My Tae Kwon Do Tournament

Yesterday I participated in my second Tae Kwon Do Tournament and I received two second place medals; one for my "forms" and one for sparring.

This is me doing my forms. I had to do it twice. The first time Papa said I did a picture-perfect job, but I lost to the other participant. The second time I hesitated on one of my moves, but I still won. Over all I received a second place finish. The video is from my second round.

I also had to spar. Sparring is when you fight against an actual opponent. Unlike the forms where you are only competing against yourself - whoever does a better job on their chosen form wins - sparring involves actually kicking and punching (and getting kicked and punched). Sparring isn't my favorite part of the sport, but I did okay and managed to take a second place. Here you see me sparring with someone from another school. I was trying score a head-shot (worth two points), but I'm not sure if I made it. The following video is from one of my sparring rounds.

If you would like to see more pictures of the tournament you can go to my family website and see it here.

Tae Kwon Do

I have been doing Tae Kwon Do for about two and a half years. This is me (on the left) sparring with Seth in athlete training class today. This was my second match of the evening. The athlete training class is to help us prepare for a tournament coming up in May.

This is is Me suiting up for sparring.

At the end of class, just before we are let go to get dressed and go home, Master White has us "circle up". He gives us last instructions and reminds us about things we should be working on. Today he reminded us that we should help each other up when we fall. Here I am helping (or getting ready to) demonstrate this lesson. Seconds after Mama took this picture Master White kicked me and I pretended to fall down...well, I did actually fall down, but he barely kicked me so I didn't have to fall, but I did so that he could help me up.

Garter Snake

This is a slide show of the time we found a garter snake by the front door. Okay, Mama found it and took pictures, but *I* got to pick it up. Picking it up is way cooler than taking pictures of it. And even cooler is that it was eating a frog.

My new blog

My name is Patrick. I am in second grade and I am trying to decide if I will be a herpetologist or a wildlife photographer. While I try to figure that out I thought you might like to join me on my adventure of being a boy.