Fortunately, it was not a totally new sport for any of our children. It was a new sport for which we were simply spectators. It was our first trip to a Taekwondo tournament.
My nephew, Barrett, has taken up the sport and was in town for a tournament. We were so excited to go see him. It reminded me a lot of a cycling event....lots of waiting for a few minutes of sport. He waited so patiently as the time passed slowly.
He did "forms", which we learned was their demonstrating their mastery of basic moves. They were scored immediately by the head judge saying something and then all 3 judges holding up fingers for the score. Holding them up meant you added a half to the score, while holding them down just meant the number of fingers. (And, know that I am getting the lingo all wrong. Aunt Joanna should add a comment correcting my many mistakes.) Barrett did quite well with his forms; he ended up with 2nd for his age group.
After that part, they the moved to sparring through a mini tournament. We learned a LOT. Who knew there were strikeouts in anything except baseball. That one was a little more frustrating...it seemed like the referees/judges/whatever they were were pretty aggressive in calling strikes. Like many others, Barrett struck out. Nevertheless, we enjoyed visiting with everyone and having the opportunity of watching him.
We had lots of time to spend together and Christopher took in every minute of what all the older boys were doing, watching their every move.
