“Lady’s and gentleman. Here is the event of the day. The event that you have all been waiting for — and me too! Entering on the far side and training with Tai Kwon Do Industries is the 4 time regional champion, Robby Moretti. He looks ready to do some schooling today, doesn’t he?” The audience responded with overwhelming applause for the standing champion.
“And now entering from the other side we have his closest competitor to date, holding an impressive number of wins and competition victories of his own and training with Mr. Kim’s Gyms: Darin Frost, Jr.”
…let the match begin.” said the announcer.
…On the refs signal the horn was sounded and the match began.
Darin and Robby circled each other on the mat. Each wanting the advantage, but each also wanting to stay away from the other.
Robby threw a fierce volley and DJ came back with blocks for each blow. DJ, now with his confidence up, threw a fierce volley of his own. But his assault too was blocked, blow by blow by his opponent.
“Come on DJ, you can do it. Take him” came a familiar voice. DJ couldn’t believe it. Over the din of the crowd he could hear his twin sister, Lisa, rooting him on. She’s the last person that he thought would be in his corner, but it sure give him a boost now having her there.
DJ let his concentration slip while thinking about Lisa rooting for him and Robby scored a point with a very nice punch-kick combo maneuver. “Well,” thought DJ, going on the offensive, “two people can play that game.” DJ threw back a combo assault with more power than he had intended but landed two points out of it. The crowd was on their feet. This was going to be close. The score now was 2 to 1 with DJ in the lead. The first person to score 5 was the winner.
DJ threw a quick blow to the face, pulling back before the blow could do any “real” damage, but just enough for him to score a nice, clean point. Cheers erupted again. Robby was not only mad, but he now felt like he was being bested. Robby came around and began a round kick, but faked DJ out and came down into a sweep maneuver, taking DJ off of his feet and scoring 3 points. The crowd went wild. Now Robby was a bit over confident and he immediately charged in on DJ, hoping to get the quick win. DJ was ready for him and was as elusive as ever. Coupled with his escape maneuver, DJ pushed Robby off balance; causing his momentum to take him out of bounds. An automatic point for DJ. The score was now 4 to 4, the crowd and the crowd was on their feet with no thought of sitting back down until this match came to an end. The next person to score would be the winner.
…DJ and Robby both had the same thought. “Take the risk and let’s get this thing over with.”
Everything seemed to begin to move in slow motion. DJ threw his high roundhouse kick to the chest at the same time that Robby was doing the same thing. There was a hush over the crowd as the opponents both made contact and both of their kicks looked good. It seemed to each of them as if it took forever for their feet to traverse the necessary distance. Then, it seemed that for a fraction of a second, right at the point of contact, time had frozen and nothing happened at all. Just as quickly the judges were giving their indication as to who won the match…
