{"id":26301,"date":"2020-04-03T17:20:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26301"},"modified":"2020-04-03T17:20:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:20:38","slug":"alexiya-falconi-ready-for-taekwondo-championships-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/alexiya-falconi-ready-for-taekwondo-championships-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexiya Falconi ready for Taekwondo Championships this year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Robert Belardi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexiya Falconi is preparing herself for the Taekwondo World\nChampionships in the fall of this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexiya, sister of St. Andrew\u2019s College football star Nathan\nFalconi, has been training all year while away in her first year of university\nat Wilfrid Laurier studying for a Bachelor of Business Administration degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m at school I usually just go to the gym and do\nweight training and cardio. Whenever I am home, I usually just practice my\nkicking and my sparring techniques and just go over my patterns.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, nearing the end of her first full year of postsecondary\nschool, it\u2019s time to enter the highest level of competition with the highest\nbelt of requirement to show for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Falconi has earned a black belt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she was six years old, she and her younger brother both\nearned a junior black belt in Karate. When Falconi was 13, turning 14, she\nearned her senior black belt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter I got my senior black belt, I decided I wanted a\nchange and I wanted to try a new marshal art,\u201d Falconi said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Falconi has been a part of Nobleton Taekwondo crafting her\nstyle in this dojang that respects the Korean origins of this martial art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Falconi says before every practice all of the students bow\nto the grand master. While stretching, the class is required to count to 10 in\nKorean while holding their position. At the end of the class, you bow to the\ngrand master and then you are dismissed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She credits the teachings from Mr. Adriano, Mr. Gallo, Mr.\nRita and Master Scarfo for helping her along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She earned her colour belt and qualified for the World\nChampionships in the Netherlands in 2017 looking to bring home a medal.  Instead, she brought home two bronze medals,\none in sparring and the other in patterns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a great experience. I learned a lot about myself, my\ntraining, my sparring skills and my pattern skills. I learned what I had to do\nin order for me to perform better for next time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She qualified for the next competition, however, she opted\nto withdraw to focus on school and acclimatize to the work load while living\naway from home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approaching this year\u2019s competition, Falconi learned to\nexpect the unexpected since her last tournament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2017, another fighter used her hands. It was\naxiomatic to Falconi that she would not know how to defend against it, and it\nwas the toughest fight she had faced thus far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approaching the world championships this time around, she\nsays she knows exactly what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou practice everything. I think that\u2019s one thing I learned\nfrom my last tournament. I did not expect hands, so now I need to learn to\nexpect just hands or to expect just legs, or to expect both,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s where I\u2019ll be able to perform my best in is,\nto be comfortable in all areas that my opponent chooses to fight.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Falconi will also prepare for a high level of competition.\nShe will stare into the face of other prime fighters around the globe. As a\nblack belt, the level of competition is different than colour belt. There is a\ncoach on the sideline, your coach can command you from the moment the fight\ncommences; similar to boxing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the colour belt division, there is no coach. This\ndivision strictly encourages friendly fighting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the worlds set in her sights this year, Falconi says\nthat one day, with the correct training and top results from future\ntournaments, she would like to pursue an opportunity in competing for Canada in\nthe Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If not, she knows her dad would like to see her open her\nvery own dojang, a future that she is open to as well. <\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robert Belardi Alexiya Falconi is preparing herself for the Taekwondo World Championships in the fall of this year. Alexiya, sister of St. Andrew\u2019s College football star Nathan Falconi, has been training all year while away in her first year of university at Wilfrid Laurier studying for a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. \u201cWhen I\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Qd","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 17:11:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}