Local Martial Arts Students Bring Home the Gold at National Tournament

Martial arts students in Sandy, UT travel to Colorado Springs for the U. S. Hanmadang Taekwondo tournament and come home with 31 medals! End Quote

Salt Lake City-Ogden, UT (1888PressRelease) June 28, 2013 - The Personal Mastery Martial Arts competition team from Sandy, Utah brought home a total of 31 medals from this year's United States Hanmadang held in Colorado Springs. After months of training and preparation, the team members were very pleased with their performance, bringing home a total of 17 Gold medals, 10 Silver medals, and 4 Bronze medals.

At the beginning of the tournament, competitor Emily Henderson's mom Julie said, "To all our Personal Mastery Martial Arts competitors: It has been a privilege to get to know you all a little bit better and to watch each of you improve with your hard work and training! Good luck today! Have fun!"

The competition included many different events such as poomse (forms) and breaking competitions. In the poomse category, competitors had the option to compete as individuals, in teams, with weapons, without weapons, with music, without music, and in traditional forms or creative forms that the competitors created themselves. Similarly, there were many different breaking events. There were different events for power breaking techniques, jump breaking techniques, and so on. Most of the Personal Mastery Martial Arts competitors chose to compete in more than one event.

Many team members chose to compete in team events, where they were partnered with another member from the team. These team events brought the team members closer together as they had to practice to perform in unison and spent many hours working together to perfect their techniques and performance.

In more ways than one, the tournament brought the Personal Mastery Martial Arts students together as a family. One competitor, Holly Stirling said, "Hey Personal Mastery Martial Arts competition team! You all were so awesome this weekend! Thank you for being such a great team and supporting each other. I had a blast being with all of you!"

Master Instructor Aaron Doucet, who was one of the team coaches said, "The Taekwondo tournament in Colorado was a great experience in many ways. I saw my team get closer to become a family. I saw my team have true sportsmanship and respect their other competitors in their own division. No matter their scores, no matter what medal they got around their neck, they always had a positive attitude and were smiling with their team and keeping their heads held high cheering on the next competitor in their division. We made a lot of new friends and got closer with our old friends. This tournament was about more than winning. The Taekwondo Tournament was about going out to strive to be the best person you can be. And the team clearly rose to the occasion. Congratulations Team Personal Mastery Martial Arts you are all winners."

The United States Hanmadang has been held every year since 2009. On their website, the organizers of the U.S. Hanmadang explain the history of the event: "This tournament is more of a festival than a competition. In Olympic Sport Taekwondo, there is always a winner and loser. In the Hanmadang participants perform at their personal best. In the Hanmadang, families and children can perform together. Grandmaster Lee created this event to maintain the martial arts aspect of Taekwondo and open opportunities for children and families to expand their skills."

Many team members of Personal Mastery Martial Arts went to the tournament as families. There were several parents who went to compete along with their children, and two sisters who both competed at the tournament. Many of the competitors had family members go along just to cheer them on as well.

By the end of the competition the team coaches Master Bree Wise and Master Aaron Doucet were very proud of their students. They came and conquered and had a great black belt attitude of sportsmanship the whole time. Master Bree Wise enthusiastically said, "Everyone did fantastic! We had a grand total of 31 medals for the entire competition! Fantastic job Team Personal Mastery Martial Arts! I'm so proud of all of you that I can't even explain."

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