_Simon_
Senior Master
..... that is awesome
.Yep, and even when you have a class where everyone is all over the place and unfocused, often just that one moment where one kid really gets something and has a big smile.... priceless
From Okinawa to Korea
- Thread starter Michele123
- Start date
.Yep, and even when you have a class where everyone is all over the place and unfocused, often just that one moment where one kid really gets something and has a big smile.... priceless
Michele123
Green Belt
So it’s been a few months. We had a crazy busy fall in our family. I felt a bit burnt out for a couple months following the September test and because of family responsibilities have not been able to practice nearly as long as I used to. More like 20min of technique a day instead of the hour I used to.
I still managed to progress enough to test for 3rd gup (and pass) in mid-December. No double-test this time.
Because of time required in advanced ranks before testing, the earliest I could test for black belt would be January 2020. However...
My husband and I had plans to talk about adding to our family starting this spring. We never got a chance to discuss the matter. Apparently we were taking to long and it was meant to be. I ended up pregnant at the end of November. This is going to put a serious kink in my MA progression. Because of the light contact, I’m not longer allowed to spar. Once the baby is born, I will not be allowed to do any MA for at least six weeks. (I’m hoping to be allowed to at least go watch classes because I don’t want to be completely out).
I’m bummed that I’m having to miss all the sparring parts of the tournaments coming up. At least I’m still allowed to go to class in general and still help with the little kids class.
I am thankful for this baby. Just not the timing.
I did finally tell my instructor about the pregnancy and the rules my health provider has instituted. I waited until after my test though because I didn’t want it to influence anything. I’m hoping I can still do my next test but we will see.
I plan to post a thread in the women’s section, but if anyone had any btdt advice about MA while pregnant, I’d love to hear it. I’m happy to hear from both students who were pregnant while studying and instructors who have had pregnant students study under them. Thank you in advance.
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I still managed to progress enough to test for 3rd gup (and pass) in mid-December. No double-test this time.
Because of time required in advanced ranks before testing, the earliest I could test for black belt would be January 2020. However...
My husband and I had plans to talk about adding to our family starting this spring. We never got a chance to discuss the matter. Apparently we were taking to long and it was meant to be. I ended up pregnant at the end of November. This is going to put a serious kink in my MA progression. Because of the light contact, I’m not longer allowed to spar. Once the baby is born, I will not be allowed to do any MA for at least six weeks. (I’m hoping to be allowed to at least go watch classes because I don’t want to be completely out).
I’m bummed that I’m having to miss all the sparring parts of the tournaments coming up. At least I’m still allowed to go to class in general and still help with the little kids class.
I am thankful for this baby. Just not the timing.
I did finally tell my instructor about the pregnancy and the rules my health provider has instituted. I waited until after my test though because I didn’t want it to influence anything. I’m hoping I can still do my next test but we will see.
I plan to post a thread in the women’s section, but if anyone had any btdt advice about MA while pregnant, I’d love to hear it. I’m happy to hear from both students who were pregnant while studying and instructors who have had pregnant students study under them. Thank you in advance.
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CB Jones
Senior Master
Congrats on the future lil karateka or (TKDer?)....
Is your daughter still enjoying TKD?
Michele123
Green Belt
Congrats on the future lil karateka or (TKDer?)....
Is your daughter still enjoying TKD?
Thank you!
Yes. My oldest daughter and my son are both still enjoying TKD. It’s going to get crazy come summer because my oldest daughter will have aged out of the little kid class and will be in the general youth class which is different nights than the little kid class and my son will still be in that one for another two years. Still trying to figure out how we will make the schedule work on that. At least I got an extension to keep her in the little kid class past her birthday until the end of the school year.
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dvcochran
Grandmaster
A big congratulations on the upcoming bundle of joy. FWIW, my wife was 5 months pregnant when she tested for black belt. During the pregnancy she only sparred adult black belts to stem the safety concerns. As far as the rest of the curriculum, she refused to change anything. She worked out into the 8th or 9th month then stopped for about three months. Naturally things in her performance changed as the baby grew but she has always said continuing to work out made the pregnancy go much easier. Keep in touch.
_Simon_
Senior Master
Congratulations on your pregnancy and on your grading! Good to hear from you!
I'm sure some people here will have advice for you. I know that feeling of having to sit on the sidelines for a bit, but there is still plenty of stuff you can work on (flexibility, mobility, light technique work, studying philosophy of your martial art and others) and I also find watching MA videos and training clips to be motivating.
Hope it all goes well. Don't be a stranger!
JR 137
Grandmaster
Congratulations on the pregnancy. Somehow, all the planning in the world is irrelevant when it comes to this stuff. In a good way, of course.
I’m not a woman, nor am I a MA teacher, but I have had several classmates become pregnant, so I’ve got some insight...
No two people are the same. Better yet, no two pregnancies are the same. Case in point: there’s a woman at my dojo who’s had 2 children since I’ve been there. During her first pregnancy, she was able to train right up until about a week before delivering. Seriously. She felt great throughout the entire pregnancy and her physician said to go with it. We were jokingly taking bets as to which kick was going to cause the baby to come out. And she back on the floor about 5 weeks or so afterwards. And she said she felt like she could’ve come back sooner, but she said everyone was telling her to wait, so she did.
Her second pregnancy was quite different. She stopped training at about the 5 month mark. She was too tired, nauseous, dizzy, etc while training. She wasn’t on the floor for about 3 months after delivering. And she wasn’t having an easy time with it either.
I’ve seen both of those and and a lot of in-between. The only thing anyone can really tell you is listen to your body. Unless your physician tells you something else, then listen to what your physician tells you.
I’m not a woman, nor am I a MA teacher, but I have had several classmates become pregnant, so I’ve got some insight...
No two people are the same. Better yet, no two pregnancies are the same. Case in point: there’s a woman at my dojo who’s had 2 children since I’ve been there. During her first pregnancy, she was able to train right up until about a week before delivering. Seriously. She felt great throughout the entire pregnancy and her physician said to go with it. We were jokingly taking bets as to which kick was going to cause the baby to come out. And she back on the floor about 5 weeks or so afterwards. And she said she felt like she could’ve come back sooner, but she said everyone was telling her to wait, so she did.
Her second pregnancy was quite different. She stopped training at about the 5 month mark. She was too tired, nauseous, dizzy, etc while training. She wasn’t on the floor for about 3 months after delivering. And she wasn’t having an easy time with it either.
I’ve seen both of those and and a lot of in-between. The only thing anyone can really tell you is listen to your body. Unless your physician tells you something else, then listen to what your physician tells you.
dvcochran
Grandmaster
Can your son move up? Much better than someone stopping.
Michele123
Green Belt
It’s been awhile. Trying to keep up in Taekwondo while pregnant has had its ups and downs. I’m four months pregnant at this point. The relaxin hormone really did a number on me last month. My foot kept turning under and my balance wasn’t as good as I usually pride myself in it being. I think I’ve finally gotten used to all this.
Last weekend we had a tournament (my son’s first!). I wasn’t allowed to spar. Everyone was against me, my midwife, my instructor, the other high ranking BB. No one would take up my case. We have light contact (or hard if someone isn’t completely in control) but we have chest protectors and baby is still small. I would assume the amniotic fluid would protect baby. Still, no one would agree to let me spar. I was disappointed but in the end it was for the best. My husband had to work so I was alone trying to manage my three kids while also being in the tournament. My 7 & 4 year olds needed help knowing where to go and when and my 2 year old wasn’t in it at all. So juggling her was rough. By the time everything else finished and adult sparing was starting, I was more than ready to get my kids out of there.
They also rented a different space for the tournament this year. It was smaller and no food was allowed inside. I ate before leaving for the tournament, but not being able to have a snack really did me in. By the adult breaking part (the last event before adult sparing) I was shaking from hunger + pregnancy. I was never able to sneak out for a snack because if it wasn’t one of my events, it was one of my kids’. Overall it was a very exhausting and stressful experience. I will not do a tournament again when my husband has to work.
It was fun to see my son get to compete for the first time. It was nice to be able to see him alongside of other four year olds. Forms competition was first. He actually did ok considering he refused to practice with me at home. He remembered the first half of his form for the most part, but was thrown off by the lack of counting. Still, he did better than others in his age/rank group and managed to earn silver. Breaking isn’t done at our gym for 4 year old white belts, so my son had never done it before. It was a help stomp, run to the other side and another heel stomp. He missed both of them and didn’t medal. he was very disappointed but did a good job holding it together. Finally he had sparing. He has also never done this before. This is largely because of the weather we’ve been having. I haven’t been able to take him to any of the sparing seminars. I also forgot to brief him so he pretty much just punched and in Taekwondo, you need to kick to score. So no medal in sparing either. (Though I think he did manage to score one point in each match which isn’t bag considering he had no idea what he was doing or what the rules were).
My daughter ended up with the older kids since she turned seven just before the tournament. Considering she was competing against kids a bit older than herself, I thought she did well. She mixed up her pattern a bit and did the last couple techniques facing the wrong direction and earned a bronze medal. For breaking, she got nervous and didn’t stomp as hard as she has in class (she’s successful done this break a handful of times) and didn’t end up breaking the boards. However, the only ones that *did* break the boards were two boys a touch older. Of the kids that didn’t break the boards, she must have had the best on form and speed because she ended up getting bronze anyway. For sparring, this is where I’m most proud of her. Last year she had no idea what she was doing. We had only made it to one sparring seminar before and she very hesitant. This time she rocked. She was very aggressive and kept kicking without stopping. She did a great job, winning her first match and only barely loosing her second. With all the kids who sparred, there where three tied for first with the same win record. Since she had the overall most points scored, she one gold. I’m very proud of the progress she made and how much she’s learned in this area.
For myself, it was very different competing while four months pregnant. For my pattern I did Taeguk Yuk Jang. They ended up having me compete with only one other person the same rank as I but she was a young teenager. I was nervous since she was younger and more energetic but they had her go first. She was so soft with her techniques, there was no power, and honestly, even though she was doing the same pattern as I, I couldn’t tell what she was doing most of the time. When it was my turn I nailed everything except one trouble spot I stumble over at home fairly often, I skipped a punch, then made a face before continuing. Luckily for me (I guess) the other girl didn’t have much oomph in her form so I still won. Still, I wish I had competed against the other adults but they were lower ranks so I didn’t get to.
This tournament was the first time I got to compete in weapons. We didn’t get to watch each other but I felt good about mine and ended up earning gold so I was pleased with that.
Breaking I didn’t do so well on. First, by this time I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for several hours. Normally this doesn’t bother me but being pregnant it does affect me. I was already a bit shaky. I had to go last and we had 8 boards to break in four stations. We got to pick which breaks and where. The more difficult ones obviously being worth more points. I didn’t feel well enough to pick anything particularly daring so I just did a punch-elbow break combo for my first station. I’ve broken with this before but somehow didn’t break with the punch this time. My second was a turn side kick through two boards. I did fine in this but it isn’t a difficult break by any stretch of the imagination. Then I went for a front kick-back kick combo, again something I’ve done fine before but this time didn’t break the front kick. Finally I didn’t a double roundhouse but decided to switch things up by going high-low instead of low-high. I only broke the high board.
I missed three boards in all and ended up in third place. I was the only female that placed though so maybe that’s ok. The guy who placed second also missed three of his boards but he attempted some trickier breaks (those were the three he missed).
So, that is our tournament experience this time around. Definitely not as enjoyable as past tournaments but that has everything to do with not having another adult to help with my kids and trying to video record everything my kids did so my husband could still see them compete. Even if I had done the same with everything, if my husband had been there so I didn’t have to stress and track the kids so much I’d have had a much better experience.
In three weeks we will have testing. I’ll be testing for brown but the break for that is a twin foot break (jump & simultaneously break two boards with two low front kicks) and they are concerned about me doing it pregnant. They are taking about possible modifications. I don’t want modifications. I want to do the same break everyone else does. I want to *know* that I’m as good as everyone else wearing that belt. They are just concerned about the fall risk for this break, especially with me being off-center from the baby. :/
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Last weekend we had a tournament (my son’s first!). I wasn’t allowed to spar. Everyone was against me, my midwife, my instructor, the other high ranking BB. No one would take up my case. We have light contact (or hard if someone isn’t completely in control) but we have chest protectors and baby is still small. I would assume the amniotic fluid would protect baby. Still, no one would agree to let me spar. I was disappointed but in the end it was for the best. My husband had to work so I was alone trying to manage my three kids while also being in the tournament. My 7 & 4 year olds needed help knowing where to go and when and my 2 year old wasn’t in it at all. So juggling her was rough. By the time everything else finished and adult sparing was starting, I was more than ready to get my kids out of there.
They also rented a different space for the tournament this year. It was smaller and no food was allowed inside. I ate before leaving for the tournament, but not being able to have a snack really did me in. By the adult breaking part (the last event before adult sparing) I was shaking from hunger + pregnancy. I was never able to sneak out for a snack because if it wasn’t one of my events, it was one of my kids’. Overall it was a very exhausting and stressful experience. I will not do a tournament again when my husband has to work.
It was fun to see my son get to compete for the first time. It was nice to be able to see him alongside of other four year olds. Forms competition was first. He actually did ok considering he refused to practice with me at home. He remembered the first half of his form for the most part, but was thrown off by the lack of counting. Still, he did better than others in his age/rank group and managed to earn silver. Breaking isn’t done at our gym for 4 year old white belts, so my son had never done it before. It was a help stomp, run to the other side and another heel stomp. He missed both of them and didn’t medal. he was very disappointed but did a good job holding it together. Finally he had sparing. He has also never done this before. This is largely because of the weather we’ve been having. I haven’t been able to take him to any of the sparing seminars. I also forgot to brief him so he pretty much just punched and in Taekwondo, you need to kick to score. So no medal in sparing either. (Though I think he did manage to score one point in each match which isn’t bag considering he had no idea what he was doing or what the rules were).
My daughter ended up with the older kids since she turned seven just before the tournament. Considering she was competing against kids a bit older than herself, I thought she did well. She mixed up her pattern a bit and did the last couple techniques facing the wrong direction and earned a bronze medal. For breaking, she got nervous and didn’t stomp as hard as she has in class (she’s successful done this break a handful of times) and didn’t end up breaking the boards. However, the only ones that *did* break the boards were two boys a touch older. Of the kids that didn’t break the boards, she must have had the best on form and speed because she ended up getting bronze anyway. For sparring, this is where I’m most proud of her. Last year she had no idea what she was doing. We had only made it to one sparring seminar before and she very hesitant. This time she rocked. She was very aggressive and kept kicking without stopping. She did a great job, winning her first match and only barely loosing her second. With all the kids who sparred, there where three tied for first with the same win record. Since she had the overall most points scored, she one gold. I’m very proud of the progress she made and how much she’s learned in this area.
For myself, it was very different competing while four months pregnant. For my pattern I did Taeguk Yuk Jang. They ended up having me compete with only one other person the same rank as I but she was a young teenager. I was nervous since she was younger and more energetic but they had her go first. She was so soft with her techniques, there was no power, and honestly, even though she was doing the same pattern as I, I couldn’t tell what she was doing most of the time. When it was my turn I nailed everything except one trouble spot I stumble over at home fairly often, I skipped a punch, then made a face before continuing. Luckily for me (I guess) the other girl didn’t have much oomph in her form so I still won. Still, I wish I had competed against the other adults but they were lower ranks so I didn’t get to.
This tournament was the first time I got to compete in weapons. We didn’t get to watch each other but I felt good about mine and ended up earning gold so I was pleased with that.
Breaking I didn’t do so well on. First, by this time I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for several hours. Normally this doesn’t bother me but being pregnant it does affect me. I was already a bit shaky. I had to go last and we had 8 boards to break in four stations. We got to pick which breaks and where. The more difficult ones obviously being worth more points. I didn’t feel well enough to pick anything particularly daring so I just did a punch-elbow break combo for my first station. I’ve broken with this before but somehow didn’t break with the punch this time. My second was a turn side kick through two boards. I did fine in this but it isn’t a difficult break by any stretch of the imagination. Then I went for a front kick-back kick combo, again something I’ve done fine before but this time didn’t break the front kick. Finally I didn’t a double roundhouse but decided to switch things up by going high-low instead of low-high. I only broke the high board.
I missed three boards in all and ended up in third place. I was the only female that placed though so maybe that’s ok. The guy who placed second also missed three of his boards but he attempted some trickier breaks (those were the three he missed).
So, that is our tournament experience this time around. Definitely not as enjoyable as past tournaments but that has everything to do with not having another adult to help with my kids and trying to video record everything my kids did so my husband could still see them compete. Even if I had done the same with everything, if my husband had been there so I didn’t have to stress and track the kids so much I’d have had a much better experience.
In three weeks we will have testing. I’ll be testing for brown but the break for that is a twin foot break (jump & simultaneously break two boards with two low front kicks) and they are concerned about me doing it pregnant. They are taking about possible modifications. I don’t want modifications. I want to do the same break everyone else does. I want to *know* that I’m as good as everyone else wearing that belt. They are just concerned about the fall risk for this break, especially with me being off-center from the baby. :/
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Michele123
Green Belt
Sorry I didn’t answer this before. No, this wouldn’t be possible. My son is far too young and immature for the older class. Hopefully we will be able to jungle things ok.
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mrt2
Brown Belt
It certainly sounds like a stressful day.
I attended my first tournament in 35 years a few months ago. It isn't especially something I want to do, but I am glad I did it. One thing that shocked me about the experience was the proliferation of medals/trophies. Tournaments back in the day were much more competitive and for example, in sparring, there might have been 25 or 30 people in a division, and only 3 trophies. In my most recent tournament, literally everybody who showed up got at least 1 or 2 trophies.
I went home with 3, and frankly, the only one I deserved was for breaking. You made reference to this in your discussion of how your daughter mixed up her pattern and faced the wrong direction and still took a bronze in forms, and didn't break her boards, yet get a bronze in breaking. Sorry, but that is, frankly, ridiculous. I mean this as no slight against your daughter, but this teaches her the exact wrong lesson. But it is clear they are giving out participation trophies.
I missed your post in January, so firstly, Congratulations!!
It sounds like you're still working hard, being obstinate, and having fun. Good on ya!
dvcochran
Grandmaster
I very much disagree with participation trophies.
Agreed. I'm okay with things like t-shirts that recognize participation, but trophies and such serve best when they are awarded for something beyond the choice to try.
Michele123
Green Belt
Yes and no. My son only earned one medal out of the three areas he competed in. If they truly were participation trophies he’d have gotten more. The biggest problem is we don’t have enough competitors. Each bracket is as most 6 competitors. When only two break boards then that means one person who doesn’t will still get a medal. It’s a hard thing to deal with though. You can’t really have the four year olds compete agains the eight. It would be no contest. The adults are all together with the occasional teen thrown in but even then there were only 4-5 of us in each area of competition. The biggest problem is not having enough people compete. The best turnout is the older youth, 10-13 but since I don’t have anyone in that group I can’t tell you how many there were.
I myself am not a fan of participation trophies either. But I do understand the difficulty they are in. Last year at my first tournament I felt myself disillusioned with how few competitors there were. Because of that, the medals don’t mean anything to me. I care about how I felt about my performance more than anything else. Like, I may have won gold for my pattern but I didn’t do as well as I have in the past so I’m disappointed with myself. Same with my breaking (though I know that would have gone better if I’d either been able to eat a snack or not been pregnant) On the other hand I felt really good about my weapons pattern. I also find the feedback from the judges more valuable than any medal. It’s helpful, I think, having other advanced black belts look at my techniques beyond my own instructor.
For my kids, well I like that there are ranks of medals at least. Both my kids seem more motivated to practice at home now. They both want to get better medals next time. Beyond that, I think the experience was helpful. It was nice for me to see how other kids their age and around their rank did and handled themselves too. It helps me with age appropriate expectations (I’m a bit of a perfectionist and often have to be reminded that kids are kids and still learning in many aspects of life). It was nice to see that my four year old wasn’t the only four year old who fidgets in line, for example. It was also nice to see how my seven year old was this year compared to last year. To see improvement overall in both how she conducted herself and how she performed was encouraging.
And at least these are medals on a ribbon rather than a full-blown trophy.
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dvcochran
Grandmaster
Very well said. A good, grounded response. It is tough when there are not a lot in your division. Either you place and feel you could have done better or you get 4th and know you should have done better.
mrt2
Brown Belt
I like that idea. Give everyone who participates a T shirt, but save the trophies for the actual winners. If a very small number of people show up, then they should only give out a trophy or medal for the winner in that case. I took third in sparring, but there were only 3 of us sparring. I gave the medal to my wife and told her to give it out as a prize to one of her elementary school students.
mrt2
Brown Belt
a couple of points. I don't think children as young as 4 should be competing in TKD tournaments. Period. IMO, this sort of thing is what makes our art a joke for some.
Second, I hate to be a hard ***, but I don't think you should medal in breaking if you don't break all your boards. And I don't think you should medal in forms if you make mistakes that would result in failing a belt test if you made the same mistake at a belt test.
I asked a guy at my school who has been doing TKD longer than me and he agreed the tournaments are kind of a joke, as between him and his 10 year old son, they have a room full of trophies, just from the last 3 years of TKD, and his son from back when he was competing as a little ninja. (again, what does it mean when a 4 or 5 year old already has a room full of participation trophies?)
dvcochran
Grandmaster
The tee shirt idea could work. The organizer of the tourney would have to be careful though. You can easily have more cost per Tee shirts than trophies. The artwork would have to be thoughtfully done so the left over shirts can be used for the next event. And then you get into the "how many of each size" question. It is always a mystery. But I do see more in the vein of advertising value.
mrt2
Brown Belt
Giving out or selling T shirts with your school logo strikes me as good marketing.
I have done a few charity bike rides so you could do it the same as you do with charity bike races. When participants register, they check a little box for their T shirt size. Let people know that they can show up and register on the day of the tournament, but then might not get the T shirt. Place your order based on the advanced registration, order some extra shirts in common sizes. If you have extra shirts, you can give them out as prizes in the kids classes in the weeks or months after the tournament.
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