Wow, I feel like this tournament happened months ago :) Our weeks have been so busy with everyday busyness plus special events that I can hardly remember one thing to the next! But for posterity, I will record what I recall of the karate tournament event of the year--or more specifically our only karate tournament of the year :) In fact, their first non-in house tournament as black belts, and the last of the competition year. 
We thought this would be an easy one--staging was lined up for 1, 1:30, and 2 . . . we arrived at noon to give that ever so imaginative "hour early" leeway. Yeah right, lol! The kids quickly got bored after learning competition was already at least two hours behind. As soon as the announcer started asking for first degrees and up, they scattered around the gym to do score keeping, time keeping, score recording, whatever and wherever they could! Often, they ended up with instructors from our karate school, which made me feel like they were less scattered. Plus, once they locked into a mat, they were there for a loooooong time!
I think around 3:30 in the afternoon they finally called Graysen to stage. He was super excited! We got to see almost all of his completion before Gabby and Brennen were called to staging. That made it a little less hectic. G got a little turned-around in his form, and didn't place. He and B were actually surprised that they had to perform the black belt form--they thought they were doing the black belt weapons form. So, up until the week of the tournament, they really hadn't gone over the black belt form since before our break in December. And it is long! He wasn't too bummed, but a little.His sparring matches went better. He advanced to the championship round, then got paired against a state champ kid a head taller and 15 lbs. heavier. G held his own, til the kid kicked him in the head (and subsequently onto the mat) after "break" had been called. The kid pretty much won everything. Graysen said, "He was really bragging about it, mom." Well, that happens.
But G$ received a second place medal and immediately after pictures ran over to have it signed by the Grand Master. Now, my ATA history is a little shaky, but I think he is maybe the founder of ATA in America? Or he is the highest ranked in America? I know his picture is on the first page of every ATA magazine we receive, in full regalia, and fancy golden staff. In real life, he's not a very large man, but he was very kind and friendly. I couldn't have sat there signing belts and medals and bobble-head me's all day like he did without getting a little edge to my conversations. But, he was just as nice to Caelan when she finished at like 7 p.m. as he was to Graysen so many hours earlier.
I told this story on FB, but since J is not on FB . . . there was a signing table and those movie theater line dividers in front of it. G looked at them and at me, and said, "Does it cost money to get these signed?" I told him, "Nope, for sure." And the first thing the Grand Master said as we walked up, "Whew! This is a lot of signing. I should start charging for these. Will you pay me?" Graysen said, "How much?" GM said, "$100." And Graysen's eyes got big, ha! "Do you still want me to sign?" GM asked. Graysen shook his head, "No," and both men at the table started laughing. GM told me, "You have an awesome son, and he looks like you." He was also determined to shake each parent's hand and thank us for bringing our kids to ATA. Pretty cool!
So as I'm in line with G, Gabby and Brennen get called for staging. I handed them their competition slips as they ran by and Buck made sure the kids got to the right places. Things get a little more challenging when two are in rings, but they were pretty close to each other so that worked out well! Gabby's form looked really nice to me! She didn't get too far in sparring, but I told her it was probably a good thing. The EMT ended up working on three different girls in her ring--one into an arm sling, another on crutches! I think she got out at just the right time :)
Each participant is awarded a medal, even if they don't place (it's called a spirit award). She and several other girls received these--only she didn't! They posed for pictures and she was the only one without her medal. She looked at me all teary-eyed, but accepting. Another competitor she'd made friends with noticed right away and said, "Why don't you have a medal, hey, Gabby needs her medal!" The judges felt so bad! But, she got her medal and also got it signed by GM.
Whew, now B is in the ring. His form looks super sharp! So sharp--he's tied for second. They did a form-off (he almost always ends up doing a form-off :) and because of one wrong turn, he got third--but it was a rad looking third, for sure! His sparring didn't go very far either. He was pretty frustrated/sad. He was called for the very first match, while I think eight others in his group had byes (buys?). He's never seen black belt competition before in his age category, so he wanted to get a feel for it first--well, he didn't have that option. It is a long wait when you're down the first match and everyone else has to spar, then combat spar, then weapons form . . . one kid and his dad from our karate school just went home! They didn't wait for medals or anything (but the judges gave it to me to give to him).  |
| (G$ is in the pic because he was scorekeeper and medal presenter :) |
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| Red helmet is Caelan |
Caelan actually had girls in her age range with approximately her degree for the first time ever! They did have to combine first and second degrees to get a big enough group, which made the competition even tougher. She didn't place in forms this time, but kicked a girl in the face for a third place finish in sparring :)
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I'm glad I was able to kind of follow along with this on FB, since Buck was posting videos which I appreciated. Whew, such a long day - I think I could have handled it, but not so sure about Auntie Z!!!
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