The Middle School Championships

The middle school championships in Seoul was an exciting event made even more exciting by the excellent organization. This event was our first exposure to the value of electronic scoring: no time was wasted on collecting corner judges cards. With all scores immediately posted to the scoreboard, referees essentially managed the matches, announced the victors, and ushered in the next pair of competitors. The staging personnel ensured that competitors for each ring were ready at the conclusion of each match. And the spectators had the advantage of watching a continuous succession of competitive matches.

This was also our first exposure to another facet of national competition in Korea: the lack of injuries or devastating techniques. The enthusiasm of the competitors was obvious by the variety of techniques employed, but there was simply no time wasted with injury timeouts or apparent performance impairment due to damage from the variety of techniques. Competitors did not stop until told to do so by the referee and not by their own accord.

After the championships, we visited the Songmoosa store near the Kukkiwon for a little shopping before returning to the campus. Upon hearing our schedule for the day, Dr. Min organized a 7:30 pm training session since we did not come to Korea for only two workouts per day. This workout was the opportunity to discover if we could match the enthusiasm of the middle school competitors earlier in the day.