Training @ Home Earlier This Evening

Update on Me

Since the Sunday before last I’ve been overcoming a bad cold which morphed into a bacterial sinus infection.  Life has been a little crazy with mamma down with sickness. 

God knows what we need though. I obviously have needed all this rest so my body could recoup. If I try and do too much too soon I end up taking a really good nap. The coughing is getting better finally. I believe the steroids have a lot to do with that. With all we have going on this month coming up I know God is rejuvenating my body to be able to go go go when I really need to.  Life is never boring. Thankful for God’s healing hand on me so that I can be there for my guys.

Getting His Running On

T is getting back into the rhythm of running again at the Y. 

Moving Forward

T went with his Dad and ran a 3k today while I stayed home and continued to rest and recoup. It’s been over a week now and I’m getting cabin fever. I need to make sure I get well though because our February is absolutely nuts. 

We measured T’s height today and since December he has grown an inch. If he can grow another three inches between now and Nationals in July I’d be okay with him going up a weight division but only with AAU. We still want him to remain right where he is with USAT’s weight bracket. It’s the best fit for his body size and weight. 

He is feeling tons better. He kicked longer today. He hasn’t had any issues with his head hurting anymore. So starting Friday it will be full swing back into things. He is so ready to get back at it too. He’s such an eager beaver. He’s learning so much right now and we love seeing how much he’s learning. 

He’s such a good kid too. Besides school he lives, eats, and breathes TKD. He loves TKD sparring. Life is never boring with this kiddo. He has a good time doing what he loves. We knew the day would come when he’d be pushing his dad and I to get in shape too and he harps on it a lot now. So I’m sure his dad and I will be making changes to get ourselves in shape too in the near future. Finding the time is our problem though. We are always on the run getting T where he needs to be for his training and tourneys. Doesn’t leave much time for much else but we’ll see if we can fit something in there. 

Our living room has been fitted with mats and basically made into a mini-Dojang. I know I mentioned that in an earlier post but we actually took my nice beautiful wool rug out of the living room and put the mats down so he can kick on Bob the Bully. Poor Bob’s face is looking pretty beat down and dirty these day from all the shots to the head he’s taking...LOL! The dogs have to be gated out of the living room for T to train because they’ll get under foot. They aren’t to fond of T beating up in Bob. 

Once again I have to remind myself this is just a season and seasons change and the day will come when T has his own space on the property for a Dojang of his own to work out in. And maybe when it’s built it can be built to all the specs he needs/wants for it to be. We also are looking at putting a living space in the upper portion of it so when T turns 18 he can have his own space away from us. This boy will love it once we are able to build it. We are making plans for it all but aren’t quite sure when they’ll be put into motion. Time will tell. 

To say this boy is blessed is an understatement. Everything we do is to support him and his dreams. God blessed us with him and we are doing our best to be a blessing to him because he is such a precious gift. We are so thankful for our gift from God. 

We are living in such exciting times with our kiddo. Having a blast watching all he is accomplishing. But we also love the times when he can have fun and be a kid too. We do our best to bring balance into every area of his life. 

Our business is moving forward. T is moving forward in all he’s doing with TKD. Life really is good!  God has truly blessed our lives. Looking forward to what the future holds as we continue to move forward. 

#movingforwardnotlookingback #keepingitreal 

The World.....

We have made sure T understands this to be true. He can be a light in the darkness as he continues on his TKD journey. He can walk out his faith in an arena that is need of God. He can walk out integrity for those who need a good example of what that looks like. He has a huge opportunity to be someone those younger than him can look up to. He can be a positive role model to them like his coaches are for him. The bottom line is, “The World really does need who he was made to be!!!”

Training + Hotel Stays + Fuel + US Open...

So I was reading an article where one family spent $25,000.00 alone in 2018 for everything their son did in competition that year. I thought to be for sure that was exaggerated so Scot and I started doing a spreadsheet of expenses we know for this year currently. Guess what. That persons expenses were less than ours. That about made our eyes pop out of our head. 

So here’s what we added up from what we currently know and this doesn’t add in AAU Tournaments or other USAT Tournamets T will need to do other than US Open and Nationals. 

Carolina Kicks Sparring Team Fees + Hotel Fees (For Training only) + Fuel cost (for training only) + US Open and both National events (tournament, travel, food fees) is right at $25,000.00 for the year. We still have AAU Qualifier in GA, possible AAU Qualifier NC, USAT GA, USAT NC, USAT SC, USAT ? to attend that we haven’t added in yet. Plus we haven’t added in any possible equipment costs we may run into having to get for T’s training. 

We keep getting asked do we need any help financially. The answer to that is if you want to help we certainly won’t refuse it. Just do what you feel led of the Lord to do and it will go directly into our Global Account that we have set up for everything relating to T’s training, tournaments, and travel. At least we know that we aren’t the only parents dealing with a ton of finances when it comes to their Elite Athletes expenses. It’s enough to make your head spin for sure. 

T and one of his teammates doing drills together. 

T Is Signed Up and Hotel Booked

T is signed up for US Open Las Vegas. We did the registration tonight and booked the hotel. We are still working on airfare. Fun and exciting times. 

My Awesome Coaches!

These are my Awesome Coaches. I’m so thankful for God bringing them into my life. I really trust these guys. They have made a huge difference in my fighting. #carolinakicks4life

Nationals Update

T wants to go to both National Events in July this year again. At USAT Nationals he will weigh in on July 1 and fight on July 2. At AAU Nationals he will weigh in July 4 and fight July 5th. He is really looking forward to fighting at these events this year. With all the training he’s doing we are looking forward to how he does with all his improvements from all the training he’s doing. We’ve got a taste this past weekend with how much he’s improving. It made our hearts proud. Had he not got a mild concussion there’s no telling what he would have brought home from the tournament. Looking forward though not back and enjoying having some down time while he recovers and I ease him back into school and training next weekend. 

Update on T

We went to our Chiropractor yesterday. He had to make a lot of adjustments from T’s injury from Saturday. We have been advised to keep him resting and ease him back into everything. He has to have time for his brain to bounce back from the mild concussion he received. He’s driving us crazy because he’s bored and has to rest. He’s like I feel fine but just because he’s feeling fine doesn’t mean his brain is back to normal. Try getting a very active 10 year old kid to understand that though...LOL! 

Forms Pictures from Yesterday

Such a Proud Kid

This is one time where he’s proud of how he did at a tournament even though he got Bronze because he knows he did his absolute best and left it all out on the floor. He finished his second match even though he was concussed. He showed great courage. And we had so many onlookers so impressed with how much he’s improved. That’s a win any day of the week. Now to figure out how we are going to get this thing off his neck without waking him up...LOL! 

Some Pictures from T’s 2nd Match Yesterday

Wish this hadn’t blurred but someone walked in front of me. He got a gooood side kick here. 

Some Pictures from T’s 1st Match Yesterday

T’s Concussion Update

T is much better today. Vision pretty much back to 100% and he still has a little bit of a headache. He is driving us crazy saying I’m ok because he’s bored and doesn’t want to rest anymore but we aren’t budging because we were told to make him rest for a few days to give his brain healing time. No screen time at all so this should be fun....LOL! 

Video of 2019 SET Championship Forms

Video of 2019 S.E.T. Championship World Class Sparring Match 2

Video of 2019 S.E.T. Championship World Class Sparring Match #1

Headshot Picture

T got a great head shot on the middle weight kid he fought today. Just wanted to share it to show you that the kid may have outweighed him but T still fought hard. 

All the other parents around us who were watching T were very impressed with how much T has improved in his fighting. They’ve been at all the same events with us over these past few years and T was catching their eye and had them paying close attention to him. So even though he lost and the medic wouldn’t let him fight anymore because of his injury it was still a win because T made an impression on many of the onlookers today. 

Sparring 2019 S.E.T. Championships

Before I tell how T did let me give you a backdrop to how he ended up where he did. In T’s division there are weight groups that they can Fin, Fly, Middle, Heavy. T is a Fin weight. In the group they placed T to fight in there was one other fin weight and one Fly weight and one middle weight. Those groups should not have been placed together but they were. T won his fight against the other Fin weight easy 20-3. His second match was with a middle weight kid. T was doing pretty good against that kid until.....The kid did a head shot on T that landed him on the ground (score at that point was 16-19 and T was down by three and the match ended 20-29). Junior safety rules for youth means light head contact. That was no light head contact. The middle weight kid should have been disqualified but instead was allowed to continue on. T chose to finish the match and got kicked several more times to the head making an already bad situation worse. So when he came off the floor he was shaking, dizzy, and his head hurt really bad. The medic came back over again checking T out a second time (because she checked him after the initial fall) saying he has a minor concussion and said he can no longer fight. It’s double elimination so because T wasn’t allowed to continue he brought home Bronze. As a competitor he wanted to continue but once the medic says no more you are done. Bottom line is he should have never been fighting someone two weight divisions up from him. It’s unifortunate, because we like Master Kim, but we won’t be returning to this event seeing as they can’t separate the weight groups any better than they did. We are proud of T though because he did his best, fought hard, and did all that his coach was asking of him. His coach and him realize they have some stuff to really work on in the weeks and months ahead. But T won’t be in this situation again because all his competitions will be strictly divided up into proper weight divisions and he won’t be fighting kids two weight divisions up.  So T brings home Bronze in midst of a bad situation. 

The medic has us keeping a close eye on him and gave us a sheet telling us of other symptoms to watch out for. A few days of. rest and he should be able to go at it again provided he doesn’t have any more symptoms. Right now he seems to just have a bad headache. 

Gold in Forms 2019 S.E.T. Championships

T had to do his Forms twice and unanimously won both times. 

T is Ready for the Day - 2019 S.E.T. Championships

T is so exited to be here with his team. Looking forward to seeing him compete today in Forms and Sparring. We will be posting pictures as he competes of what he wins. So stay tuned today. It’ll be later tonight or tomorrow before we post any videos from him competing. 

Check This Out

USAT just posted this:  

https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Taekwondo/Features/2019/January/18/USA-Taekwondo-Continues-to-Build-National-Competitive-Structure

It’s a good read and a really positive move for the kids. 

US Open Update Yet Again

So we are now going to US Open in Las Vegas. We are prepping T for this event as much as we can in the time we have left before we have to travel for this event. I will be spending most of February in Charlotte as T trains with his coach for this event. By the time we go to US Open T will have had a total of 3 weeks of private training with his coach on top of team trainings. He has an event this weekend, next weekend, as well as an AAU Qualifier to attend in February before going to US Open. So to say we have a lot going on is an understatement. We covet your prayers as we finance everything. God is so good and always makes a way where there seems to be no way. So as God provides we continue to move forward and help our son live out his dreams. 

Please pray for our safety as we travel and as T trains and competes at SET in South Carolina (1/19), Tag Team Competition with World Sparring League(1/26), AAU Qualifier in Georgia(2/16), and US Open in Vegas(3/1). Please pray for T to stay healthy throughout all of this. He’s been overcoming what seems to be a cold so pray he recovers from it quickly. He needs every ounce of strength/energy for all he has to do in the weeks and months ahead. Pray for Scot and I to stay healthy as well throughout everything. Pray for strength for us as we help T do all he has to do to be the best that he can be. Pray for T and I as we balance getting his schooling done in the midst of everything. 

Such exciting times but also very busy times too. We wouldn’t have it any other way though. We love our boy and are so proud of everything he is doing in this sport he loves so much. 

Recent picture he took for his Global Licensing Photo. 

Normal Speed of T training at Home

SLO-MO of T Training at Home

My Awesome Husband

My awesome hubby putting mats down so T can train on Bob the Bully and not loose his footing on the rug and fall. I knew those mats would come in handy again someday...LOL!  They used to be in T’s playroom before it became a kid cave.

A few More Pictures from T’s Training This Week

It’s been a really good training week for T. Looking forward to more training weeks as successful as this one was. Looking forward, Moving Forward!  

Training Today with Master Wasiu

T has had almost a week of training with his coach Master Wasiu. It’s been a really good week of training so far. T has been learning a ton and honing his skills more. So thankful for his team and coach. He’s loving every moment of his training. Life may be crazy but it is so good to see T improve daily as he trains more.  Enjoy the video T and I put together for you.  

Today’s Training

T had a really great training session today. He’s really starting to get the hang of doing what his coach wants him to do in his techniques. The pics I’m going to share are of him doing his drills more successfully than he’s ever done them. I love it when I get to see him getting it and successfully doing what his coach wants from him. His partner, David, didn’t like it so much though because he was at the receiving end of him doing his techniques correctly...LOL!