Before she was 4 years old, Oakwood Hills resident Delilah Stamp was crawling around mats of martial arts schools. Now 10, she’s already a black belt in taekwondo and decorated with dozens of medals.

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art that focuses kicking techniques. Delilah’s dad, Jeremy Stamp, started practicing the sport when he was her age and helps coach Delilah. He got back into martial arts after he suffered a spinal injury in the military. The constant exercise and stretching helps him to keep his ability to walk, he said.

Delilah, a fifth grader at Prairie Grove Junior High School, started seriously competing in national tournaments just this year. She and her dad packed up for a 10,000-mile road trip over the summer to hit multiple competitions in California and Utah. Through their journeys, Delilah has made friends with other children competitors across the country.

“We had an absolute adventure,” Jeremy said.

One of the tournament stops in July was at Salt Lake City for the Amateur Athletic Union Nationals where Delilah placed in multiple competitions, including winning gold and silver medals. Her division is a range of 9- to 12-year-olds from around the country.

Delilah competes in multiple elements like board breaking, fighting and her favorite, poomsae, a choreographed sequence of taekwondo movements that vary in attack and defense techniques.

Learning how to break boards can be exhilarating, but dangerous. Jeremy said he has broken his fist trying to break the boards that are made of solid pine. So far, Delilah has not injured herself practicing the sport.

“I broke 10 boards at once,” she said. “This is kind of scary, but I like it.”

Since her success at AAU Nationals, Delilah has competed and won in 15 more taekwondo tournaments, including sweeping her division and being named a grand champion.

Delilah has been coached by Cary-based master Kenneth Soriano ever since she started six years ago. Recently, she switched to a Glenview-based school that competes at a national and international level, where she is starting to learn backflips and acrobatics.

Delilah will be back to competing next week at the AI Fitofan Cup in Dallas where 3,000 competitors from around the world will face off in multiple martial disciplines. This one will be a first for Delilah because the competition uses artificial intelligence as a judge.

“We have no idea what to expect,” Jeremy said.

In the future, Delilah and Jeremy aim to continue advancing her skills to qualify for more competitions with a goal to go international soon. The Olympics is “distant dream,” especially since poomsae is not yet offered, Jeremy said. Taekwondo officially became an Olympic sport in 2000. For now, they are taking it one step at a time, Jeremy said.

All of that competition pressure doesn’t get to her. Delilah said she stays focused on the national stages by stretching and doing warmup exercises to keep her blood flowing.

“I just do it,” she said.