Battle by the River results

What a blast! This tourney was the biggest challenge yet and the Denson kids made their family very proud. Please forgive me ahead of time for bragging from this point forward as my cup runneth over right now.

The tournament started with a bit of controversy for us. Emily Grace was assigned to compete with the 4-5 year olds yellow belts. That was fine and dandy with her; however, the 3 other children did not know their patterns; however, Emily grace did. The lead judge then inadvertently skipped her. So the ring judge decided to skip the standard patterns and just call out moves for the whole group to do one at a time. Then they on moved to one step striking combos……well I submitted a challenge thru my lead Instructor, Mr. Wiggins. Mr. Wiggins then submitted a formal challenge to the decision and a 15 minute discussion followed. Believe it or not, it actually ended well and I must thank Mr. Wiggins for his doggedness to give Emily a shot at showing her stuff (even if she had to compete then with the 6-8 year olds).

Emily took 2nd in striking

& 1st in Patterns…………WOOOOHOOOO. That’s my Girl!!!!
Next up was the boys. Tyler and Dalton landed in a large group of competitors comprised of 9-12 year olds. They did awesome, amazing, outstanding>>>

Tyler man earned 1st in Patterns:
Dalton earned 3rd in Patterns:
Of course in sparring they drew each other in the first bracket & Dalton won (but Tyler showed tremendous heart):
Dalton sparred 3 more times. And trust me when I say, it was not easy. He did get in some good headshots, like this one:Once against a 12 year old that was a good foot taller and my little man beat him 5-2. He even took a direct kick too the…..uh, um, well the picture says it all & yes he did get the point for the body kick he landed on the Giant:
Ultimately Dalton earned 2nd in Sparring by winning 3 of 4 matches. He showed speed, technique and grit. Those boys made me really proud today.

As for me, well I had a pretty good day. Fortunately my pattern went strong and I received 1st Place for patterns:
Next up was sparring. I drew the pre-bracket round and had to spar just to earn a spot in the brackets. Won that 5-2, then went on to win 2 more matches to earn a spot against the same Martial Artist that I sparred in the April finals.

Notice the fella on the right holding video cam, that's my Pop: What, a jump Turn Kick?? LOL & it landed for 2 points!

Ultimately, I was able to win 3 of 3 Sparring matches to earn 1st Place in Sparring.

We had great rounds & I was blessed in winning the Sparring for UnderRank Adults.

What a blast. Eventhough the Denson's brought home a boat load of hardware, more importantly was the kids fine display of competitiveness mixed with good sportsmanship. I just can't express the joy in seeing my young one's giving their all.

Thank you TKD-USA for enabling us to use the things you taught us to earn these awards!! You guys are the BEST!

BTW-I will post some video clips later next week, after we create them.

24 hour countdown has begun

This morning @ 5:55am reality began to set in. As I waited for the boys to get dressed for our morning practice session, it hit me that tomorrow is T day (lol). The unnerving thing about the tournament is the unknown factors. There are 6-7 schools participating in this fall tournament. With that many schools, we have no idea who we will be competing against.

The pattern competition will present us the opportunity to do our best with what we've learned over the last couple of weeks. We will be competing by age groups in a bracket type of format. Each competitor will do their pattern in groups of three. Then the top four competitors will compete head to head. The 1st place and 4th place will face off, followed by the 2nd & 3rd place, and finally the winners of these two face offs will compete against each other to decide 1st place. Competing in this way will be new for Emily, and I look forward to seeing how she reacts.

The point sparring is a different beast all together. Not knowing your opponent creates a void for planning any strategy..........same basic format as pattern competition with a couple of big exceptions. During this part of the competition we will get hit & kicked. Same bracket arrangement, draw to see who faces who, then winners face off to whittle down to 1-3rd places. On a personal note, I am really hoping that this right knee holds together! The swelling has gone down a bit and it's not as stiff as it was. Rapid healing is not occuring for this "old dude".

We have trained as hard as possible, against the best at our facility, so now it is up to us. Like I said before "unnerving"!!!

Getting down to it

Three more days of training is all that's left. The "Battle by the River" Tournament is Saturday. We are all giving everything we got to perfecting our patterns and improving our sparring skills. In addition to the classes, we are still getting up every morning by 6am to do some sparring drills and to perform our patterns 10 times. I am really impressed with the boys dedication in getting up early before school to do this without complaining. It will pay off for them.

The boys have been getting better with each session thanks to the fine sparring help from some of the higher ranks like Junior Black Belts- Mr Matthew Corliss, Ms Elizabeth Wiggins & Mr Cade Carpenter, the Recommended Black Belts- the Lemons Brothers, Jada & Kera.

I have been sparring with top rank Black Belts since last week. The following Black Belts have really tried to help me out: Mr Wiggins, Mrs Wiggins, Mr Corliss, Mr Perry, Mr Scarborough, & Mr Scott. These folks are top notch and I am greatful for their patience and support.

Emily Grace is coming right along with her Orange Belt Pattern. I am looking forward to seeing how she handles the tourney. She is just so darn cute out there doing her thing.

On a side note, I hurt/twisted my knee last Friday and the silly thing has been a little swollen and stiff ever since. Sure am hoping it will stay together thru training & tourney. My competitive spirit refuses to let it get in the way.

Until the next time, peace to Ya'll.

Sparring, Sparring, Sparring

As you could probably tell from the title, today was all about the Sparring. We did do Patterns too, but we sparred alot and it was a blast. The boys & I got to spar with higher ranks tonight and that is a valuable asset to use moving toward the Tourney. Working with these higher Ranked & better skilled Martial Artists should really help us prepare for competing with those folks that are in our own Rank.

Turns out the Tourney rules are going to be ITF style & that means 1 additional point for strikes done while in the air.
Example: a jump turn side landed to the head is 3 points instead of 2.

So, needless to say we are working on some timing to get a few of these strikes incorporated as a fluid part of our striking skills. Fun stuff. I even scored a couple of these during our sparring tonight.........woohoo, trust me it's no easy task to jump my big self up & do an aerial strike. I even absorbed some very good head & body shots that were dished out by the Black Belts. Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but I like the physical challenge that comes from being hit with strong contact! It releases that competative adrenaline and drive to do better.

The patterns are coming right along as well. We will continue to work hard to make the Tournament a great experience.

Kicking it in HIGH GEAR

After a two week hiatus that included vacation & work travels.
Ahh, the Great Smokey Mountains

Family all together.

Kids going old school in this black & white (thanks to their Momma's fancy camera).


We're back & ready to dedicate the next two weeks to learning our new patterns in hopes of making the Fall Tourney coming up October 18th in West Memphis, AR. The only way we are going to be ready is for us to work morning and night to get our forms down! This will be one of our biggest tests yet and not a lot of time to get prepared.

The boys & I have to learn and be able to proberly execute the 32 moves of Joong-Gun.


Emily Grace has to learn and be able to execute the 24 moves of Do-San.


We started down the trail Friday evening and let's just say, it's not gonna be easy. Mr Wiggins worked deligently to familiarize us with this new form. His patience is very much appreciated (unfortunately, I am a slow learner).

Saturday & Sunday mornings we got up early (6am) and practiced our patterns. This morning Dalton & I got up to start the day off with a 5:30am run (a little more than a mile). Dalton is helping Dad try to loss some weight and get in better cardio shape. After the run, Tyler joined us for a program that included doing our pattern cycled with push-ups for a rotation of 5 sets (seemed like a good starting point). Tonight will bring two 1 hour classes at TKD-USA to focus, practice and learn.

Boy this should be an interesting couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

Another Step toward the Goal

Well this has been a GREAT night. We all performed our patterns & combo's for passing scores to achieve our next rank. Taking another step closer to the ultimate goal with my family is the BEST feeling EVER!!

Before the testing began Emily Grace and her buddy Josie did some strategizing.

Then she & Dalton discussed the plan: Emily was first up.

Mrs Wiggins called her out and the show began:

Spin knifehand (such grace)

Side kick (very nice)

Next up was the three of us boys. Once again Mr Wiggins was kind enough to let us do our Yul-Gok pattern as a family unit. What a blessing!

Next came sparring and wouldn't you just know it, Mr Wiggins decides to spar with me. It was an honor to get to spar with a 5th degree BB that has the kind of skill Mr Wiggins has. Yes he schooled me, but not in a flashy showy kind of way, just enough to make me realize how far I have to go without completely destroying me. I appreciated the opportunity.

However, as everyone found out, David Blane isn't the only one who can levitate, check this out.

Even replayed the famous scene from Rocky:

Dalton in the Blue Uniform did well.

Tyler held his own against his opponent.

I am very proud of the whole gang for working hard, learning the patterns/combos, over coming the nerves and doing their very best to succeed.

And yes, as you can tell, Emily is having a ball.

Next up will be the fall tourney in October. Got get to work for that one, cuz we do not have a lot of time to prepare for this bad boy!

God Bless and hope all of you have a great weekend.

Testing Tonight

Tonight is the night to show what we learned the last 7 weeks. We have to demonstrate our patterns, striking combinations and then spar utilizing the striking skills that we learned thus far. These strikes include: spin side-kicks, spin heel-hook, knife hands, round kicks, side kicks, hook kicks, reverse punch & front punch. Fun stuff.

Me & the boys are testing for Blue belt tonight. We will be demonstrating the 38movements in the Yul-Gok pattern.

Emily Grace is testing for Orange belt. She has to demonstrate the 21 movements in the Dan-Gun pattern.

Will post pics & update after testing. Until then remember "You're born to win".