Day one of the AIMAA Irish National Open Taekwondo Championship 2007 is over and I must say I am pretty impressed with Mr. James Farrell’s soft iron grip on the whole thing. Never before have I seen such an event fly by with such ease and grace.

Today was the day for sparring (gyeorugi) and breaking (gyeokpa). And since just about all senior black belts on scene was reffing and judging the low grades and junior, the show started with a bang to free up the high-grades. Smart move!

Another clever idea was to do sparring and breaking in sequentially for each category. That way each competitor got to do his or her stuff within a small time frame and was free to watch or leave. Naturally this freed up a lot of space as people got their thing done in a swish and got home for a nice, early dinner.

Since I was neither sparring nor breaking in this competition (I really don’t like this IFT/AIMAA style sparring with all their quiet boxing), my original plan was to hang around for my club mates’ matches, get a few good pictures, and head off. That didn’t happen.

I think was around for about an hour before I had “snuck” in as part of the floor staff, holding boards for breaking, taking time for matches and even assisting in keeping a ring organized with refs, judges, papers and competitors. In short, I had fun.

Tomorrow is the day for patterns (single and team) and one-steps (han beon gyeorugi). I’ll be doing my own pattern – Taegeuk Sa Jang – and a set of five ITF/AIMAA one-steps. My aim: To stand out with my pattern, get through the one-steps without messing up too bad, and above all – have fun. By todays yardstick, the outlook is quite bright.