WESTFORD — Students from Achieve Taekwondo earned an impressive collection of medals at the April 12 USA Taekwondo Massachusetts State Championship.
Twelve students from the school’s Westford and Concord locations competed in the championship, bringing home medals across multiple divisions, including sparring, traditional poomsae, and breaking.
Founded in 2013 by Master Ben Parks, Achieve Taekwondo teaches children and adults throughout the region, emphasizing martial arts techniques alongside values such as discipline, integrity, and respect. Competitors represented communities including Acton, Boxborough, Chelmsford, Concord, Littleton, Lincoln, Stow, and Westford.
According to Parks, the annual competition is part of the larger pipeline for Olympic-style Taekwondo under World Taekwondo, the international governing body for the Olympic sport.
“The way that the funnel works for the Olympics is that first you have regional tournaments, then states,” Parks said. “If you qualify at states, you can go to nationals, and then if you qualify at nationals, you can go to pre-Olympic tournaments.”
The state championship welcomed competitors from both inside and outside the state, though medal winners from the event automatically qualified for the national championship competition scheduled for July in North Carolina.
Students at the championship, who range from beginner yellow belts to veteran black belts, were coached by Master Leah Abraham, a USA Taekwondo coach and nationally qualified referee, along with instructor and conditioning coach Kai Marcucelli.
Throughout the competition, students supported one another with sparring preparation, cheering from the sidelines, and last-minute poomsae practice. Poomsae, also known as forms, consists of choreographed Taekwondo movements designed to develop balance, timing, precision, and technique.
Parks said Taekwondo competitions are structured to allow beginners and advanced athletes alike to compete against others of similar age and experience levels. Newer students are grouped by belt rank and age category, while Olympic-level competition is reserved for advanced black belts.
“It’s for all levels,” Parks said. “You can go to these competitions even if you’re relatively new to the sport. You’d just be competing against other people who are on that same level as you.”
He added that many students begin with Achieve Taekwondo’s in-house tournaments before advancing to larger state competitions.
Students interested in competition typically attend regular classes several times a week before joining the school’s competition team and participating in additional training sessions.
“The more you train, the more intense it can get, and the harder the competition,” Parks said.
Parks described the school as a supportive environment where students are encouraged to push outside their comfort zones while developing confidence, self-discipline, and resilience.
For Parks, seeing competitors ranging from children to seniors succeed at the tournament was especially meaningful.
“Any time that someone puts a lot of work into something and it can bear fruit and make them feel proud, it always makes me feel really proud,” he said.
Achieve Taekwondo is located at 364 Littleton Road in Westford. It offers martial arts instruction focused on self-defense, sparring, forms, breaking, and personal development for both children and adults.
