Local taekwondo students travel to Colorado for CamXpo

Purple belt Carson Kolwyck throws a kick while working on his poomse outside the Legett Program and Crafts Center at Snow Mountain Ranch (YMCA of the Rockies) during the Colorado Taekwondo Institute’s Moo Sul Kwan CamXpo 2021 on Friday, July 30. Kolwyck, along with 11 other students from Southeast Missouri, traveled to the camp, which was at nearly 9000 feet elevation, to work out and learn from many different black belts.

Photo courtesy of Kyle Carter

FRASER, Colorado – During the blistering heatwave of late last week, a dozen taekwondo students from Southeast Missouri found an interesting way to beat the heat. They traveled with their instructor to Snow Mountain Ranch (YMCA of the Rockies) to the Colorado Taekwondo Institute’s Moo Sul Kwan CamXpo 2021. The CamXpo is a unique hybrid experience of the Colorado Institute’s camp and expo events that have been being hosted in the mountains for long over two decades.

“It is a very unique experience this year for our students because they’ve never done anything like this, but due to the lack of live events these past couple of years, they had to merge the two together for this year,” said Sikeston’s Missouri Taekwondo Institute head instructor Nick Slinkard. “Normally they have a camp that is a week-long with all the normal camp activities and classes dispersed in. The Expo is usually a weekend thing. The plan for next year is for it to go back to normal, so this may be the only time our students get to experience both on one trip.”

The students participated in traditional taekwondo classes working on poomses, defensive drills, board breaking, and walking steps, but also in several “summer camp style” activities including a rock-climbing wall, archery, a downhill mountain slide, and a zip line. Students also had free time to roller skate, play basketball, or an assortment of other activities.

Richland R-1 School fourth-grader and current yellow belt Ryan Carter prepares to go down backwards at the mountain tubing hill at Snow Mountain Ranch (YMCA of the Rockies) during the Colorado Taekwondo Institute’s Moo Sul Kwan CamXpo 2021 on Friday, July 30. Mountain tubing was just one of the activities available to the dozen students from the Missouri Taekwondo Institute that attended the CamXpo over the weekend.

Photo courtesy of Kyle Carter

“It’s several days of training and camp activities where our students get to learn from other instructors and meet people from outside of Missouri,” said Slinkard, who is a 4th degree black belt and owns the Missouri Taekwondo Institute in Sikeston.

Approximately 150 students, from ages 6 and up participated in the four-day event in the Rocky Mountains that included a lunchtime hike up to the waterfalls at Snow Mountain Ranch. Students from several Southeast Missouri schools including Sikeston, Oran, Bell City, and Richland all had students participate in the weekend.

While discussing their usual class load of 13-14 classes that are open to the public each week in Sikeston, Slinkard finished by talking about how attending an event like this would infuse energy into their school. “This is going to make us all better,” said Slinkard. “They (the 12 students from Southeast Missouri that attended) are going to bring this excitement back to all our school in Sikeston and our school is just going to keep growing.”

The Missouri Institute of Taekwondo in Sikeston is currently at just over 100 students and is located at 605 Brunt Blvd, Suite C – just due West of Colton’s Roadhouse restaurant. The next scheduled local taekwondo tournament is planned for Saturday, Sept. 25, at the Cape Girardeau SportsComplex at 7:30 am.

For more information, or to try taekwondo today in Sikeston, contact MTI at 573-382-4244 either via phone or text or send an email with any questions to MissouriTaekwondo@gmail.com. Students can try out taekwondo for two classes for $25 with a uniform included.