Two weekends ago Ethan competed in his first martial arts tournament. While he had a couple of demonstrations under his belt, (no karate pun intended), he'd never competed. Mostly because tournaments are usually expensive and many of them require some distance to travel. Fortunately, one came up that was located in my hometown and was either free to enter or had a low entry fee because Ethan got to compete.
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| Lyssa and I waiting for the competitions to start. |
Y'all...I'm not even going to lie or pretend that karate tournaments are my jam because they are not. They are loud and chaotic and take forever. I am really glad that I went, though. Even though Sis2 had to emotionally blackmail me into going. haha It wasn't that I didn't want to support and cheer on our little man. I love those kids like my own--truly. But I didn't feel good that weekend and I was tired and being the hermit I am, I really wanted to stay cloistered in my home for the duration of the weekend. But Sis2 sent me a text early that Saturday morning telling me that Ethan had prayed during his bedtime prayer the previous night that I would come to see him compete. How can I not go after that? And he really was excited that I was there. Gave me a big hug and everything. And even though it was loud and chaotic and I couldn't really follow what all was going on, I'm glad I went. It turned out to be fun and I got to see my baby boy bring home two trophies and a medal.
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| Form competition. |
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| He had to spar with three different kids as he advanced through the sparring competition. Watching the judging for the sparring was interesting. Their hand motions to indicate points and stuff looks weird. |
He took first place in form for his age group, 3rd place in sparring, and he got a participation medal for grappling. Grappling isn't something that his academy even teaches so he honestly had no clue what was going on but he got recruited at the very last minute to compete against the only kid in his age group who had entered for that competition. And even though he had no clue what he was doing and the other kid won, Ethan held his own and actually offered the other kid some actual competition.
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| His first place trophy for form. |
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| That smile around his mouth guard as he came back with his third place trophy for sparring SLAYS ME! |
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| He was one proud little man. |
I'm not going to say that it was all smooth sailing, though. Just before his form competition while he was waiting for the other age groups to finish, he had a bit of a meltdown. He had misplaced his competition cards and didn't realize it until he was in line for competition and started crying and got really upset. Sis2 had to get his instructor who was there supporting the kids from his academy to come over and pep talk him and get him some replacement cards. He continued sniffling and crying a little until they called him up. As soon as he stood up and took the floor he transformed and was a stoic little karate man. He was flawless! Confident! It was amazing to see him scared and upset and just instantly transform the instant he's called to perform. He's such a little man that sometimes we forget that he's still just a seven-year-old boy.
I've said this before and I'll say it again, I'm so privileged to get to watch these kids grow up into such amazing people!
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| I'm one proud aunt! |
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