Saturday Kumite

Oscar was in his first karate competition this past Saturday in Topeka, Kansas (about an hour and a half from our house).  There were two other boys on his team there also.  Everyone did really well.  Oscar got 2nd place for his kata in the 12-13 year-old novice division (beat only by his teammate who is a green belt - which in case you don't know, is two ranks higher than Oscar's yellow belt).  He beat out another green belt and an orange belt from other teams to get second place.

He got 1st place (same division) in sparring.  Once again beating out the green and orange belts.  We think he did a great job!  He even had other kid's parents cheering for him :-).

Here he is getting ready to do his kata for the judges...

Here he is getting ready to get his 2nd place trophy...

Here he is getting ready to accept his 1st place trophy... notice orange belt isn't clapping - Oscar beat him twice and he was a real sore loser about it.

Here's the team:  Marcus (in the white), Sinsei (Tony), Conner (red helmet) and Oscar in front.

All together they got five first place trophies and one second place trophy.  Conner got disqualified in his sparring match, so only got 4th place there (should've gotten 1st, but the brown belt - higher rank - he was fighting had a huge football-esque looking face-guard on his helmet and Conner got called for face contact because he kept clipping the kid's face guard with his kicks - he's got a killer hook kick).

I actually had a pretty good time and I'm not a sports fan :-).