The Karate Chronicles

Last weekend our karate studio had an in-house tournament. The Princess, Big Sis, and I participated.

Princess walked in, straight from a basketball game, and performed the first half of Form 1, with her own special somersault and front kick thrown in at the end. She walked out onto the mat, in front of the 4 judges and a room full of people, and with courage beyond her years, performed. Sweet thing! She earned a special medal for her courage. I am so proud of her!

Big Sis and I competed in 3 categories: Family Forms, Family Self-Defense Demo, and Friend Forms.

The other families in the Family Forms division were all higher level belts, and that made me so nervous. The first family performed, TO MUSIC, and they blew everyone out of the water. Big Sis and I had practiced for 2 weeks, daily, for the tournament. And in our first tournament we earned a Special Recognition for our Form 1. Yay! Reagan did SO well, and we performed very well.

Next we had Family Self-Defense; we also practiced this daily for two weeks. She and I both added our own humor into the Demo, and we both were very happy with the Demo we created. Again, we competed against families with different belt levels. And we had fun with it. Reagan was so self-assured and confident. I was NOWHERE that competent at 7 years old! In this Demo we placed third. Honestly, I was disappointed with this placement, but Reagan was thrilled, and really, for our first tournament, we did great!

Friend Forms. I knew we wouldn't win this category. The two brothers who won Family Self-Defense Demos were also in this category and they are just amazing. But, we did our best. And it was fun. It was fun to see our hard work pay off, it was fun to perform with my daughter, and it was fun to show others that we can do Form 1. We earned second in this category.

So, three medals and two ribbons later, we went home. A happy, tired family.

Competing in this tournament has really made me eager to earn my yellow belt. I know I still have some time before this happens, but I know that Reagan and I CAN do it. And sweet little Princess will earn her white belt soon enough!