October is the usual month for karate tournaments to start. The first was hosted in Eagle, CO a good 3 hr drive from here. Thankfully the second one was the following weekend in Grand Junction - only 1 hr away - and so Brynn was ok to miss the first one! Seems like his Dojo (his group) did really well at the Eagle tournament, bringing home 15 trophies. Which lead Brynn to have absolute confidence in his ability to win a trophy:
B: "I really want to win a trophy mum."
M: "Yes sweetie, but if you don't that's ok since it'll be your first tournament. A learning expereince."
B: "Yes but I REALLY want to bring home a trophy."
M: "Well, do your best and we'll see what happens ..."
Sound familiar to any of you??
See, this was his first real competition in anything. Sure, he's had to take swimming, karate, spelling and math tests before, and he played soccer one year but this was different. This was him against all the other boys in his age division. He was so confident that he was going to get a trophy, that I was a little worried about dealing with his emotions if he came away with just a participation medal/trophy.
I think it's safe to say that Jon and I were both a little overwhelmed with the size of the tournament. Dojo's had traveled from as far as Boulder, CO - a 5 hr drive - and western parts of Utah to compete. There was real commitment here, and we started to worry that our little six year old was going to be very sad. I mean, why would you travel so far if you didn't think you could win? For the experience, I guess.
Brynn's division was called up first, right after the opening ceremonies where all the competitors filed out with their Dojo's. Brynn lead his Dojo out since he was our youngest competitor. He looked so small and a little overwhelmed but still supremely confident. His division consisted of seven or eight 6-7yr old boys, some of whom were really good and some who still needed a little bit more practice :)
And so the competition began. It was all a little confusing because they had to take their own belts off to put on either a red or blue belt, so the judges could easily score with their red and blue flags. However Brynn paid good attention and seemed to understand what was happening. The first few pairs of boys to do their chosen kata's were in the 5 yr old division, although I didn't originally understand that they were competing in the same division as Brynn. The boy who Brynn competed against was very good, and he seemed a little more confident in how the actual competion worked. He started his kata a few seconds befoer Brynn, a was just a little more polished - less nerves maybe?
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| Brynn, on the right, doing his kata |
Talking about nerves, my stomach was full of them. If this was Brynn's first really competition, this was my first one as his mum! When the score came in Brynn got 1 judge, the other boy 3 judge. I truly thought Brynn was going to cry, but he held it together really well. I was a little bothered by the fact that the two boys who competed next were ones who Brynn could have easily beat, but such is life. I didn't understand how the competition was scored, and so I just hoped Brynn did better in the sparring portion:
As you can see Brynn, this time with the red belt, was really good at avoiding the other boys kicks/punches, but once again, he received 2 points to his partner's 7 points. This time he really looked sad since his tournament debut was over and he had lost both events. One of his biggest achievements at the tournament, Jon and I agreed, was how well he sat and watched the other boys compete, showing them the respect they deserved and showing us that he really, really loves anything to do with karate - a number of the other boys in his division were playing around and were asked to be quiet!
Once all the boys had taken their turns, and the winners of each round sparred again to end with with the overall winner, the division lined up for their awards ceremony. There were three rings going at once, and since they were in ring 3, they had to wait while the awards were handing out at the other rings first:
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| Brynn's division waiting for their award ceremony |
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| Brynn, in the middle, looking on as the 5 yr old division results were announced |
When they announced the results for the 5 yr old division, I had an awful feeling that I had entered Brynn in the wrong age group ... and he still hadn't won. I was sharing his disappointment in not winning a trophy, when the announced said he would now give the results of the 6-7 yr old divisions, also in ring 3. I don't think Brynn quite caught that, but my heart did a little skip at the thought that I did place him correctly. I quickly told myself that most of other boys were most likely 7 and so Brynn did well to even get that one judge to award him the kata ... and it seems like that one judge was enough for him to tie for 3rd place!!! It was so unexpected that Jon couldn't get his camera working quickly enough to get a good picture of Brynn receving his trophy, but here is one shortly after as Brynn and some of the others in his division admire their trophy's:
Brynn slept with it that first night, took it to church to show off yesterday and can't wait to take it to karate tonight to show Sensei. Oh, and he heard the announcer talking about a tournament in November, being held in Sandy, UT ... almost 6 hrs away!!!! I sure hope the Dojo isn't planning to go to that one since the would involve an overnight stay and Jon won't have weekends off anymore! Of course, maybe I could leave Iann with my parent's and have a weekend away with my little karate star ...
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