Niketa Wells - International Taekwon-do Federation of New Zealand

NEWSthe baby? Ahhh, I’ll just wing it with herand see what happens. Then as it turnedout, Hayley loved being in the dojang. Shehas her own corner where the portacotis set up for her to sit in and watch us. Ifshe becomes restless or upset she hasplenty of people willing to pick her up togive her a cuddle. She wanders around;tugs on belts if she wants to be picked upand at times goes around and collects allthe drink bottles up. The students enjoyhaving her around and I feel it is goodfor her development to be in that kind ofenvironment. Her latest thing is when theclass kihaps (shouts), she just yells back atthem! There was nothing to be concernedabout after all.Being post-baby and training, I also foundit a struggle with the fitness side of thingsand didn’t have the energy to cope. I hadto start tweaking what I was eating at homeby adding more protein and fresh foodsin order to cope with the muscle repair.I had to increase my calorie intake for Iwas still nursing Hayley and was hopingto do so until she was 12 months old. Fora while I stressed myself out about losingall the baby weight, and about getting fitstraight away. So much so, I was obsessivelywatching what I ate. Initially I thought it wasgreat, as I had lost three kilograms in twoweeks but I was exhausted to the pointof falling asleep by six o’clock. This wasnot an ideal situation, with three hungry,demanding kids requiring my attention!Hayley then became even more unsettledat night, which then in turn made meeven more tired. It took a while untilI finally realised that I wasn’t eatingenough for the both of us. I relaxed alittle, did some research and discoveredthat a breastfeeding mother requires anadditional 2500 kilojoules or 600 caloriesa day. I loosened the reins, increasedmy calorie intake and eventually founda balance. She is now 14 months oldand I have lost about 26 kilograms sincehaving her and 18 kilos of that amountsince I had started Taekwon-Do. The lastthree kilos, my ideal weight, seems to likehanging around and in no hurry to leave mywaistline, but at this stage in the quest formy black belt I am not too worried at all. Iam sure it will start to go as I have stoppedbreast feeding and training full steam aheadfor a December 2012 Black Belt grading.It has also helped now that my husbandhas stopped working his unsociable hours.His reply to that was that is there nothingstopping me from getting up at four am togo for a run - yeah right! All I have to donow is just remember to stop eating thoseextra 600 calories!Time has definitely flown by and a lot ofprogress has been made in my training.Recently my daughter and I even entered acouple of tournaments. One of them beingin Palmerston North which was my first in17 years! I was extremely nervous aboutthe whole event. Even to the point that Ihad convinced myself that I shouldn’t bethere and that I was by no means ready. Iwas going to be sparring against black beltsand black belts who have represented NewZealand on an international level! At first Iwanted to leave but after I had completedthe patterns section and achieved a bronzemedal I managed to calm myself down andsettle a bit. In hindsight of course, I realisedthere was no reason to have felt like thatbut it was just purely nerves and lack ofself-confidence getting the better of me.The atmosphere that day was amazing, thepeople very friendly, supportive, and full ofgreat advice. My daughter Michaella evenwon a gold medal in sparring. I am so veryproud of her.The most recent tournament I enteredwas the Central Districts Regionals, heldon my home turf, Hawkes Bay. It was at thistournament that I could tell there was adefinite improvement in my performance.I was more confident and settled withmy patterns and yes, there was room forimprovement in my technique. So this,along with developing my sparring skills, aremy main areas requiring development formy December grading, but I am definitelyfeeling as though my skills are steadilyimproving and that I will remain “on trackfor black”.This journey of returning to TKD, after abreak of several years, has not been oneexperienced only by myself. There is asmall group of guys in the Hawke’s Baywho have banded together and we haveall developed a strong sense of friendship.I have appreciated this so much. We arecurrently all hoping to grade together forour various degrees at the end of the year.It is this camaraderie that will enable me tosucceed and it is reassuring to know theyare there for me. It’s been interesting tonote our different areas of strength all helpto complement each other rather thancause us to compete against each other.While one is intuitive and natural when itcomes to self-defence, another effortlesslyperforms flying techniques. One’s forteis endurance and strength training, whileanother’s is proficiency in free-sparring.Admittedly their seemingly natural talentsdo make me a little bit envious but in theend it all helps to inspire me.Thinking back over the past 12 months andwhat I have accomplished, the new friendsI have made around the Central Districtsregion, I am filled with a sense of prideand achievement. I enjoy being an assistantinstructor and love working with the youngchildren both in the general class as wellas in the Mini-kids. I enjoy watching themgrow and succeed in their gup gradings.To see their confidence and skills developas they compete in tournaments, even tothe point of winning medals! Knowing that Ihave played a tiny part in all this is priceless.To be honest it really is quite an honour.When I have reflected back on my teenageyears over time, there has always beenthis one regret - I didn’t achieve my blackbelt. So, when I re-entered the dojang, Ithought that if I achieved black belt statusthere would definitely be a great sense ofcompletion for me. However, I am wellaware it will only be just the beginning.“The trick is to turn them(nerves, fears, doubts) intopositives, not to let themdistract you or decreaseyour focus. See it as a wayby which you can buildup an invisible energy inyourself which you canpour out through yourperformance. Pre-eventnerves or doubts happento everyone. I have alwaysbelieved that anyone whosays, “No I went in therecool, calm and absolutelycertain I was going to winand nothing is going to stopme” is lying.” – Herb Elliot. .ISSUE TWO, 2012 13