IMPACT 0482: MAKING EVERY EFFORT TO BECOME A BETTER ATHLETE

Hi! I’m Nicholas Khaw and I’m 17 this year. I am a national taekwondo team athlete and a student from NUS High School of Mathematics and Science. I started taekwondo in 2013 and had the privilege of joining the national team in 2017. I clinched the 4th position when I competed in my first world championships and ever since then, I have been competing in as many competitions as I can – be it online via video submissions or on the mats in another country. A goal I’m striving towards this year is to get on the podium at the world championships.

No one tells you how much of life takes practice, and this does not just apply for disciplines like writing, painting, singing, etc. Similar to taekwondo, so much of life is muscle memory and there are many parts of ourselves to stretch and strengthen than those we’re taught in anatomy lessons.

“If you can perform well at your worst mental and physical state, you can perform two times better when you are at your best form,” says Ernesto Guzman Jr., who has been coaching me since 2014.