National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships, April 6-8, 2018

Late post, since I needed to catch up with school. 

Earlier this month, 1 week after my training trip to La Loma High Performance Center in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, I embarked once again with Stanford Taekwondo to Washington D.C. There, we arrived at the competition we've been preparing for: The National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships. 

Washington D.C. is a beautiful city (And REALLY cold!), and it was neat to finally visit the capital of the United States. We got to explore around for a while and visit a few museums. The White House was nearby as well and it was a surreal experience to see something I've always seen in textbooks, T.V., and on the internet. 

I fought on April 8th, the last day of the competition. Unfortunately, I did not get the result I wanted nor performed the way I wanted to. A major problem that affected not only myself, but other athletes competing was the new mats that were used. New mats means that they are extremely slippery and they had caused many athletes that weekend to be limited in what they could do. Athletes who were heavier and more stable with their fighting styles had no problem with the mats. This did not extend to athletes who tend to move around a lot such as myself, however. 

Of course, not all of the blame is on the mats. There were things I did in the ring that I should have done better as well. This competition has shown me these things about myself and now I have come out of the competition as a better competitor and athlete. I will take what I have learned to fix what I need to fix in preparation for Nationals in July. 

Thank you again to Stanford Taekwondo for funding me and allowing me to be a part of your team.