40th Midwest Taekwondo Championships: Maka’s Taekwondo celebrates tradition, technique, and teamwork

Maka’s Taekwondo will host the Midwest Taekwondo Championships for the 40th time on Saturday.

The first championship was in 1982 in Sioux Falls. They did not hold a tournament during Covid so they had a couple of years where there was no championship. When Houma Maka moved his taekwondo school to Tea, they started hosting the Midwest Taekwondo Championships in Tea in 2006 at the high school.

Today Maka’s wife, Lisa, and daughter, Sarah Smith, run the school and the tournament.

“My mom, Lisa Maka, is the master mind for it. She’s got it down,” Smith said. “We work together. She does all of the bracketing. She does all of the heading the concessions. I do more of the staffing and marketing. We divide and conquer most of it. It’s good to have a good solid team member. She’s got lots more experience.”

Smith is expecting competitors from South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Canada. Competitors range in age from as young as 3 years old through adulthood.

Competitors can compete in poomsae, the Korean word for form.

“It’s a set of moves people memorize and then keep on working and perfecting that routine and go in front of judges. They judge them on how high their kicks are, how good their stance is, how strong their technique is,” Smith said.

They can also compete in team poomsae where they do all of the form synchronized. They can also compete in sparring where they kick, punch and strike for points.

At the end of the day, everyone that places first in their division compete against each other for grand champion.

Smith expects around 500 people in the gym on Saturday. Doors open at 8 a.m. with competition beginning by 9:30 a.m. and going until about 5 p.m. The public is invited to come and watch. They will have general admission and concessions.

At this tournament, many of the students at Maka’s Taekwondo will compete. Smith said the milestone tournament is good for not only their students, but for students from other taekwondo schools.

“It’s just a good reminder of all of the years, all of the time spent in not just tournaments but our school, into our students. We see a lot of kids grow up here. A lot of students we have for 5, 6, 7, 10 years. It’s just a good reminder of the memories we have of those students and the difference that we aim to make in their lives. It’s a fun time to celebrate it,” Smith said.