T’s now cherished head gear

Gareth Brown and Paul Green signed T’s headgear on Sunday. They are really awesome guys. 

Yet Another US Open Update

After talking to the coaches and another parent whose son is also an elite competitor like T is we’re not sure which way we are going to go with concerns to US Open 2019. Here’s the skinny, if we decide to attend US Open then T needs, at a minimum, two weeks of twice a day training with his coach along with still doing his team training every weekend. And even after US Open we would need to keep up the one week twice a day per month training from here on out. Here’s the huge benefit to him attending US Open. He earns ranking points with USAT for just attending and he gets even more if he wins an event. Every ranking point he earns up through Nationals in July 2019 is what will be used to put the competitors in the order they will be fighting in at Nationals. The higher you are ranked potentially makes you better off because you’ll potentially have less fights you’ll have to fight in order to get to the gold medal round. With that being said we are trying to figure out how to pull off the finances for all the training plus the finances needed to go to the US Open in Las Vegas at the end of February beginning of March time frame. This intensive training is what’s needed if T is going to be picked by the Olympic Coaches for the US Athlete Academy. What that Academy does is train the chosen kids to get them ready for the 2028 Olympics which means more travel but once chosen T will have some sponsorship. How much we don’t know. He could get fully sponsored or just partially sponsored. We are still learning as we go. He really wants this and doing all this will be very time consuming and is why when he’s not training he’ll be doing homeschooling. This will be his life until he graduates high school and then it would be full on training until the 2028 Olympics if he gets picked to be a part of the Academy. The kids who are chosen that are minors would be traveling to different places to train with the USAT coaches. The senior division will train at the USA TaeKwonDo Training Center in Colorado. So when T gets to the point to where he’ll be in Colorado we’ll be possibly looking at moving to Colorado. I know this is a lot of information to take in but this is what our future is going to be looking like and we wanted to fill you all in as best we can at what we are dealing with right now. 

Green & Brown Sparring Training Video

This is a video that Green and Brown shared of what all they did at the training camp and we wanted to share it with you so you could see all that T learned at the training camp this past weekend. 

Pic Collage

T was getting a better handle on going in on his opponent with this move. Great training session today with Green and Brown. T loved the individualized attention he was able to get today because of the 8” of snow we got. Sometimes it pays to still go to training on days like today. T was able to impress the Olympic Coaches and that made his day. 

And even more pictures

More pictures from the training camp

Photo Op with Green and Brown

US Open Update

Unless we were to come up with the finances for the extra training T needs he won’t be going to US Open in February/March 2019. His coach told us he needs more consistent training twice a day for a minimum of two weeks to get him sparring to where he needs to be for US Open. I’m sure the coach would love more time than that but we’d be financially stressed to pay for the training and a place to stay for that period of time plus also be looking at expenses for The US Open trip itself. His coach said he’s a good fighter but he needs to be better to go to US Open. All that training is a lot to ask of anyone in a short period of time. And I know T would do it but he’s only 10 and we need to be looking down the road to the future as well. We are doing our best not to squash his dreams but sometimes a delay is best so you can train more and be better ready to go at it the following year. He’d still do all the usual tournaments and train hard and just do US Open in 2020 instead of 2019. With that being said our goal will probably be to funnel the funds we’d have spent at US Open and put it towards one week a month to train twic a day for an entire week with his coach and still train with his team every Friday and Saturday. It’s a lot but it’s what’s needed to get him fighting on the level with the speed and accuracy that he needs to be fighting with. He will get there. He’s improved so much since June when we made the switch to the new team. When US Open comes around in 2020 with all the training he’ll be doing he’ll be more ready for US Open. We are learning so much as we go. Another year will give him the time he needs to mature more as well and be more mentally in the fight. Here’s a pic from one of the drills they’ve been doing today at the training camp. I’ll keep you posted if anything changes but as of now US Open is a no go. 

Snowmegedon

I’ve gotten in the habit of “I’ll believe it when I see it” because of how much they miss the forecast here in NC.  But this time they got it right in that we got snow and ice. The ice is falling with a mixture of rain right now. The percentages were wrong as we got a total of 8” of snow at our place and they were forecasting 1-4” for our area. We are headed now to the last day of the sparring camp. They delayed it but are still having it. So thankful for an all wheel drive vehicle. 

Some more pictures