About 120 martial artists from Sundre and around the province recently convened at the Sundre High School for the Mountainview Taekwondo Club's 22nd annual tournament.
“We host it every year just to get people to come out and practise,” said Master Terri Miller, who instructs and is herself working on her fifth degree black belt.
The tournament provides an opportunity for participants to get accustomed to competition, which gets them ready for provincial level tournaments. It also exposes younger athletes to the tournament scene, she said.
“We have kids as young as four years old who compete. Some of the little kids are really good.”
The tournament was “extremely successful” this year. The format was adjusted this year to give all the contestants more of a chance to compete and gain experience, she said, adding that in the past, losing a round meant elimination from the tournament.
But this year, organizers planned a double round elimination so anyone who didn't win his or her first round still had the opportunity to go up against another competitor. The feedback from competitors and spectators — all included about 300 people attended the event — was really positive, she said.
The local club had 39 athletes compete in the tournament, and collectively they brought home 25 gold, 21 silver and 21 bronze medals, said Cherie Johnson, a mother of two young martial artists who are also members of the club.
Students involved in the Grade 8 sailing trip prepared and ran a concession, which earned about $900 for their trip, added Johnson, who lives near Caroline.
Involved in Taekwondo for 33 years, Miller has been teaching the discipline in Sundre for 22 years. She originally got involved in the sport during the early 1980s when she was working for the auxiliary program with the Leduc RCMP when a master Taekwondo instructor came to the detachment to offer lessons.
“It went from there. I kind of fell in love with it and continued on. It definitely becomes a way of life.”
In her earlier years with the sport, Miller said competing was amazing, and she gained experience at the provincial, national and international levels, including tournaments in Mexico, the U.S. and Thailand.
“Competition for me was really big.”
But a neck injury that was not related to the sport affected her ability to compete and she turned her focus towards training students, which she has been doing since 1989.
Some students come through the door without having ever been focused on any sport, and Miller enjoys the challenge of teaching and helping them to not only build their confidence and abilities but also to reach the goals they set.
The club planned to do belt testing for its students followed by a Christmas windup before a brief break until January, said Miller.
“The club is going strong and we're looking forward to the next year.”
