With her friendly demeanour and usual Air Force cardigan, it's easy to be fooled by Flight Lieutenant Leah Park's unassuming presence.
But beneath her legal-officer exterior lies a taekwondo prodigy who can land a two-metre high kick into the face of most people - despite standing at just over 150cm tall.
Having practised the sport since age seven, Flight Lieutenant Park took silver at the National Taekwondo Championships in Perth from October 13 to 15.
Despite her mastery of immaculate kicks and blocks, it's unusual for Flight Lieutenant Park to deploy them against people.
She is an expert in choreographed techniques known as poomsae, or patterns designed to teach taekwondo movements.
"When you kick in sparring, you want to get someone really quickly, then move back," Flight Lieutenant Park said.
"Whereas with poomsae, you do a kick and you hold it or you do a block and you hold it, to show for the performance."
Flight Lieutenant Park still spars for fun, but like all high-level taekwondoin, she specialises in one area for competition.
Poomsae routines last one to two minutes, while being judged on power and accuracy.
Outside competitions, they are used to grade martial artists looking to go up in belts.
Flight Lieutenant Park practised all poomsae related to her fourth-dan black belt ahead of the comp.
She previously trained with her brother, who is also an Army musician. But this year she put in hours of solo training each day, filming routines to find improvements.
"It's a lot of figuring things out. Like, how can I kick with better form or kick higher?" she said.
Having rehearsed all poomsae for her level, a couple of days before the comp Flight Lieutenant Park was told the two patterns she'd be performing.
Competitors start with a perfect score and judges deduct points for each mistake - such as a block in the wrong place or a foot angled incorrectly.
Flight Lieutenant Park has previously competed as a synchronised pair with her brother or with three other women.
"When you're on the mat with other people, little mistakes don't really matter, you don't really see it," she said.
"But when you're by yourself, everyone can see everything. You're really exposed, everything's visible. There's nowhere to hide."
All competitors performed once before half were selected to perform again for final judging.
Flight Lieutenant Park managed to get her side kicks higher than before, but the video revealed areas for improvement.
"I'd like to add more power to the blocks and make sure that my stance doesn't have my foot pointing slightly out of the proper alignment," she said.
National silver was the latest in a long line of taekwondo achievements for Flight Lieutenant Park, including representing the University of Sydney in Taiwan at the University Intercollegiate Games, and representing Australia in Korea and at the World Taekwondo Championships in Peru.
Flight Lieutenant Park is a member of the ADF Combat Sports Association and hopes to next compete in a taekwondo family division with her brother and dad, who just became an Air Force chaplain.
Despite her strong nationals result, it was the quality of preparation and performance that mattered most to Flight Lieutenant Park.
"If you've done your best, first place, second, third or whatever doesn't matter because you've gone there and the preparation you've done to be there means you've improved - and after that you'll continue to improve," she said.
