Photos du club - ChEurope_Poomse_2011

Result:

I was eliminated in the first round with 6.55 points (3.13 for presentation and 3.42 for accuracy) . The highest points for the first round were 7.75 (Denmark) and the lowest points were 5.87 (Luxembourg). I placed 13th beating Finland, Hungary and Luxembourg. The last country making it to the final round was Austria with 6.85 points. So to qualify for the final, I needed another 0.31.

Competition rules:

Unfortunately I had overlooked an important rule which states that when there are less than 21 competitors there will be no preliminary round but only a semi-final and final. For the preliminary round poomsaes are chosen from poomsae 8 to poomsae 11 whereas for the other two rounds poomsaes are chosen from poomsae 12 to poomsae 15. Had I not overlooked this rule, I would have of course trained only these last 4 poomsaes during the last 7 days or so since the closing date for registration. Instead, I focused mainly on the first four putting myself at a disadvantage. 

Team support:

Of course the team support has substantially and positively affected my performance. I was surrounded with two great friends who acted very professionally and gave me the moral support required. Alan acted with great enthusiasm and attended the meetings required leaving time for me to train and concentrate on my performance. Stephen has also attended the important technical meeting informing me with the technical decisions taken. His support whilst waiting for my turn to perform was of paramount importance. Stephen had also given me an excellent massage which helped me relax and step on the competition area with the right frame of mind.

My performance:

Nerves - The level of excitement I had was controllable and I felt much more in control of myself when compared with the way I felt in Turkey in 2008.

Mistakes - Unfortunately, I made an obvious procedural mistake at the beginning of my first poomsae when I started my poomsae before the command of the official. When I realised I had made such a mistake I made two hesitations during my first movement which must have surely costed me further deduction of points. I did another procedural mistake at the very end of my second pomsae when I left the centre of the competition area before the command of the official and before the awarding of the final average points. These mistakes could have costed me ranking before other countries such as Croatia (which had 6.59), Sweden (which had 6.69), Serbia (which had 6.72) and France (which had 6.77).

Accuracy: When reviewing the video, I could only see a few points which perhaps could have been better executed. The bomsogi in Chonkwon could have been better pronounced and the santil makki in Sipjin could have been more precise.    

Presentation: Apart from the procedural mistakes indicated above, I could work more on speed and power training. I did a lot of it during these last three months or so but it seems there is always space for more innovative training in this regard. From all the competitors, I had the lowest points for presentation in proportion with the points achieved for techincal accuracy. Infact my points for presentation are 0.29 less than those for technical accuracy. No other competitor (excluding France) had such a big gap. This can indeed be an indication of the impact of the procedural mistakes above described.

Conclusion: Although I now rank 13th in Europe, I feel that I could easily have ranked 10th or even 9th had I been more careful and avoided the above mistakes. To be within the best 10 in Europe is my goal for the next European Championships in two years time. Indeed we learn from experience and the price I paid for the mistakes I have done this time around is indeed an investment for a better performance and result during the next European Championships.

Chris Vella

MTF Technical director and poomsae national team competitor