Taekwondo Tourney

On Saturday, my mom accompanied the monkeys to their very first Taekwondo tournament. It just happened to fall on a day that I had to work and Warren had to take his praxis exams.

Satchel was the one who really wanted to go. Jiro waffled back and forth up until the day before. My mom reported that when it came time to come, he didn't put up a fight and happily went along.

Jiro's age group was first. They did the pattern of their choice and then drills.


I thought that they were just participating to get patches for their uniforms. It never occurred to me that they'd actually be judged. (Duh, tournament = competition!)


At about 10:30 I got a phone call and the little voice on the other end said, "Mommy, I won!" Jiro took the first place trophy for his drills! How awesome is that?


Satchel's group went next...


At noon, my mom called me again. I answered, "Please tell me that Satchel won something." He did--third place for his Do San pattern. "He's embarrassed," my mom said. (He wouldn't even let her take his picture!)

Since I was at work, I had to leave it up to her to solve the conflict. I was reminded of our last fishing trip when Jiro caught the hugest fish ever and Satchel just caught an ordinary one.

Satchel is so naturally good at everything, and Jiro is always in his shadow, so I was finding it hard to feel too sorry for him. Thankfully by the time I picked them up, Satchel's first words to me were, "Look at the awesome trophy Jiro won! And check out my medal." He was genuinely happy for him, and not at all embarrassed anymore.

My mom said she told Satchel that brothers don't compete, they support each other. After pointing out that they could technically compete someday of they had the same belts, he agreed with her and changed his attitude.

Thanks, Mom!