Judo Man!

A few weeks ago we had our first Judo tournament. J. had been planning on it for a while and was very excited about it. He had been working very hard on all the throws and pins and felt as if he was ready. Personally, I think that what he really wants out of the tournaments is red stripes on his belt, so that he can advance faster to the elusive Black Belt and the Samari Sword. Don't get me wrong I know he wants to do well but...

The Thursday before the tournament J2 had a really great day at practice and decided to go to the tournament as well. I really didn't think that he was ready but Sensi said that it would be really good for him to go. Usually, they need a white Gi to compete but this is a small club tournament to benefit the CHP 11-99 Fallen Officer fund so they were not overly strict with the color of a 6 year old's Gi. There were a few blue ones on the younger kids but none of the older ones. We had bought J. a white TOURNAMENT ONLY! Gi. I'm not sure why my kids, who attract dirt like magnets, are involved with organizations that have white uniforms!?! I'm not going to wash the white one every week like I do the blues. The biggest problem with the white Gi was I kept losing J. I'm so very use to him in the blue one while everyone else is in white.

Waiting to Start

Warming Up

My Dad went with us and took all these great pictures. He just bought a really great camera and is learning how to use it. It was great that he was able to come along. The boys were separated into there classes and they took all the 12 and up to a different room and the 12 and under in the main room. Seeing that it was our first tournament I wasn't sure if I was going to see both of them fight. Dad went with J and I stayed with J2. El Patron had to work that day but he was able to take lunch and come and watch. He got there just as they called J2. It was a double elimination round robin deal, so they were going to get at least two fights. More if they won the founds. J2 was in one of the youngest categories and went first. I wasn't ready with the camera so we didn't get any pictures of his fights. The poor kid was beaten both times.....badly. After the second fight he was crying. I asked him if he was hurt. He said that he was mad that he has lost and he hates loosing. I really think that was a great experience for him and he has continued to work a little harder in his Judo class.

E.P. was called back to work just before J. was to start. It took them a while to get the older kids organized because they staggered the check in times. I very smart idea. I was able to watch J. in his fights. I video taped it and have tried to upload it on the blog but it was taking forever so I didn't.

J. did excellent. He got 4 fights with 2 different boys. There were 7 boys in his class. The first boy he fought was a full head higher and out weighed him by over 10 lbs., but he beat him by 1 point. The second boy got an Epon pretty quickly, which is when you are thrown and land flat on your back it is an automatic win. It was a good throw and that boy defiantly had far more experience than J.

Winded after a match

He fought the first boy again and you could tell that J. had learned from the first match and did much better than the first. The matches are two minutes and if you break the grip they stop you and start over. Because all the starting and stopping they are more like 3 to 4 minutes. The point system, I haven't figured out exactly yet. You get a point if you do a wisari (?) which is when your opponent lands on his side when you throw them and then you get points for pinning them for so long....or something to that effect. After the third fight the score looked like 13 to 1 in J.'s favor. We stopped a coach and asked about it and they are scores for different things. So it was 1,3 to 0,1. Clear as mud? Whatever! The important thing is that J. won. He was now fighting the second boy again for first place. He had learned from the first fight with the second boy as well and the fight lasted longer, but the boy fell on J. and got an Epon. It is just how it works sometime.


Because it took so long for him to fight he was starving after the match so I ran to get him something to eat. While I was out they hustled him out and took their picture on the stand in front of the CHP car...and I missed the whole thing. So, here he stands alone.

So, he got second in his first Judo Tournament and almost as important was the red stripe on his belt. Way to go Judo Man!