As many know, my son is a Red Belt in Tae Kwon Do. He's exceptionally gifted and absolutely loves the sport.
His school does traditional TKD and little sparring. The sparring they do is "point sparring" which the referee stops the competition and the judges declare if they saw the point or not.
That is different then "Olympic" style sparring which is continuous.
Todays rules were 7 point difference (once you get seven ahead you win), 12 point ceiling, Two 2 minute rounds, Tie breaker is first point wins. This is the first time he's ever done this type of sparring. He's been training really hard for this.
He did forms first. Six in his group, he won the first, won the second, and won the third to take first place in forms.
Then in sparring, his first opponent was their coaches son. He wound up in a 9-9 tie at the end of the second period and they went to a next point wins tiebreaker. My son got in the shot and won against this boy who has never been eliminated from medals in a tournament before.
Second match was a little easier. This boy got a bye in the first round. My son beat him 11-4 (seven point spread).
The last match for the gold was a tough battle. At the end of the first round the score was 9-8 with my son behind by one. The other boy only needed three points to win (12 points wins). My son came out strong and fast and quickly scored. He wound getting 4 quick points and won 12-9!
He worked very hard for this, and he got a long ways to go. But if he stays dedicated, and works hard, there's no telling how much he can accomplish.
* The best thing I heard was that one of the referees and a judge who watched his match told his coach that he takes direction from the coach very well. His coach would call a combination like "Push, 1, 1, 3" and then "NOW!" and my son would immediately do that combo.
I'll trim up some video and get it out.
