Tae Kwon Do

http://portsmouthunitkd.blogspot.com/p/sparring.html

Almost every country has a national sport that they take immense pride in. For the United States its baseball, for many European countries its soccer (football) and for many Asian countries its a type of martial art. In South Korea, by law, the national sport is Tae Kwon Do, a form of martial arts that is also an olympic event.

For two years I did Tae Kwon Do and during this time I was my fittest. Sparring and pumsae (form) were the two main focuses the time I was there and in a poorly air conditioned room it was easy to work very hard. Sparring consisted of "fighting" someone close to your weight and the determination of who won the match was based on a point system. Certain kicks in certain spots gave various amounts of points (determined by a judge) and at the end of the match they would be totaled to see who had the most and could take the title of "winner." In pumsae, there were various forms you would have to memorize and "perform" for a judge. Your belt rank determined how many pumsaes you had to know and memorize; the higher the rank the more pumsaes you had to know. As you progressed the pumsaes got more intricate and longer, at times making it difficult to decipher one from another (they had similar names as well). When doing pumsae in a competition a judge would critique you on how precise your movements were, the distance of your stances and the fear you could invoke. I never personally competed in pumsae however I competed in sparring for one competition and gold medaled in it. 

My gold medal from my Tae Kwon Do competition 

My brother's black belt certificate

Aside from the competitive aspects of Tae Kwon Do, the masters (equivalent to a sensei in karate) constantly conveyed respect for other and for elders. The dojang was very traditionally Korean and as a result all the students of the studio were expected to treat others with respect as if you were in Korea.