Taekwondo is a Korean martial art which lays emphasis on various kicking techniques. A player is awarded points on the basis of where he places his attack and its execution; for example, a kick to the chest guard gives the player two points unless they involve a spinning technique in their kick, which fetches the player four points. Each bout has three rounds of two minutes each; alternatively, there can be a knock-out which ends the bout. The fights are categorized based on the weight of the player. Some basic fouls include: hitting the opponent below the belt, punching the opponent on the waist, hitting the opponent while he is down, leaving the circle, and hitting the opponent with one’s knee.

‘We have four first yearites, four second yearites, six third yearites, and five or six fourth yearites’, says Ananyam Dwivedi, the captain of the Taekwondo team, on the composition of the current team. Mitul Sharma and Mayank Sarogi for the boys’ team and Megha Meghna for the girls, are considered by the captain to be the star players of their teams, and therefore the medal prospects during BOSM. ‘We practice on the mats from 5:30 to 7:30 every evening, and on Sundays we run to Pahadi’, says the captain about the team’s training regime. ’Apart from that, if there is an issue with any individual, such as poor flexibility, or lack of speed or endurance, then they devote an hour more in the morning.’

According to the captain, the team’s major rival is IIT Roorkee. ‘Apart from BOSM, we participate in the University Nationals, and the sports fest of IIT Roorkee in the second semester. We are also considering participating in some competitions during the first semester but we have not decided which ones’, says Ananyam on the participation of the team in tournaments outside BOSM. The team performed well in the previous BOSM with Mitul Sharma, the then captain, winning a gold medal. Megha Meghna won a gold as well, and many silver medals were awarded to the team. They performed well in the tournaments apart from BOSM during the previous year. ‘We won one gold and three or four silver and bronze medals apiece in the sports fest at IIT Roorkee. We won the most number of medals among all the colleges in this tournament.’

The captain first picked up the sport around the end of his first semester at BITS. He has competed at both the national and state levels. ‘Every player puts in their utmost effort into the practices; I don’t need to push them to do their work very often. Since all the members of the team are disciplined, and balancing my academic goals with the responsibility of being the captain hasn’t been that difficult, on the whole, the task of being the captain has been quite easy’, says Ananyam, on his experience as captain. The added responsibility has changed Ananyam’s training regime. He now has to help correct any mistakes the less experienced members of the team are making, but he still gets to test his skill by having a bout with the fourth yearites, who are more experienced than him. The responsibility of being captain does not weigh on his mind during a match. Ananyam’s favorite player is Servet Tazegul, a Turkish Taekwondo practitioner.

‘In general, the institute has been very kind to us; any problems that we faced were resolved quickly’, speaks Ananyam on how the meetings with the CoSSAc fared. Ananyam encourages the BITSians to explore different sports, as one never knows what might interest them. ‘Before I came to BITS, I never thought that I would ever try Taekwondo. But I did end up trying it, and I loved it.’