ITF Hunter Valley Championships 2011

ITF Hunter Valley Championships

(Report By Rick Scholes)

The ITF Hunter Valley Championships hosted by IL Shim Aberdeen was to be the first tournament held in Muswellbrook for many years, and in my 5 years of practicing Taekwon-Do it was to be my first home ground tournament.

I have never experienced a tournament in my home town before so I was excited that all my family and friends could be there to watch.

On the morning of the competition I arrived to see competitors that had come from as far as Queensland and Victoria gathering at the stadium. There were about 80 students from all over with roughly 15 of those coming from the local Aberdeen class. Students were able to compete in such disciplines as sparring, power breaking, special technique, patterns and pre-arranged sparring. I myself competed in all events except for power breaking.

The atmosphere in the hall felt great and watching all the students compete fiercely but fairly was very rewarding, and with the large crowd gathered around cheering everyone on this only made the experience even better. Everyone seemed to be having a great day. The level of competition was tough and I can see that our juniors coming up through the ranks are showing true spirit.

This was to be the first tournament where I would step inside the ring as a centre referee and I was nervous. But thanks to the seminars and master classes I have attended in the past, which are run by some very experienced and helpful instructors from within our organisation, I had the basic skills and knowledge to referee the juniors through some intense and exhilarating sparring bouts. This was a new experience for me and one that I enjoyed and would recommend to all students to get in and have a go.

I have competed in over 20 tournaments in my Taekwon-Do career, with some of them being on an international level. Seeing how other clubs and countries have run tournaments and competing at this one, I can say that it was a credit to the hard work put in by everyone involved with organising it. It all ran very smoothly and on time without any major hiccups.

This was also to be the very first tournament for quite a lot of the competitors, so it was great that they could experience such a well organised event.

With the ITF Hunter Valley Championships now being an annual event, I would gladly encourage more clubs and lots more students to come and enjoy the fun next year. View the Photos here