Four black belts who study taekwondo at St. Michael’s World Taekwondo Academy earned the opportunity to compete in a national competition, the U.S. Team Trials, in Colorado Springs a few weeks ago. Now they’re back in session this fall and ready to push their limits to excel.
The four athletes study under Master Hoth, whose studio is located in the Colonial Mall. Mercedes Hruska, Briana Burke and Emily Becker are all young teens that competed as a team last year, and Deb Hommer-who is Burke’s mother-competes as an individual. All four specialize in poomsae, or the act of performing blocks, stances, strikes and feet technique in a coordinated pattern, or form.
“It requires a different type of mental toughness,” Hoth said of poomsae, which differs from many other types of competition, such as sparring or weapons demonstration, in that the athletes perform in a silent atmosphere.
The four athletes qualified for the national competition in July, then in August traveled to Colorado Springs for two days of seminars followed by the U.S. Team Trials. It takes about 1.5 hours of performance time to get through all eight of the forms required of them. None of St. Michael’s competitors advanced during the team trials, but they are already back in the studio, preparing for new opportunities to compete. The girls also got a big boost of confidence by the large amount of attention and positive feedback they received from the U.S poomsae team’s coaches while they were competing, and they are all hoping to improve in time for next year’s national competition in Virginia Beach.
“The nice thing about World Taekwondo Academy is that we are all one big family,” Hommer said. “We are one team, we are there to support everybody. It’s all about supporting the team.”
As for their leader of their team, Master Hoth spent most of his adult life as an educator and assistant principal in the public school setting, but four years ago he switched gears to fulfill his dream of opening and running his own taekwondo studio. He has been training in taekwondo since 1985 and is currently a fifth degree black belt. Master Hoth’s studio has grown to 130 students in the four years he’s been open, to which he credits St. Michael’s ‘awesome families and students.’
