Tyger combat competition

We had a Tyger combat and High kick competition for the Junior Tygers (5-8yrs) at Sitttingbourne and Faversham Taekwondo club. We had 13 competitors in total from both clubs. The first event was the high kick, where the Tygers are not allowed to jump but they have to kick a ball attached to a piece of string. They must kick the ball on the way up or down but cannot go up, down then back up again. The height of the ball is based on the height of the competitor. Firstly we place the ball level with each Tygers nose for them to kick. In the second round we place the ball on top of their head, they step back then kick it. Each round the ball gets higher as we eliminate the Tygers who miss. in the fourth round the ball is way above the heads of the Tygers. We were down to two Tygers left. Tudor Ciuca and James Li. Tudor went first and kicked high enough but just narrowly missed the ball, James had to kick the ball the win, he stretched to his maximum height and just managed to Tip the edge of the all with his toes. James Li is the Tyger High kick Champion.

Next up was Tyger combat. We lined all the Tygers up and put them in height order. We separated them into three height groups. We had 4 lightweights (smallest), 5 middle weights (medium height) and 4 heavyweights (tallest). The competition was a knockout format with two competitors meeting in the final. The Tyger combat is a fun combat system that does not include kicks or punches as the Tygers are a little too young to be kicking and punching each other. So they use a red blocker pad to attack and block with a black shield. One point is scored for every attack that hits a scoring area. Scoring areas are the head (not the face) and body, not the back and not below the belt. The contact should be light and not too excessive. This form of combat teaches the Tygers about defence, speed, distance, timing and aggression. All these skills are beneficial when they move to the cadets Taekwondo where they will start full sparring including kicks and punches.

The lightweight finalists were Ilse Boyle from Faversham vs Jenson Laird from Sittingbourne, after a close tactical battle, Ilse won the contest for the second time. Lightweight Champion Ilse Boyle.

The middleweight finalists were Jenson Tindall (Sittingbourne) and Ella Richardson (Faversham), another very tactical and intelligent approach to the contest by both competitors. Middleweight Champion: Jenson Tindall

The heavyweight final was between Harry Websper (Sittingboune) and James Li (Faversham), a very enthusiastic contest with plenty of excitement with the crowd cheering both competitors. Heavyweight Champion: Harry Websper