition were South West Taekwondo Academy students. I’ve always held their sparring ability in high regard. Many of their style being biased towards being defensive and reacting; and when they react – they time and place their attacks accurately!
Quinn Fernando almost had a hiccup in the weighing room and all was eventually resolved for him to continue the tournament. Kevin Cloud had a tall ask – literally! His opponent was a clear head taller than Kevin, so there was a clear reach advantage for the other guy. Ryan Nafranec showed good form and tactics, though in the end was bettered by the other player 3-1.
Though it was a challenge, it is in the eyes of the competitors how they view it and how they continue forward. Everything is in motion, and if we choose to remain the same then we’re definitely not moving forward, we must be moving backwards. I’m sure all the competitors can find one small aspect to improve on and we’ll see them again at the next meet.
Tags: club tournament, competition result, creative poomsae, lessons, traditional poomsae, wisdom
