Fighting Fit

Gareth Parrs been off abike for a wjile since some BMX Dad drove over his in the carpark at Burnham. I think the driver willbe sorry after reading this.

And now for something different.

Last year while I sat at home dreaming of what I was missing on the racing scene a friend invited me to give teakwondoago so I did. I started in September, took a test, called a grading, in December and did my first competition at the weekend.

Never been in a fight before and only ever done light sparing at the place I was training I thought I should check it out on you tube, the holy place of all videos. Now as funny as it was to watch a lot of people getting knocked out and stretchered off I was beginning to poo my pants but as I had already entered I was going for it anyway. we met at 7.30 in the morning because apparently we had a weigh in at 8 but by half 10 it still had not happened and this was also were I realised I made my first mistake. Everyone was moaning about how hungry they were and that was because no one had eaten before their weigh in to make sure their weight stayed down, unlike me who decided he needed to keep his energy levels up so had a massive breakfast which did include bacon and eggs. So I started putting on some more layers to make me sweat a bit more and a quick trip to the toilet for a number 2. once I had my weigh in I was taking of as many layers as I could in a desperate attempt to keep my weight down as I was already on the edge of my weight category, but I managed to pull it of. They told me that all the pee wee's would fight first then the juniors followed by the seniors which I guessed would mean about a 2 - 3 hour wait, so I thought I would soke up the atmosphere and go and watch the little ones fight. The first fight I saw was between 2 boys at about 7 years of age and the kid in the red corner was defiantly the better of the 2 had proved this with a kick to the head which knocked the other lad out but when he got up the mat was covered in claret. so what little confidence I did have was slowly disappearing. After a three hour wait one of the other senior competitors informed me that we probably would not be fighting till about 6 that evening which would of meant I would of been their for 10 hours before I had even done anything but how wrong he was because it was actually a lot later than that. Yes I was bored out of my mind and I didn't actually care about fighting anymore or have any fear for what I was about to fight. At about 7.30 I realised I would be on in about 10 minutes so started to warm up with a bit of jogging followed by some stretching and some one pointed out I should do some kicking exercises. Now after a pretty mind numbing day I didn't think my day would get much worse but its me were talking about, so when I did my first warm up kick with my left leg I felt a big ping in my hamstring followed by me jumping up and down with a lot of French words coming out of my mouth. so I started to stretch it a bit more and desperately warm it up in a desperate attempt to get myself in to the ring and fight which I did. my first two fights I took very cautiously as I didn't want to make my injury worse and it all seemed to be going well as I cruised past them and into the semi-final. my leg was now feeling fine so went on a bit more of an attack and I beat the guy 8-1 half way through the second round. now I was starting to feel good and confident but as with racing you never now what's going to happen at each round and the guy I was fighting was a lot better than all my previous which didn't help with the fact that I just seemed to be ruited to the spot and completely forgot what I was doing. I have to say if it wasn't for my coach shouting kick I would of been a sitting duck. I came away with a silver medal which is not to shabby for a first competition but I think I was a little unlucky to loose as badly as I did in the final but what was worse was how hard he kneed me in the bottom of my back/top of my arse. I was hoping it would just be a fat bruise on my arse judging by how much pain I was in driving home but to my surprise that bruised blossomed into a beautiful lump the size of a golf ball. Possibly one of the most painful things to happen for a while because it hurts to do pretty much anything, even sleeping last night caused a lot of discomfort. But nothing prepared me for the embarrassment I faced the following morning when while I was trying to get dressed I realised I couldn't actually dress myself so let out a distress call of DAD. But it was while he was dressing me I realised why he is not a care worker and what was worse is while he was doing a bad job of it was making me laugh which unfortunately made my back even worse. I would of been better of dressing myself and just putting up with the pain and discomfort.
So in that 24 hours I don't think I can find any enjoyment at all apart from picking up the silver medal and even then im gutted I didn't pick up gold. Oh well at least im ranked number 2 in Britan in my weight and there is always next year.

Gareth will be seen fighting his way through thenpack at NPS4Xthis year.