Another Karate Tournament

Savanna right before her Kata (where she broke down in tears again. Still working on that!)

Braden trying to entertain himself while waiting for the girls to finish sparring.

How's that for a trophy!

The kids had another karate tournament last Saturday.  Brent had to work and was unable to accompany us.  Camden stayed home to keep him company and Dryden and I took the rest of the kids.  Thankfully my hip was doing better, and I was able to make it through...

Braden had a wonderful time.  His level and age group only had two kids in it--he being one of them!  Braden did a great job, though.  He was confident and thought through what he was doing.  He came in 1st place for his kata.  During the sparring Braden didn't flinch and try to run away like normal.  He really has had a change of heart lately and was able to get 1st place in his sparring division as well.  It was a great self-esteem boosting experience for him!

Allison's division had several more kids in it, but she also was able to take 1st place in both her kata and sparring.  I totally missed seeing her kata as I was occupied with Savanna.  I was able to see her sparring, though, and she did a great job.  She didn't even kick anyone in face this time!

Poor Savanna had a bit of a tough time.  She had stayed up late the night before and so was already tired when we got there.  She is still ultra sensitive about performing and speaking in public after the whole Primary Program incident, and performing her kata was a little too much for her.  They called her up and no sooner was she in place when she welled up in HUGE tears and couldn't breath or talk.  The judges are all very gentle (which you wouldn't expect from these big, burly bald guys) and talked to her.  I was able to calm her down enough that she was able to perform her kata and ended up taking 2nd place.  Then came time for sparring.  The stress was still evident in her eyes which is quite abnormal.  Generally our sweet little Savanna doesn't have any problem beating up other kids!  She started her sparring match, and it wasn't 30 seconds into it when the other competitor threw a jumping side kick which she blocked but ended up catching his leg and dumping the kid on the ground (it was pretty awesome!)  Anyway the kid started crying and writhing on the floor like he was going to die.  Savanna melted down.  She felt awful and she never recovered.  The kid did get back up and fight--he wasn't really hurt.  Anyway he started hitting her on the head (which is legal) but he kept getting her in a spot that the helmet is open.  She ended up with a knot on her head and was just so broken up over the whole thing.  She was just glad when it was all over.

Oh, and the way the trophies work out is the first division to finish gets to choose out any trophy they want--hence the reason that Braden's trophy is 6 ft tall!  He loves it and takes very good care of it.  If you can't find him, he is generally in his room polishing his trophy!