achievement and regret

our poomse competition has ended. right at this moment, i feel both relieved and sad. it's definitely been an exciting trip, and i've learned so much, as cliche as that is. i've felt that both my general taekwondo (paddle kicking, speed, etc) and my poomse have improved, and i may have even lost weight. just watching people warm up in the taekwondo arena has slowly increased the power and height of my sidekick. because without improving, it would have been impossible to stand up on the world stage with all of its world class athletes.

after the competition there is always a bit of regret, and perhaps anger. what if something had gone a little better? what if this was different, or that didn't happen, what if we'd just had a bit more time to gather ourselves? why weren't certain people there, and would it have even made a difference? there's blame put on the judges, as if the scores immediately following our performance were outrageously higher than they deserved, and ours were unreasonably low. but looking at the big picture, none of that would have mattered because the winners were still clear winners, and we still have much to accomplish to reach that goal. but i did realize one thing, that collegiate poomse is still within my age limit for 2011, so i will be looking forward to that.

i'm grateful that this competition will be going on for another several days. now i can relax a bit, and really try to get the most out of the opportunities here. i can not only cash in on all the taekwondo experiences, but also the many other sports here. watching the opening ceremonies, and reading the daily papers on the games, you realize that taekwondo is a small world - a comfortable and familiar one - and that the world of sports, and the sports at the world level, offer so many more new things to explore.