Experiences can be negative or positive, but either way it contributes to our learning and development, which is a beautiful thing. I had my youngest student on the team, William, do sparring for the first time. He is only seven years old and had been curious about sparring and I knew that getting him in the ring with people OTHER than his classmates would be a great experience for him. He did great. However in sparring you want to kick the other person to get a point. It's not that William didn't kick, but when he did throw a kick, he would stop just short of making contact, not wanting to hurt the other boy. It was cute to see, but he now understands how to get a point. William received a bronze medal for his first sparring competition!
Everyone did phenomenal with their forms! Because this was an AAU tournament, my students got to see a lot of other people doing forms that they know as well! So the competition will be very good. I want them to watch and see different ways to performing the same form, see different styles, maybe learn a thing or two from the other competitors, and also shed some light on the things we talk about in class that need to be done, and how it will help them in their competing.
Some rings ran very well. Some were very chaotic. No matter what, they got experience. They see how judges score, they see what judges are looking for, they notice what other people do the same as them, they notice what others do differently, they see what works, they see what doesn't work. And of course they've been to enough tournaments by now to know that each competition is run differently. Robert and I are the two coaches for the team but at one point we had three rings of students and we were already called into the holding area!! That has never happened before, so that was an interesting experience. Here I am running from ring to ring, and also getting yelled at for leaving the holding area.
I was happy with how I sparred, I've come a long way from my first tournament in four years back in October. I won gold in sparring and silver in forms. But I think one of the biggest highlights was for Miss Erin McKenna. Erin competed in sparring YEARS ago when I still apprenticed under my old master. She was a regional champion and won silver in Providence, Rhode Island when she was eleven. That was five years ago this month. She has not competed since then, and this was her first year back in competition. Not only was it her first year back, but her first year competing as a BLACK BELT ever!
The season started out tough, as I knew it would for her. She did three tournaments at the very beginning of the season and they were very tough. Erin saw that these Black Belt girls meant business and she knew she had to get her act into gear. She never missed sparring class, came to a few seminars with me, one ran by my sparring mentor Master Bardatsos, and she went in there with the hunger to win! Her first match, she was on FIRE. She kicked and kicked and she wanted it BADLY. She won 17-10, but when the match was over, she was back to sweet little Erin and showed great sportsmanship to the opponent. And her opponent was just as gracious back.
Her final match was up against a 3rd Degree Black Belt, two belts higher than she! But Erin gave her a run for her money! It was a back and forth match. Erin was winning. The the 3rd Degree was winning. Then Erin. Then 3rd Degree. Then Erin again. But Erin was a head taller than this girl and kicked harder. Erin was winning 6-5 before the other girl threw in the towel because she could not continue. Erin's power was too much for her. I couldn't have been more proud! Erin was a double gold state champion after a long competition season! She burst into tears when she was awarded first place and the roaring cheers from her fellow students and families from TMAFC, and some strangers as well!
Another highlight was little Owen Hagmaier. My junior Black Belt who has done phenomenally in forms, but wanted to try his hands at AAU point sparring. He was up against a kid who came with an entire cheering section with T-shirts made up and everything. But his opponent's father was putting very negative instructions into the eight year old son's head. Things like "Go and kill him! Kick him in the head! You gotta prove yourself!" etc. I was stunned. Apparently he didn't do well earlier in the day and the family actually had him refuse the medal he was awarded. Owen was hearing all of this, and so did his mother who was freaking out. She didn't think Owen knew, but he did and just didn't want mom knowing what he heard.
Finally I turned around, as I sat next to Owen hearing this, and I said "Owen, just remember, you are here to have fun. And when people fight for the wrong reasons, they never do well." Well this calmed him down a little bit. Well when Owen went into the ring, he listened MAGNIFICENTLY to my coaching commands from the sideline. When I said move in he moved in. When I said move back, he moved back. When I said kick he kicked. When I said punch he punched. When I changed our strategy, he changed it immediately. He really took control of the match. At the end the opponent caught up and Owen had to do a sudden death round where the first point wins. Owen emerged victorious!
Owen went to shake the opponent's hand and the father of the other kid actually yelled "DON'T SHAKE HIS HAND!" I could not BELIEVE the poor sportsmanship and my mentor Lisa Sargese who was taking pictures, you could tell was equally stunned by the expression she had on her face. But Owen bowed politely, shook the hands of the opponent and coach, and was a class act. He represented so well. An awesome experience.
This is what you get at competitions. I only want to bring my kids to tournaments as long as they have fun and enjoy and do their best and LEARN! I have had many of my own experiences in the past where I debated whether or not it was a good idea to do competitions. But my mentor Lisa says "Competition breeds excellence." You can read her entire view on competition HERE. I am very proud of all my students. Congratulations to everyone who competed at the AAU State Championships in New Jersey and to my very own state champions!
Yours in service,
MR. ANDREW TRENTO
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