N the Red 23
Sports
7.in the chest. He won this match. Photo used with During the Canada Open, sophomore 6.is in the blue, kicks his opponent 5. Nolan Miles, who permission of Nolan Miles.
Kicking out the competition Sophomore Nolan Miles earns second place in recent tournament Lily Thomas thomalil000@hsestudents.org
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eet ew at the . . nior rand lam on o . , a brac et style competition between the top si tae wondo competitors in the . . at a certain age and weight class. ophomore olan iles, who ran s second in the nior g di ision, competed at the . . nior rand lam and placed second. e began his tae wondo career at the age of si , attending classes at aster oo s orld lass Tae wondo. fter eight years at aster oo s, iles began competiti ely fighting and holds a blac belt. Thro gho t his career, he has won se eral gold medals and made it to the arter finals at the T ational hampionships in . Tae wondo is a orean form of narmed self defense largely based on the se of ic ing. Team s website describes it as the “ nity of body, mind and life. “ erything that do in my life is impacted by tae wondo, iles said. “ t s ta ght me a lot abo t hard wor , wor ethic and staying foc sed. f yo lose foc s, yo re not going to ma e yo r weight class, yo r di ision and it s the match only three min tes, so yo ha e to ma e the most of it. rrently, he competes with the . . Tigers, a team centered in aines ille, irginia. e tra els to irginia on ridays, trains with the team riday night and at rday, then ret rns home on nday. “ en tho gh it s a lot of hard wor beca se yo gi e p a lot of time, thin it teaches yo a 1 iles said. “ t gi es yo a big part of yo r lot, life and it s really cool. esides the tra el, other aspects s ch as weight class contrib te to iles tae wondo endea ors.
iles fights nder the gs or lbs di ision, b t he has a typical wal ing weight of aro nd lbs. e m st c t abo t lbs to ma e the weight for each competition. “To really reach a high le el, yo ha e to basically adopt the mind set of o re a fighter and yo ha e to do whate er yo can to win, iles said. ccording to iles, the old school tae wondo was more physical and rec less than c rrent tae wondo. e said that it has become similar to foot fencing, which essentially means battling with one s feet. “ f yo re act ally doing it, it s ery interesting beca se there s so many different strategies and things that yo ha e to now how to do, iles said. “ rom a spectator s perspecti e, it s not as interesting. ecently, iles attended a phase two talent camp which gi es . . lympic coaches opport nities to assess athletes. e will train in olorado prings to prepare for becoming a member of Team for the lympic ames. iles has tra eled to o er half of the . . for to rnaments. e has an pcoming trip in ebr ary to weden for the ropean pen, and he has trained and competed in o th orea. ith all this tra eling, iles wor s to do both school and training. “ really want to ha e a balance between academics and the sport, iles said. “ m staying foc sed in school and trying to maintain it. opef lly, will be able to go to college either after m accomplished in tae wondo, li e going to the lympics, and then go to college. r do my training and attend college at the same time.
