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Farmington Teen Among Top Taekwondo Competitors In The World

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- High school sports are as unique as the athletes who participate in them. It's not always football, basketball and soccer players who end up as stars.

Now, there's a girl from Farmington taking the world of taekwondo by storm.

She started as a student of the martial art, and now she's a teacher.

"My official title is junior instructor," Makenna Hand said.

Makenna is a junior at Farmington High School, and you can often find her at the taekwondo gym, passing down her knowledge to an even younger generation.

"It's just your job to spread knowledge around for all the students, and help them out," she said.

Makenna took up taekwondo almost four years ago, and a year and a half ago she earned her first degree black belt. The only place to go from there was into the world of competitive sparring.

"When I started it, I was kind of scared of it, at first," she said, "because you don't want to be kicked in the head. But it happens."

The rules are simple, as Makenna explained.

"You have to get five points to win a sparring match -- a kick or a punch to the chest is one point, a kick to the head is two points, and then if you jump with your kick and get it, it's three points," she said. "And I just had kind of a knack for it, and so going to tournaments and stuff, I was mostly getting first, second or third. You get more points and then you get to go to worlds, and then you compete, and then you win!"

Makenna rapidly rose up the world rankings. Last year, she was ranked fourth in the world among girls age 15-17 in her classification.

"To excel at this sport, you don't need anything more than hard work and dedication," she said. "It's one thing to be good at it physically, but it's another thing to be good at it mentally."

She says it's not just dedication, but about how you approach it.

"Having things like confidence, and having a good attitude, and just being respectful and believing in yourself," she said. "You don't have to kick the highest or be the strongest to be good, at taekwondo."

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