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| Warming up... |
Jake had his first Judo tournament a few weeks ago. None of us had any idea what to expect. The practices the week before the tournament
were unorganized and the last day, they didn’t even fight each other. Things are a bit more laid back here and even
after all these years of sailing the islands, it takes some getting used
to. So our expectations were pretty low
for the tournament. We were pleasantly
surprised.
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| Explaining the rules... |
First off, they actually started on time. That’s unheard of around here for any
event. Secondly, they were very
organized in their registration and when it came time for Jake to fight, he was
evenly matched.
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| "And in this corner....JAKE!!!!" |
Now I don’t want to bad mouth my kid, but he’s only been
doing this for a couple of months (and coordinated is NOT his middle name), so my expectations for him were even lower
than the tournament itself.
He, too
surprised me!
No, he didn’t win any of
his fights, but he didn’t let anyone take him down either (he went down, but they both just fell).
Both fights went the full three minutes and
he lost by ½ point.
Considering Jake
doesn’t have a mean bone in his body and he’s the least aggressive kid I’ve
ever seen, I think he did pretty good.
He was a little disappointed but I was pretty darn proud.
He showed improvement, good defense, and good
sportsmanship.
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| Jake was determined not to get pinned (even if he had to lose his clothes). |
I enjoyed watching the other kids too. The little girls are the spit fires. I think they won more matches than the boys.
Anyway, its still something he’s having fun at and I foresee
another tournament in our future.
