Issue 22 - Professional Unification of Martial Arts

PLANET P.U.M.A.
Throughout the Sunday the destruction events were running in tandem with the other events, with the
boards being punished by hands and feet. In fairness to the boards as it was their first event they did put
up a spirited resistance and refused to break in quite a few instances. The breaking was decided on a
points total and a few competitors chose the route of trying to break multiple boards to rack up the
scores but this tactic proved their undoing due to the unforgiving nature of the new boards, the canny
competitors stacked up the points with individual breaks!
I was lucky enough on the Sunday to be able to take
some time off Umpiring and be a spectator and for
me, purely from that point of view, two adult fighters
deserve a special mention. For the men Mr Tim
Kool of Holland absolutely blew me away with his
sparring prowess which was just amazing to watch
and for the ladies, P.U.M.A.’s own Natalie McColl
was mesmerising to watch, her downward kick has
to be seen to be believed and just looks so effortless
to perform. This is a quality that both fighters seem
to have, an ability to just make sparring at such a
level look easy and effortless, seemingly able to just
pick shots at will with no real effort, a genuine natural ability coupled with hard work and a will to win
that puts them onto another level.
All too soon it was the end of the tournament
and time to say goodbye to old friends and new
ones made over the weekend. As I headed home
down the motorway I reflected on the two days
with a feeling of pride in Taekwon-Do.
Thanks to the positivity of all spectators, competitors,
coaches, referees, umpires, Masters, helpers,
in fact everyone the real winners over the
weekend were friendship and of course Taekwon
-Do. The General would have been proud!
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