We took a group of 20 students to the USA Nationals Tournament in Centralia, WA this past weekend. On Saturday 3 students competed in sparring (junior black belt and mens intermediate). Sunday was the big day, with 19 competitors entered in forms, weapons and sparring. It was a looong day! We left Seattle at 8am, arrived for a 10am start time and left at 8:45pm, getting back to seattle at 10:45pm!!
This was the very first tournament for most of our students and they did a FANTASTIC JOB! I am very proud of the patience they showed waiting for their divisions and their turn to compete. Every single student from our school and their families conducted themselves with courtesy and respect. I was proud to have every one of them wearing our school uniform. It was also great to see so many family members and friends in the bleachers wearing school shirts and cheering on our team.
Please congratulate the following students for their outstanding accomplishments:
Hunter F. – (medalist) boys 9-11 intermediate forms. Looked great and just missed the top 4. Now that he has a little bit of experience his next tournament will be even better.
Jacob W. – (medalist) boys 9-11 intermediate weapons & (medalist) boys 9-11 intermediate hard style forms. Jacob showed black belt perseverance by competing in his forms division despite being sick.
Nicole G. – (medalist) – girls 12-17 beginner sparring & (medalist) girls 15-17 beginner kenpo forms. Miss Nikki scored a beautiful 2 point roundhouse kick to the head at the beginning of her first match! I can’t wait to see the video!!
Noah G. – (medalist) boys 6-8 intermediate weapons division & (medalist) boys 6-8 intermediate hard style forms. Looked fantastic competing a weapon (bo) he began learning 3 weeks ago!
Owen S. – (medalist) boys 6-8 beginner hard style forms. Off to a terrific start. I can’t wait to see Owen compete again!
Paulo S. – (medalist) boys 6-8 hard style forms. A little wobble kept Paulo out of the top 4. I know he is motivated for the next competition and will be practicing his rock-solid stances.
Silas N. – (medalist) mens 18-34 sparring. Mr. Ness competed despite being sick and will be looking to resume his winning ways in the next tournament. He opted out of the forms competition on Sunday to nurse his cold.
Will L. – (medalist) – boys 6-8 beginner hard style forms. I was most impressed with the intensity Will brought to the competition class each week in preparing for the tournament. I think he is going to be an outstanding competitor in the future.
Jack M. – (tied 4th place) boys 9-11 intermediate hard style forms. Jack was only planning on sparring, but I entered him in the forms division because we have a school rule: If you compete in sparring, you must compete in forms. He did awesome! The biggest disappointment of the day was that Jack couldn’t compete in his sparring division because he wasn’t wearing groin protection. This was my fault, because I didn’t read the rules carefully. It won’t happen again! I was really proud of Jack, because he was honest with the judges, even though it meant he would be disqualified.
Kyle P. – (tied 4th place) boys 9-11 beginner hard style forms. Kyle brought awesome confidence with him in his first competition and performed like a veteran. He’s going to be tough to beat at the next tournament!
Michael R. – (tied 4th place) boys 6-8 intermediate weapons & (medalist) boys 6-8 intermediate hard style forms. Michael tied for fourth place despite dropping his nunchaku on a very difficult move (vertical roll). With a little more practice he will be a top 3 competitor.
Alyson M. – (4th place) 12-14 junior black belt sparring division & (medalist) in 11-17 junior black belt hard style forms. Junior BB is always one of the toughest divisions. With a few modifications to her form Miss Alyson is going to place in the top 3 and her sparring is already there… she just has to pretend she’s sparring me!
Joseph M. – (4th place) 11 & under junior black belt sparring division & (medalist) in 11 & under black belt hard style forms. Joseph has awesome intensity and is going to take 1st place in forms competition very soon.
Jeremy B. – (4th place) – boys 9-11 white belt hard style forms. Jeremy showed tremendous courage by competing in his first tournament after only a little more than one month of training. Outstanding effort!
Samuel B. – (tied 3rd place) boys 6-8 beginner forms. Sam sounded like a black belt in the beginner division! Great intensity!!
Nick D. – (3rd place) – boys 9-11 beginner hard style forms. Fantastic stances! Nick’s reverse bows and horse stances were great.
Alex F. – (2nd place) – boys 9-11 intermediate hard style forms. This was Alex’s second tournament and his confidence really showed. Awesome improvement!
Mr. Herrman – (2nd place) mens 18-34 kenpo forms. My goal is first place in the next tournament – Goals we set are goals we get!
Charito S. – (1st place) womens 35+ intermediate kenpo forms. This was Charito’s first tournament and she looked awesome! Charito’s form really came together over the 4 weeks leading up to the tournament in the competition class. Most impressive, was that she was back working on improving her form again in class tonight.
Gabriela S. – (1st place) girls 9-11 beginner hard style forms. This was Gabriela’s first tournament and she performed like a super-star! Like mother, like daughter!! Gabriella got to compete for the underbelt hard style forms grand championship. She didn’t win it this time, but it’s only a matter of time! She’s determined!!
We were also the recipeints of a “Most Supportive School” award.
Again, congratulations to everyone who entered the tournament! It takes a lot of courage to compete and you should all be very proud of youselves. For a chance to win a school sweatshirt, please email me your thoughts on the tournament and your feelings before, during and after the competition. Keep up the great work! I look forward to seeing everyone at the next tournament (date & location TBD).
