Conditioning & commitment

Kalispell's Alan Bowman is vying for a spot on U.S. national taekwondo team

By DAVID LESNICK/The Daily Inter Lake

Alan Bowman is the perfect example of hard work paying off.

"I wasn't the sport athlete, the amazing kid prodigy," the 21-year-old Kalispell national champion said when he first began taking taekwondo lessons 11 years ago.

"I was not coordinated at all. It took me a lot of work to be where I am now."

Bowman is "now" on the verge of achieving something pretty special. He's in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., today for the U.S. Team Sparring Trials with his eyes focused on the 2012 Olympics.

The 6-foot-4, 185-pound third-degree black belt will compete in the middleweight division (under 185 pounds' against three other hopefuls. He has already beaten two of them this year at Nationals.

To make the U.S. team, Bowman will need to win three fights.

"I'm excited," Bowman said.

"If I can make the (U.S.) team the next three years and get with the right group of people who decides who goes to the Olympics, yeah (it can happen).

"My chances are endless as long as I fight to my potential. I'm confident in what I can do as long as I keep my head on straight."

Each match will consist of three two-minute rounds. Scoring is based on blows to the chest, one point, and head, two points. The fighter with the most points wins. Or, you can win by a knockout.

Bowman has been knocked out just once - by an Olympian who goes by the name of Conan from the Ivory Coast.

"I thought it was funny, too," he said of squaring off with Conan, "until he kicked me in the face.

"Sooner or later, I hope," he said of a rematch with Conan.

"I want to fight him again. I will have a fighting chance against him this time."

Bowman traded his soccer ball and shoes for a white belt and taekwondo uniform when he was 10.

"I watched one class, did the private lesson with the instructor," he said.

The next week he was a regular member. He still remembers the date - Aug. 10.

"It was overwhelming, a completely different experience than I had before," he said.

"I got to yell, run around and be obnoxious."

That was the easy part - being himself. Mastering the moves, at times, and other aspects of the sport was far more challenging.

"They (other students' would do things faster, kick better, faster, sooner," he said.

"Like watching a fish out of water I can only imagine what it looked like from everyone else's perspective."

Bowman said it took him a quick two months to move from a white belt to a yellow.

"Four months is the average," he said.

The other belts in those early years did not come as quickly.

"I knew everything and I could do it well, " he said.

"When it came time to the fighting part, that was my struggle for a long time."

When he competed at nationals for the second time at the age of 15, something changed.

"I fought really well," he said.

"I won my first fight at nationals. It really clicked."

He's been successful since then because of his conditioning and commitment.

"I train six days a week," he said.

"If somebody is out there training more than me, I will change that."

Bowman said the only time he was discouraged was when he lost in tournament action.

"But never in class. I had too much fun in class.

"The atmosphere, being around people. My taekwondo coach (John Paul Noyes' has been a big help through the whole thing. My parents got divorced when I was 10, so he was a mentor for me. He was always behind me in every decision I made."

His mother, Linda, an Evergreen Junior High School teacher, has played a huge role as well.

"My mom has paid for every tournament I've gone to for seven years now," he said.

Not to mention being his biggest fan.

"It gives you a good foundation for everything you do in life," Bowman said of taekwondo.

"It gives you good people skills, gives you confidence for going out in every day situations.

"I can't see myself doing anything else," he added.

"This is my life right now.

"Eleven years ago I never thought I would be here," he added.

"It was one of those things that was out of my reach. Hard work and perseverance, sticking with it (got me through it)."