Poomsae Competition

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm playing catch-up on everything that has happened so far in the TKD journey. I'm trying to be chronological about it but I may skip around a little bit from time to time.

The next major event was our first Poomsae (sometimes spelled Poomse) competition. Poomsae means "Form" in Korean. This is essentially a non-sparring competition where everyone competes individually by doing their best at the "form" for their belt level. It's "mandatory participation". However, that didn't quite fit in with us. My youngest had a prior engagement already lined up from before we started and two days before the competition I pulled a muscle in my lower back and really couldn't do much of anything. Therefore, only my oldest daughter actually competed. She was a trooper about being the only one competing from our family and placed 1st in her initial group of competitors. The next stage of the competition then had all the 1st place winners compete where she placed about middle of the pack.

The form for our "yellow belt" level was what the dojang calls "blocking set #1". There are a prescribed set of forms (the Tae Guk Poomsae) that are taught at all dojangs that I've seen around here. My dojang actually holds off on teaching those forms until you are a green belt. Blocking set #1 is a combination of low block, middle block, and high block with an alternating front stance as you do the left side and right side.