Sport
15 December, 2022
Brian and Heather Carr take gold and silver in Bendigo for national Taekwondo championships
The recent Australian Taekwondo National Championships in Bendigo were more than just a return to medal-winning form for Brian and Heather Carr. With both Brian and Heather winning a gold and silver medal each, it allowed Brian to move to 101 state...
The recent Australian Taekwondo National Championships in Bendigo were more than just a return to medal-winning form for Brian and Heather Carr.
With both Brian and Heather winning a gold and silver medal each, it allowed Brian to move to 101 state and national medals, joining Heather as a centurion, having now won 106 — with both competing at such a level since 2005.
The event was held on the weekend of December 3 and 4, with both Brian and Heather competing in the Poomsae divisions in three different categories. As Heather says, it took a lot of hard work to get back into the national championships, given the 2020 and 2021 events were cancelled due to COVID.
“Brian and I have been competing at state and national tournaments since 2005, and we have missed the last two years due to COVID. So the national tournament in Bendigo this year was our goal to try and participate, given how close it was to home. We set the goal at the start of the year, so we trained hard to achieve that,” she said.
“We had to participate in the state selection tournament in Melbourne to earn selection, where we were able to medal, but to us, after two years of missing out, there was a lot of training to get back into competition. It was quite an achievement — we didn’t know how we would go, but because it was so close, being in Bendigo, it was worth it.”
Heather explains that training in Poomsae is all about improving your ability, while there is also an element of offense and self-defence in certain movements. Becoming judges has allowed her and Brian to perfect their skills even more, while training, as always, is also a critical factor.
“With Poomsae, it’s an ongoing improvement individually. We try to perfect movements. We’re also Poomsae judges. By judging, you understand what particular moves are incorrect. Judging is generally scoring out of 10, and by becoming a judge — which we’ve been doing for about five or six years now — it allows you to understand the correct movements, which helps in your own individual performance when you’re competing, but we’re always trying to perfect them,” she said.
“Training for us leading up to the national events saw us train four nights are week. We tried to do a bit within our class, but because we teach, we can’t do a lot of training, but outside of that, we were doing a lot of individual work, such as videoing one another and critiquing each other’s work and trying to get movements correct. You try to get the best possible score on the day, but it comes down to a lot of fitness work as well — preparation in the gym, flexibility and performing the movements itself.
“We competed in three events for the day. It was a long day — we were there from 9 am through to 4.30 pm, and there is a lot of gaps in between. You have to stay mentally alert throughout the day, and you may only be given 10 minutes notice to be on the mat to compete, so it’s important to be physically and mentally alert across the whole day — it’s not just the timeframe where you’re on the mat competing.”
Brian adds that the training is the biggest part of their achievements, saying that it’s not all about just having a high fitness level to succeed.
“We’re almost average people doing above-average things because of what we put into our training. There may be people out there who are better athletes than us, but it’s because of our commitment to our training that it helps us. You don’t have to be super-fit, but you can always be committed,” he said.
Despite starting taekwondo at different ages, it’s an attitude that has allowed both Heather and Brian to succeed. To Heather, learning taekwondo had a bit more meaning to just being able to perform at a high level.
“Brian’s been competing in taekwondo since he was 14, and used it to help train to play tennis as well when he was younger. I took it up when I was 33, I wanted to use it to help with self-defence. I really encourage women in particular to learn self-defence as well,” she said.
Through their work, they have also encouraged other students and instructors to participate at state and national levels, and were able to coax two instructors from the Maryborough Martial Arts team — Paul Johnson and Noor Baharum — to participate as volunteers throughout the championships.
“As the championships were so close to Maryborough, and so close to home, we encouraged some of our students to register to become volunteers. We ended up having Paul and Noor do that, doing so across the two days on the Saturday and the Sunday. They committed to the long days, but they enjoyed it and learned a lot. It was a great experience for them to be participating and viewing the competitors at the national tournament. It’s encouraged them to perhaps have a go at competing next year,” Heather said.
“Poomsae is one part of our training that we do — it’s a holistic approach to martial arts. We have taken teams in the past to Adelaide, Hobart, Brisbane and Canberra over the years from Maryborough, and we’ve encouraged our students to think about competing. For someone who does so for the first time, it takes you out of your comfort zone, which comes with a lot of training and practice, but it’s something that people learn from. Our state tournaments next year will be the goal for some of our students to have a go at competing in.
“We’re older adults, we like to lead by example, so we love to say, if we can get out there and compete, you can as well. We’d love to see some of our younger members compete as well."
Heather wanted to acknowledge the work of the Maryborough Sports and Leisure Centre, which has been their long-time base.
“We’d also love to acknowledge the Maryborough Sports and Leisure Centre, where we’ve been teaching for 22 years now. It supports our taekwondo club, and our members likewise support the centre. It’s a win-win for the usage of the centre,” she said.