March 23, 2005
Belting the competition
Local Taekwon-Do students take 20 medals, trophies at tournament
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
When her students returned from a recent competition festooned with trophies and medals, Master Marti Lynn's thoughts turned to the real trophies they earned: the ones in their hearts. Put there by weeks, months and years of commitment to training, being their best and pushing their limits at her do-jang.
Proud as she was of these 18 Taekwon-Do students earning a total of 20 medals and trophies at the Grand Master Yu's Tournament on March 12 in Whitmore Lake, Lynn puts it in perspective: a tournament is a one-day snapshot of countless hours of work.
"The ones that they carry inside, the spirit of martial arts training makes the medals you can't see, the ones in their hearts," said Lynn, owner of Traverse City Martial Arts Center for eight years. "All those trophies, they are just metal, wood and marble, the real trophy you have to earn inside."
Calling them all champions, she pointed to their behavior at the tournament, which drew 257 Taekwon-Do students from schools around the state.
"I was most proud of how courteous they were, how very humble, thankful and happy out there they were, every one of them," she recalled. "It was a very exciting day."
Lynn's students who competed in Grand Master Yu's Tournament ranged in age from 6 to 43, with belt levels from white to second degree black belt.
A yellow belt studying Taekwon-Do for just a few months total, Brittany Bailey competed in her first tournament. Her mastery of the forms and style of executing them earned her first place against 30 other competitors of her age and rank. She also earned second place in free fighting that day.
"I like it [Taekwon-Do] because it's fun and that helps me do it," said Bailey, a fifth-grade student at Courtade Elementary School who attends Korean martial classes two times a week. "It was my first competition, I was nervous."
Rowan Stringer, 11, is a veteran of a number of tournaments but this most recent one is the first time she returned victorious. The sixth-grade student at Central Grade School took first place in free fighting at her red belt rank. Taking more of a right brain approach to the discipline, Stringer acknowledges she struggles with the prescribed forms of the sport. Cutting lose in the two-minute free fights is her forte.
"I wasn't really nervous because I know I'm a good fighter," she said. "I've never lost a fight since I became a red belt."
Jack Siderman, also 11, is just the opposite of Stringer: loves the forms and struggles more with the fighting. Siderman, who has been studying Taekwon-Do for nearly two years, took first place in sparring for his age and red belt rank and second place in forms.
"I tried really hard, did my best," said the fifth-grad student in the Central Grade School TAG program who aspires to achieve black belt rank. "It did make me more competitive, this is my second real tournament, with two other mini-tournaments."
Lynn said she takes students to tournaments about twice a year, carefully choosing those that meet her standards for competition and sportsmanship. Lynn, a fifth degree black belt who has been studying Taekwon-Do for more than 27 years, judges at the tournaments she and her students attend.
"It's worth traveling to a good tournament," she noted. "But tournaments are a one-shot deal so we don't want them to do a lot of competition."
"But they all acted like champions on the day of the tournament," Lynn concluded of her students.