reha baykal
1st poom | november 2024

Dear masters, friends and fellow students, this is my taekwondo journey.
 
My Taekwondo journey started when 6-year old me wanted to learn a martial art. When we found someplace nearby to train, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be very good. When I first entered, I was doing weird moves and when I finally got my yellow belt I was feeling pretty confident about myself: I was doing my blocks and punches better and I felt like I had improved a ton.
 
Then I realised that I was going to be a red belt, I thought I was going to fail my grading but with practice I was able to make it through.
 
I was making it higher and higher as a colour belt and I was soon going to be a black belt.
 
When I reached a certain amount of skill, my father insisted that I join the Weiwu warriors group. This was like stepping into a whole new dimension of training, the environment was different from the place I was used to. It was much harder and I felt like giving up but I kept driving myself to do more and finally, I went to a competition. Although I was uncontested I could view how they worked. After a while, Master Joyce suggested that I should also come to the poomsae lessons. We accepted and I finally felt ready to grade to Cho-Dan-Bo 2. A little while after, national selections arrived but I was sick on the day of my sparring match but since I had a demo match I was still awarded silver. Then came the day of my poomsae competition and I won gold and got a spot in nationals for both my events.
 
Nationals was the most remarkable event I had been at this year and one I would remember forever. On the day of my poomsae comp I made a tragic mistake that ruined my opportunity. On my sparing comp, I had a lot of pressure riding on my shoulders because it was the very first time I was actually competing at a competition and surprisingly, I did pretty well in my first match, going offensive but in the second one I punched way too high and I got 5 gamjoms so I lost the match. I learned that mistakes are made but that doesn't mean I gave up, I'm going to do better next year, I know it.
 
Even after nationals I still plan on reaching new heights.
Thank you master Joyce for teaching me my blocks and strikes,
Thank you master Benecia for teaching me my poomsae,
Thank you master Bryanna for teaching me self-defence,
Thank you master Brian for pushing me past my limits in Weiwu warriors.
 
Thank you for helping me get to the stage I am at now and I hope to continue beside Weiwu Taekwondo throughout my time.