Young tae kwon do athletes head to nationals

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BANGOR – Jason McGowan is anxious but “kinda lookin’ forward to it.”

The “it” to which the 14-year-old refers is the trip he and the Bangor YMCA Tae Kwon Do Club will make Sunday, June 30, to Minneapolis, where they will compete in the Junior National Tae Kwon Do Tournament. The tournament, at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, ends Saturday, July 6.

For McGowan, this is his first trip outside of Maine for tae kwon do.

Others have had more experience. This will be the fourth appearance in the nationals for 11-year-old Ryan Robichaud.

“I expect to do good, and hope to do well,” Robichaud said.

Lillian Smith, 10, will be making her third trip. Of her first time to Texas, she said it was “big” and “difficult to understand things because I was quite little then, but it was fun.”

For this excursion, she has high expectations.

“I hope to get gold medals in at least two divisions,” Smith said.

Kate Leino, 9, acknowledges she is “nervous” and “excited” about her second trip to the tournament. The girl hopes for at least a silver, but she’s “pretty sure I’ll get a gold.”

According to Coach Jamie Smith, more than 4,000 youths will be in Minneapolis to compete in tae kwon do, a Korean form of self-defense.

The athletes, ranging in age from 7 to 14, will compete in gyoroogi (free sparring) and poomse (forms).

The entrants are split into groups divided by gender, age, belt color and weight in gyoroogi. In poomse, participants are split up by belt rank, grade and, for black belts, by degrees.

In addition to the two one-hour sessions in preparation for the national championship, the athletes have two other one-hour practices.

Practice begins with the instructor using Korean commands. This can be difficult, as Leino said, because, “It’s hard to understand because they speak Korean and I wouldn’t understand what they are saying.”

After respectful bows, they begin calisthenics.

After that, they form a line to practice kicks. The method involves kicking different padding at different levels, one about shin level, the other about chest level.

Aaron Knight, 10, is the first junior black belt in the class.

“I’ll do better [at this championship] because I’ve learned to do a double kick off the back leg,” he said. After the kicks, the athletes put on head and trunk protectors, and begin to spar.

“I like sparring,” said Eliott Smith. So does Ryan Robichaud, who added he liked sparring “because of the competition.”

Lillian Smith said she likes “the competitions and getting medals.” In fact, according to Susie Smith, Eliot and Lillian’s mother, Eliott got a medal first, so Lillian had to beat him and get one back.

But that’s not all that motivates Lillian Smith. The 10-year-old likes “helping my friends learn things to get into higher grades.”

Her motivation at the beginning was different. She saw her dadusing martial arts weapons and became interested. Others have different reasons.

Jason McGowan began tae kwon do “to do something to get into shape, to do something that is good for me.”

Aaron Knight thought he could learn respect and thought it would be a fun sport. Eliott Smith and Kate Leino had a common reason to begin – to defend themselves against bullies.

The motivation helped when learning became tough.

According to Lillian Smith, trying to memorize things like forms and moves was hard.

Kate Leino said it wasn’t like horseback riding or gymnastics, which were easy for her to learn.

“[It is] very hard to learn the Korean rote,” she said.

But, as Aaron Knight said, “When you learn the first time, it’s hard. When you learn the second, it’s easy.”

The instructor finishes the session with some running, which is made more fun for the children because the youngsters are padded – they can literally run into the wall and bounce away harmlessly.

It’s not just all about the effort.

“I like having to be here, seeing my friends,” Aaron Knight said.

Participating members are Todd Baker, Ariel Hall, Mickey Heath, Kody Hornick, Min Hwang, Aaron Knight, Kate Leino, Nicholas Lister, Jason McGowan, Danielle Mercure, Sadie Redman, Ryan Robichaud, Eliott Smith and Lillian Smith.

The coaches are Chase Poulsen, Jamie Smith and Buffy Robichaud.