Talina Le is committed to her sport: taekwondo

WOODINVILLE — Being a typical teenager, Talina Le has occasionally questioned her commitment to taekwondo.

There are times, for instance, when she might rather relax with friends than do a vigorous training workout. Or times when she might like to eat delicious, calorie-filled foods instead of the diet she follows to maintain her weight. And times, frankly, when it might just be more fun to be a typical teenager.

But students of taekwondo are taught to value hard work, perseverance and self-discipline, and those same lessons have helped Le get past any moments of indecision and doubt. Likewise, they have helped her become one of the top young female taekwondo athletes in the United States.

Le, who turns 15 today, is the reigning Junior Pan American gold medalist in the finweight class (under 92.5 pounds for juniors, ages 14-17), a title she won in early October at Daytona Beach, Fla. And earlier this month she placed first at the U.S. team trials in Des Moines, Iowa, putting her on the 20-member American team (10 girls, 10 boys) bound for the Junior World Taekwondo Championships in Izmir, Turkey, May 8-11.

She is also a contender for future United States Olympic teams, beginning with the 2012 Games in London.

Being an Olympian “would be amazing,” Le said, “because not a lot of people can make the Olympics. It would be cool.”

Le, who lives in Woodinville and attends Leota Junior High School, is also a top soccer player. At one point, in fact, she considered soccer her favorite sport.

“But now I like taekwondo,” she said. “Team sports are fun, too, but an individual sport is more fun. All the attention is on you and no one else. It’s very nerve wracking and there’s a lot of pressure, but I just try to stay focused on what I want (to do).

“And winning, that’s the best. It just feels really good.”

Le trains at Tuoi’s Olympic Taekwondo Center in Woodinville with owner and instructor Tuoi Le, who is also her dad and a fifth-degree black belt. Talina started in the sport when she was three and is now a third-degree black belt.

“When she trains, she trains very hard,” said her father. “She’s very talented, very skilled, very fast and very fit because she cross-trains from soccer. Her strength is that she works hard and she enjoys doing it. Her weakness is not having a lot of confidence about herself. But once she recognizes her talents, her skills, it’s hard to beat her.”

Talina Le, who also trains with Juan Miguel Moreno, a three-time U.S. Olympian and the national team’s women’s coach, says it’s hard to know how she’ll fare at the upcoming World Juniors since she’s never faced anyone from Europe or Asia.

“But my coach (Moreno) told me that he’s really proud of me,” she said. “He thinks that I’m more experienced on the team and that I can do it. He thinks that I can win, and I think that, too.”

Taekwondo is one of the most popular martial arts, and youngsters — preschoolers, often — can benefit in more ways than just fitness and having fun.

“It teaches them dedication, commitment and sacrifice,” Tuoi Le said. “A lot of kids now don’t know what those mean or how to apply them. … I like to teach my (students) that life is not easy. And sport and life are almost the same thing. Just like life, you have to focus on the goal, go after it and commit.”

Maritza Santiago, an instructor at Taigon Taekwondo in Lake Stevens and a fourth-degree black belt, said students learn discipline and self-confidence, but also “to think positive about themselves, about who they are and what they want to become. They look at themselves differently. … Character development is one of the most important things.”

Also, playing time is never an issue in taekwondo classes. “Nobody here is sitting on the bench,” she said. “Everybody does their own individual workouts and they’re going to be learning everything.”

According to Bill Kellick, an official with USA Taekwondo in Colorado Springs, Colo., students also learn to respect fellow competitors, officials and their coaches. “I’ve never been in a sport where I’ve been called sir — as in ‘Yes, sir,’ and, ‘No, sir’ — so many times,” he said.