Just to fill you in and give you more details of this past weekend I'm doing this post.
I wanted to take a moment of reflection and give you a deeper look into everything. We arrived Friday morning around 10am after starting our drive Thursday afternoon to Forth Wort Texas. It's a 17 1/2 hour drive straight through but with stops for fuel, food, and potty breaks it ends up being about a 20 hour drive as long as you don't make a stop to rest and if you do that then it could take 22-24 hours to drive the trip from where we live. We got checked in on Friday around 2pm. T had to be at a training session from 5-6:45pm. During that training session the coach told all the kids don't hurt one another and go easy. Well, that didn't end up being the case with the partner T had. During the drills his partner punched T too hard in his ribs. They weren't wearing chest guards because the coach was just doing an easy session. This particular partner is still new to sport TaeKwondDo and I don't think they really know how to go easy but still pull off the techniques well. At any rate that training session caused T lots of pain from that point forward in his chest where he got punched. He had a hard time being able to take deep breaths because of it. Breathing normal was fine but when you are sparring you take deep breaths pretty frequently.
Side bar, T went to the Chiropractor this morning and he had 3 ribs misaligned because of the punch(es) he took from that training session from that partner on Friday. T doesn't complain or say anything to the coach because he doesn't wanna get yelled at or look weak so he just sucks it up and doesn't say anything in the moment but tells us when we are alone. I was just glad we could get him in to see the Chiropractor so quickly.
The team had another training session on Saturday from 11-12:30pm but T just did stretching so as to not get any more injuries because he had to fight on Sunday.
This kid walked around all weekend with his foot bothering him, from another injury from a teammate two weeks prior at a training session, it was just soft tissue still irritating him, plus his ribs were hurting, without once letting on to anyone that he was even having any issues. The only time he let anyone know he was having issues is when he told his dad and I. Not one competitor had a clue and he didn't fight letting them see it either. He was determined to stay strong no matter what and deal with the injuries in the aftermath when we got home.
It seems he always gets injured in training but never in an actual competition.
T has now been instructed by his Chiropractor to do no training for the next four days. The Chiropractor wants him to have time to let his body heal and recover so that is just what we are going to do.
T really did have a great time at this event this weekend even with his injuries. He learned a lot while watching the fight offs. Fight offs were of the kids who are the top five in each division in order to be able to earn the USA Team spot to represent our country at Worlds. T won his first ever International fight with a competitor from Tahiti. That kid had won gold pretty much everywhere he had fought in his country and T beat him easily. That made T feel so good to have had his first international fight and to have won it. The bracket T was fighting in was large and it was going to take 3 matches to get to where he could earn a medal and T lost his 2nd match. One match shy from getting a medal in an event such as this one was still a huge WIN for T. Every open event up to this one that T has been in he was beat in his first match. We saw lots of improvement in his fighting at this event and we couldn't be more proud of how he did even though it didn't result in a medal this time. True fighters absolutely hate losing and T definitely hates losing. At the end of day if you lose and you learn it's not a loss at all! It's something we've been teaching him for a long time now. Because if you learn then you can continue to move forward but if all you do is lose and not learn then you will keep losing. It's the learning that sets him apart from just losing. He's really starting to understand that now.
Now after we get past this downtime while he heals and recovers he begins training and getting ready for the Grand Prix in Daytona on Father's Day weekend. This event is the qualifier for USA TaeKwonDo's National event that will happen in Salt Lake City, Utah later this summer. We are still undecided if T will actually attend this event but we have him doing the qualifier just in case.
Thanks for your prayers everyone as we drove there and back and for our health as well. We so appreciate and deeply covet your prayers. They mean the world to us and T as he continues to do what he loves to do. God Bless you all! #GodsPlan
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