The demonstration team of UMBC’s Taekwondo club had its first performance on Feb. 10 during Athelton High School’s Lunar New Year Celebration. The team was invited to participate in the event with only a few weeks notice, so the team had to rush a performance together with the half a month that they had.

As they were participating in a cultural event for the Chinese New Year, the demonstration was built around emphasizing the cultural nature of the martial art. Abrasive kicks and punches made way for smooth movements and precise flow. For UMBC’s Taekwondo club, sheer force always defers to fluid motions, and the overall performance elicited great interest from the high school crowd.

The team was actually under more pressure than just getting the performance together, with adverse weather conditions also putting difficult constraints on things. The event was originally scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 9, but snow delays at Athelton forced the cultural event to be held on Feb. 10, conflicting with two members of the club’s schedule. Despite the numbers being down and the time constraint to prepare, the overall product was a treat for those in the audience.

First year Taekwondo member Adam Snyder said, “considering the amount of time we had [to prepare], it wasn’t that bad. We had a couple of weeks to get practice, and the amount of time to prepare, we did well. A few people dropped out just before, but we did our best and it went alright.” 

The sentiments were doubled over by demo team captain Michael Daugherty, who said, “we had two weeks [to practice]. I had started planning it during winter break and everything, so we got together and we practiced it a lot. I think we did really well for the amount of time we had to put things together.”

UMBC’s Taekwondo club practices two times a week in the RAC, and though they do not currently have the next event lined up, they are always looking for more experiences to test themselves.

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