Master Ward was sick and couldn't come to the tournament. Master Billig was not there either. I knew Shawn and I would be the only adults there for the kids. I wasn't able to be there for all of the kids every moment, but I was able to be there for all of them for at least some moments. I was all over the place, yelling and yelling.
Our group of competitors...Mr. Anderson was the only other adult competing, and he hadn't arrived yet. I guess I fit right in with the kids.
Paul and Roger
Paul really struggled to learn Bassai So, and I was really proud to see him finally have it down!
Paul did not want to break, but I knew he would do awesome. I'm glad I talked him into it at the very last minute. He did turning sudo and flying side kick. 
Paul got 4th in sparring and 3rd in breaking. I liked being in his corner and watching him spar and yelling "go for the head" when the little boy was using a boxing stance. I was so, so pleased that he had fun and was pleased with the day. He and Joy both found tons of kids to run around and play with. It was a challenge for Shawn to keep track of both of them, but overall they managed to do pretty well. It was the first tournament Joy attended.
My feelings about this tournament were, in the words of Miss Frizzle, "Take chances, make mistakes!" I decided to do Bassai Day. I had started learning it from a video from Master Ward 3 weeks ago, doing it on my own while he was on vacation. I got the basics down, and some of them wrong. I did it in class 2 weeks before the tournament. I had it down in class as far as what came next, but I was very shaky on the nuances, such as where to look and exactly where my hands were supposed to be. I was shaky with it at the tournament, hesitating a few times. But, for forms my other competitor was a red belt who did a very beautiful Bassai So, so I wouldn't have won with that anyway. I'm glad I took the time to learn Bassai day. Hopefully I can go through the motions here shortly (recovering from surgery) and not forget it.
All the women under black belt competed together, with different groupings for each event. We were all pretty old. No one under 30 for sure.
Four of us broke. I found out maybe last Tuesday night that what I was planning to be a 2 station break was a 3 station break. I was glad; it ended up going well. I did outside inside-hammerfist, step side kick, 360 jump back kick. It took me 2 tries on the hammer fist, but it still went well. I was glad to get second place.
There were supposed to be 4 of us sparring, but one poor orange belt woman had to leave because her husband was competing and got whacked in the nose and was bleeding everywhere. So there were three of us. Another orange belt fought a green belt first. The green belt was about my size and she beat the orange belt who was much taller. Then I fought the winner; her name was Angela. She kept saying she hated sparring, but I kept telling her it was fun. I beat her 3-1, but on the video I thought I got about 8 points. I was pretty pleased with my performance. And I was extremely, extremely excited to finally get a first place in sparring. It made me very happy to be pleased with my performance and to go out with a first in sparring before my surgery.
