A pair of Chestermere Tae Kwon-Do black belts are back in town after competing at the sixth International Tae Kwon-Do Federation (ITF) World Cup in Budapest, Hungary.
They brought back with them some amazing memories and lessons as well as a trio of medals.
“It was awesome,” said Aimee Maund a fifth-degree black belt and owner of Focus Tae Kwon-Do.
“I thought it was a great tournament,” said Maund of the event that ran from Oct. 12-16, “probably one of the funnest ones I’ve been too.”
One of the things about the World Cup that makes it stand out is the level of camaraderie amongst the competitors. In Maund’s experience tournaments at this level tend to be less friendly as people focus on the competition.
“I found the camaraderie between everybody was really good,” she said.
Maund competed in three events, power breaking, sparing and patterns which are fundamental Ta Kwon-do moves that are memorized and performed for a panel of judges. She won gold, silver and bronze medals respectively in each event.
She is very happy with both her performance and what she has learned by competing at the World Cup.
“You learn…when you don’t win…you can learn the most,” said Maund.
Her student, fourteen-year-old first-degree black belt Alyssa Kuruliak, competed in sparing and patterns.
“I was more than proud of myself,” said Kuruliak, “[of] every tournament I’ve been to that was my favourite.”
“It was amazing, I’m so excited for 2018 now because I want to compete again,” said Kuruliak.
She didn’t medal in her events but came heart breakingly close in patterns. Kuruliak lost by half a point in a split three to two decision.
“I’m proud of my performance, both of them,” said Kuruliak.
Maund is also very proud of her student and how Kuruliak handled the pressure and competition.
“She did really, really good,” said Maund.
Every aspect of the tournament felt heightened to Maund, the competition was more intense, and the organization felt more professional than the smaller tournaments she usually is competing at.
“It felt more pro like,” said Maund.
At fourteen years of age, Kuruliak doesn’t have the same breadth of experience competition as Maund. For Kuruliak the diversity of backgrounds of the competitors was really neat to experience.
“Having 58 countries in the same building, it was mind blowing,” said Kuruliak.
“It was so many people and I loved it, it was so cool,” she said.
Along with the medals, memories and personal growth, this world cup has the distinction of being the first time in her career that Maund hurt herself in patterns.
She unknowingly caught her big toe on the mat during a pattern and turned 180 degrees.
“My toe stuck to the mat and the rest of my foot went,” she said.
“So it totally dislocated and went off to the side,”
Although she stumbled when it happened Maund said she didn’t look down and continued with the pattern. She thinks that one of the subsequent moves probably put her toe back to close to the proper position.
After the event, she taped up her foot before continuing with competition, going on to win her silver medal in sparing.
Despite the stress and occasional setback, the pair agree that the World Cup was an unparalleled experience in both their Tae Kwon-Do careers.
“It was such an enjoyable experience,” said Maund.
Both ladies want to go to Australia to compete at the next World Cup in 2018. Maund hopes to be able to bring more of her students as well.
Maund plans to working to increase her fitness level for the next time.
“I want to try to drop 20 to 30 pounds,” said Maund.
She said that increased fitness and flexibility can only help her in all three types of competition.
Kuruliak is going to focus on being more aggressive in her sparing and more flexible when it comes to changing her game plan.
“I want to be more aggressive,” she said.
At the world cup, Kuruliak said she entered the ring with a plan but that it didn’t work out.
Since she was scheduled to fight someone from Argentina Kuruliak spent time watching the Argentinian Teams matches and discovered that they tended to be very aggressive.
She was prepared for that and had a plan in place to handle the expected aggressiveness of her opponent. Kuruliak ended up being thrown off her game a little when her opponent turned out to not be very aggressive.
“If I would have pushed a little harder I would have been able to get a few more points on her,” said Kuruliak, “Rather than playing more defensive which I don’t normally do,”
Kuruliak said that she has made huge improvements in her patterns and wants to continue to build from her success at the World Cup.
“For sure in 2018 I want to be gold medal standard,” she said.
Competitions like this are why they both come train.
“It just gets you all pumped up and motivated to train harder,” said Maund.
Both competitors are looking forward to getting back in the ring at the Nov. 12 Alberta Cup.
