Submitted PhotoPerformance Martial Arts Academy's Mark Webb competes at the American Taekwondo Association's World Championships in Little Rock, Ark.

Under the instruction of Master Mitchell Church, Performance Martial Arts Academy continues to churn out world-class competitors, recently adding two more World Champion titles to its collection courtesy student Jennifer Powell.

Powell, a fifth-degree black belt, and now, a 15-time world champion, won gold medals in Traditional Forms and Extreme Forms at the American Taekwondo Association’s World Championships, held recently in Little Rock, Ark. She also earned a silver medal in Extreme Weapons and a bronze in Creative Weapons.

For the third year in a row, Powell qualified for all eight events at the World Championships, an impressive feat in its own right, but earning a gold medal in Traditional Forms was always her goal.

Traditional Forms are created by ATA, and everyone within the same rank performs the same moves, making technique the crucial element. In Creative Forms the routine is created by the competitor with moves based from taekwondo, and Extreme Forms adds acrobatics and flair to the forms.

“Getting a world title in Traditional Forms, which is the basic concept of taekwondo, is always special to me,” Powell said. “That’s always what I strive for.”

But, with motivation from fellow Performance Martial Arts student, and sixth-degree black belt, Mark Webb, Powell decided to challenge herself in the other form competitions.

“I thought it was kind of interesting to create my own story in my mind with forms and moves, and to see if i could convince judges to follow me along that fight,” Powell said.

Webb, a 16-time world champion, also competed at the World Championships again, although against the sixth- and seventh-degree black belts for the first time since advancing from the fifth degree.

He qualified for six of the eight events, and he earned silver in five of them: Traditional Forms, Creative Forms, Extreme Forms, Creative Weapons and Extreme Weapons.

“I feel good about how I placed this year,” Webb said. “This is my first year competing in the sixth- and seventh-degree black belt division. I am now competing with the men who have been judging me over the previous years.”

Now veterans at the World Championships, which is occasionally referred to as the Super Bowl of taekwondo, having seen more than 21,000 martial artists compete for titles over the past five years, Powell and Webb may have actually been more nervous watching one of the members of their group compete than during their own performances.

Mason Woods is a 10-time Georgia State Champion, but it was just the second time the 10-year-old has competed at the World Championships.

Graduating from a first-degree black belt to the second-degree ring, Woods qualified for both Combat Weapons and Sparring.

“That’s a big step,” Church said. “His division is probably one of the toughest in the ATA. These kids are training seven days a week. They’re good.

“They’re fast, strong, and he’s at the bottom of his age bracket.”

Woods was defeated by the eventual champion in the Sparring competition, but it was his composure that earned the praise of Church, Powell and Webb.

“I think I kind of carried the weight of some of his anxiety, because that’s a lot of pressure on a kid,” Webb said. “You have all these parents, you have all these people, you have 100s of people watching you, and a years worth of training, all this competition, comes down to minutes.

“I think, being older, we’re very emotionally adjusted for that, but it’s difficult for a kid.”

Powell added: “The fact that, at that age, he can be on that grand of a stage, with that volume of people, and the pressure of it, I’m always just in awe of that.”

Despite the fact that between Powell and Webb, the duo may hold more World Championships than every other Georgia-based martial artist combined, there is no sign either will slow down any time soon.

Both Powell and Webb came away from Little Rock as motivated as ever heading into the new season.

“Every day may not be my day, but every day, I want it to be my best day,” Powell said. “You have different competitors. This year I had a girl from Guatemala, had a girl from Spain, and I had a girl from India, in my group. We have five people who moved up into our ring this year, so I had five new people to compete against.

“For me, it’s making the school proud, and making my instructor proud, and going and doing a really good job reflects on the school, on the training, and that’s fulfillment. You can always work on something. There’s always more to learn.”

Webb added: “Like she said, the rings evolve. It’s never really the same. People come and go, people don’t always quality. You have people that are hungry and want to win the title.

“It’s not so much that you’re defending the title, but you have people that are giving their all, so it doesn’t ever get stale.”

Derrick Davis is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.