Catching up - again!

I am so very sorry for being away from the blog, my dear friends. Life has been in fifth gear lately and I think I must have ADD as I cannot seem to keep everything organized!

Last week we attended a karate tournament in Ft. Pierce. John wanted to try the experience and see if he liked it. We got up very early - and those of you who know me, know I am NOT a morning person. Pat was getting dressed and discovered that he packed MY Gi pants, instead of his! He couldn't even get them over his legs! LOL! The real downside to that was that he couldn't be a coach on the sidelines unless he wore Gi pants and a coaching shirt. We were hoping they would be selling Gis at the the tournament, but no luck. He approached one of the tournament leaders and was able to find someone who could loan him some pants. Whew!

After getting there at 8:00 a.m., we pretty much waited around until the afternoon before any of the students from our dojo started their competitions. Besides John, there were two other students. They both did excellent! Florencia, who is 13, earned a Silver medal in kumite (sparring). Jason, who is 17, earned a Gold in Bo (weapons), and Silver in both kata (forms) and kumite.

John finally went into the ring at 4:10 p.m. His sparring partner was a 14 year old six foot kid. John is 12 and about 5'5." They ended up in a tie at the end of the match and unfortunately, the older kid won the tie breaker. But I have to say that John did fantastic! Having never competed before, waiting all day with little to eat, and then having an older and larger opponent - he did great! He'll be competing in that division for a couple of years and it's quite competitive. There were about 16 kids in his group. John is looking forward to competing in the next tournament in April. Our Shihan has also approached me and convinced me to compete as well, so I'll be doing some extra training to get ready. Tournament karate is different than traditional karate. It should be interesting!

John on the left

I've taken tons of photos lately and just finished processing the tournament shots. I was able to score a press pass and had floor privileges. I'm going to be providing my work to the tournament sponsors for marketing. How cool is that?

Have a fabulous day!