Ian’s First Karate Tournament

It was a long day today, and we’re all just filling time before bed, to be honest. 🙂 It was the karate tournament today. It was for Canada’s Best Karate, and was similar to many of the tournaments that Miranda has gone to in the past. What was different this time was Ian was participating as well. He has been doing very well with learning his first kata (Heian Shodan) and I felt that if he did it in the tournament as well as he does it at home and in the dojo, then he could win a medal.

On top of that, we had a showing today at 12:30, so (a) we spent a couple hours this morning cleaning the house, and (b) the cats got an adventure, because they came with us to the dojo. They did fine in the car with the windows open a bit, and with water, food and a catbox available to them.

Here Miranda and Ian are, ready to represent at the tournament:

Because we hustled out the door, we misjudged the time and got there too early. It was at that time that we noticed that Ian, Miranda, and Tammy are all about the same difference in height:

The white belts were first up, and Ian was put in a group of three with his friend Zachary (right) and Ethan (middle). Here he is, ready to go:

You know how Ian’s alway practicing Heian Shodan around the house? Well, it paid off. Compared to the other kids, he could remember his whole affirmation (words to say before the kata), and the kata itself. On top of that, he had great pacing and good stances. His scores from the judges reflected it and he won 1st place in his group. Congratulations, Ian!

Then we had a very long wait for Miranda’s turn. That’s the problem with her having the last belt before black while Ian is a white belt: their turns are always at the opposite ends of every schedule. We got to watch a couple to black belt kata demonstrations and sparring, as well as the gold through blue belt kata and sparring. The kids were ready to eat an old leather boot, since it was past two, but Ian was relatively well-behaved while waiting. He loves crawling all over me when I’m sitting.

Miranda did very well, too. She did her enpi kata and got 3rd place in her group of six brown belts. Her kata was really quite fantastic, and markedly better than even at the last tournament. I was very proud of her, even if I think she was a little disappointed.

Then it was sparring time. Miranda chose to do point sparring this time, instead of continuous sparring. So she had to wait some more while the continuous sparring happened (the same boy, Cole, who beat Miranda at the last tournament, won 1st).

Her first match was against Daria, and Miranda didn’t do very well, losing 5-1. After the match, I sneaked in and gave her a bit of advice. She was leading with her head down, which works well for her in continuous sparring, allowing her to get in close and start punching and landing combinations. But in point sparring, it’s first punch or kick wins. So she was “giving up” the first strike to her opponent so she could get inside and start beating them, but the point was already awarded by that time.

So, just to prove that she is as smart as I think she is, she changed her approach totally to spar Julie. She stayed at long range, then dodged Julie’s first attack (usually a front kick), and counter-punched. It came down to the wire, but Miranda won 5-4. That got her 3rd place, her second bronze medal of the day.

Then we all went for a late lunch (3:30) at Dairy Queen and made our way home.