Poteet Martial Arts from Midlothian Texas took 14 people to World Cup Argentina 2024 for October 25- November 3. 1 umpire, 8 competitors, 6 of whom doubled as coaches, 2 primary coaches, 3 supporters, one of which doubled as an amazing Press Photographer. Being one of the smallest groups PMA has taken to a Taekwon-Do world event, they performed exceptionally well in Argentina’s deep brackets!
Mr. & Mrs. Poteet functioned as the school’s primary coaches, organizing everything and everyone for each day of the competition. On top of taking care of their competitors, both filled in as needed to coach other American competitors, along with one Argentinian young man.
4th Dan Ms. Lillian Randall became PMA’s first student to be an Umpire at a world event! She did an amazing job in ring 8, where all Specialty Technique and Power Breaking occurred. We are looking forward to seeing more of her in the role of umpire for future world events.
5th Dan Mr. Joshua Archer coached several competitors in Patterns and Sparring on top of competing in Patterns, Sparring, Breaking and Pre-Arranged. Mr. Archer successfully advanced to the quarterfinals in patterns, but unfortunately lost to the silver medalist. He did exceptionally well in 75-81kg sparring, making to the quarterfinals once again, but lost by the tiniest of margins. Mr. Archer & Ms. Baker’s Prearranged routine was stunning, but they fell 1 short of the Quarterfinals. Mr. Archer had better success in Power Breaking and became Vice World Champion after winning a hand break-off in the 18-35 age bracket.
3rd Dan Philip Schlabach operated as Coach and/or warm up partner nearly every day. He competed in sparring and fought very well. Mr. Schlabach faced a great opponent in the first round who was significantly taller than him. It was a close match, and one of the most fun to watch.
3rd Dan Ms. Ashley Baker (now Mrs. Schlabach) was another of the studio’s coaches. She also performed well in all her events. Patterns was a beautiful display, but unfortunately, she was eliminated in the 1st round by the Silver medalist. She excelled in breaking, just barely missing the sidekick. However, she smashed through her elbow break with ease! Ms. Baker & Mr. Archer’s Pre-Arranged routine was incredibly good, displaying a lot of skills both partners have worked hard to perfect for this event. Unfortunately, they were eliminated 1 away from quarterfinals.
1st Dan Mr. Ben Lewis coached primarily for Specialty Techniques, along with competing in the Senior men’s Specialty, Sparring and Breaking. He had an outstanding run in sparring but was eliminated in the quarterfinals. He redeemed himself by winning medals in his other events! After 8 tiebreakers, Mr. Lewis became Vice World Champion in Specialty Technique. He one upped himself by becoming World Champion in Power Breaking, using an Inward Knife hand for his hand technique.
1st Dan Ms. Caitlyn Ellis competed in Specialty, Breaking and Sparring. While being an excellent example of being a great competitor, she was eliminated in round 1 of both specialty and breaking. She came back with a vengeance in sparring, bringing home Bronze in the 70-75kg bracket.
1st Dan Ms. Emily Hersker competed in Patterns, Sparring and Breaking. She was eliminated round 1 in patterns. She performed better in Breaking, running through her elbow break like butter! Like Ms. Baker, her sidekick also just barely missed breaking the board, eliminating her as well. Ms. Hersker advanced to the quarterfinals in sparring but lost to silver in a close match.
1st Dan Mr. Caleb Lewis was recovering from a concussion, so he was pulled from sparring, but he did compete in in Junior’s Specialty Technique. He snatched Gold with relative ease, and we cannot wait to see him in the Adult division next time!
2nd Gup Mr. Issac Lewis was our youngest competitor at age 13 and performed extremely well in his events. He had a beautiful pattern but was eliminated round one. He fought well but was up against gold, also in round one. In Specialty, out of 34 competitors, he was 1 of 14 to make it past round one. He made it to the quarterfinals and took fourth place.
Ultimately the members of Poteet Martial Arts brought home 5 of the 21 USA Medals, 2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze. They advanced 28 rounds in deep brackets at a tournament with 1700+ competitors. They had a wonderful time competing and are looking forward to doing even better next time!
Mr. Philip Schlabach started training in ITF Taekwondo in May of 2009 at Cross Martial Arts Center of Midlothian, Tx, where he earned the rank of red belt. Mr. Schlabach started training at Poteet Martial Arts in October of 2013 and earned his black belt on August 23, 2014. He competed at the 2014 USA National Championship where he won 3rd in the nation for Men’s Middle Weight Sparring. The following week, Mr. Schlabach was asked to be a Coach for Team USA for the 2015 Taekwondo World Championship in Italy. He coached 7 events in 3 different categories. After becoming a USA team coach, he began instructing at Poteet Martial Arts, something he currently does to this day.
