The U.S. Open Taekwondo Hanmadang Championship
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The TKC Seraphim (the name of our demonstration team) and Master and Instructors competed at the 2015 U.S. Open Taekwondo Hanmadang (June 19-20th, 2015), one of the biggest Taekwondo tournament in the nation. Athletes from 40 different states, and 10 different countries came to the World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado to compete with one another. From this competition, we brought back some great news!
The U.S. Open being one of the biggest tournaments in the States, it has a lot of different events that a martial artist can compete in, such as Individual Traditional Form, Archery, Individual Jumping High Kick, Team Creative Form with Weapon, Championship Team Demonstration, and many more. In individual events such as Individual Traditional Form, Individual Jumping High Kick, Individual Spinning Hook Kick, and Individual Skipping Side Kick, our Taekwondo school's students, Instructors, and Masters were able to get many first, second, and third places.
Now, this tournament is known for its Championship Team Demonstration (CTD) event. CTD is a very unique event that only big tournaments have. In CTD, a team (a group of 5 to 40) is given about 5 minutes (at the U.S. Open, it was 7 minutes), and in that time, the team can perform whatever they want to with their choice of background music. Usually teams perform anything from board breaking to choreographed, synchronized movements. Participants call this event the "flower" of the tournament since it involves the most people, practice, and preparation, and the entire arena stops to watch this competition. With our performance, the TKC Seraphim was able to get 3rd place! Our hard work paid off.
“In reality, TKC Seraphim made numerous mistakes in their competition. Their lines were off, straps weren’t worn, boards weren’t brought out for breaking, and many more. Furthermore, I was worried that the hopeful message of our performance, the Savior defeating and bringing salvation to the evil force, might not have been delivered clearly. When the nerve-racking and infinitely long 7 minutes had passed, my team was drenched in sweat. Even I was drained from breathlessly watching them. However, above all other emotions, my heart was overflowing with love, gratefulness, adoration for TKC Seraphim.
TKC Seraphim placed 3rd. But this 3rd place brought astronomical joy and gratitude, far greater than receiving 1st place. On top of the Team Demonstration Event, our TKC Masters brought back numerous gold medals from their individual competitions. Other TKC Seraphim members received 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and our joy and gratitude added up.
As I conclude our experience at the 2015. U.S. Open Hanmadang Championship, I can declare that we experienced the fruit of indomitable spirit. Every single drop of sweat and tears before we embarked on this venture made it possible. It was a thrilling experience. I experienced a miracle of Taekwondo Korea Center.
Job 8:7
”Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.””