I'm back from Columbus

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4xchampncountin

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We had a great time in Columbus. It was my son's first time competing in the sparring competition at a tournament. He didn't do very well at all. He screwed up his Kata and I think it messed up his head because when he got to the fighting part, he seemed very distracted and pretty much got his lunch handed to him. But, I was very proud of him. I just kept telling him how proud I was of him that he competed and he didn't back down. We were told before we left any facial contact at all would get you disqualified immediately. His match starts and the first thing the other kid does is pop Ben right in the eye. Not only does the kid not get disqualified, he gets awarded a point for it! :angry: Obviously, he was a little confused and upset about it, but he just shook it off and stood up to him. We just talked about it afterward and he was very upset and started crying when he was changing, but we talked through it (I took the crying as good sign of how much he wanted to win). I just told him that if he didn't learn anything, then it was like he got beat again. I told him "That which does not kill us makes us stronger". I figured a quote from Conan the Barbarian seemed appropriate. We learned a lot from this weekend and he vowed to go back next year and do better. I couldn't be any more proud of him.
 
Sorry that your son's match didn't go so well. Your positive reinforcement is just what the doctor ordered, 4x. Anything you do for the first time is not going to go as you expected. As long as you your son learns from his experience, he will certainly do better next time. As long as he knows that you are proud of him, I think thats the most important thing! The more competitions that he is involved in, the better he will become. Glad to hear he is already talking about going back next year!

Glad you had a good time in Columbus, too.! ;)
 
While we talked after the match, we discussed how unfair the referee and the judges were. I told him sometimes you can do your best and still not win. That some things are just of your control.

I said "Do you think anybody out there is better than your Sensei?" (His Sensei was going for his 7th National Heavyweight Championship a few hours later at the same tournament)

He said "No!"

I said "But, you realize than he may not win today, right?"

He looked at me kind of confused

I said "He may beat the crap out the guy and the referee or judges may not see it that way. If that happens, he will just have to deal with it, right?"

He said "Yeah, I guess"

I didn't realize just how profetic I was. His Sensei just beat the crap out of everybody in his division and was thumping this guy in the Championship Match. You could see in his opponents face he didn't want any part of him. The guy comes at him and Zahand just slams him to the ground, which is a perfectly legal and painful move as they were not using mats (ouch!). The guy got pissed off and threw his gloves. The referee and the judges got together and I though they were discussing how many points to penalize the guy for Unsportmanlike Conduct for yelling and throwing his gloves. As it turns out, they decided that the take-down was after the referee called for a "break". I was right there and the only break I heard was as the guy was on the way down. It happened so fast it was hard to tell exactly when, but it was definitely after he was airborne. Anyhow, even if they decided that he threw him down after the break was called, it should have been a point deduction if anything (which would not have mattered much as Sensei was ahead by a wide margin at that point). Instead, they ruled that Sensei forfeited the match for Unsportsmanlike Conduct. To quote a co-worker "I've been to 3 World's Fair's and 2 Goat &*^%ing contest and I ain't never seen no $hit like that". That was all I could think of where the officiating was concerned.

It turned out to be a valuable lesson for my son. His Sensei was obviously very upset, but he just smiled and shook his opponent's hand.
 
Kinda sounds like Nascar huh?
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Originally posted by bowtie@Aug 10 2003, 11:48 PM
Kinda sounds like Nascar huh?
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Click to expand...
Actually yeah it does. It was like they "Black Flagged" him or something. :p
 
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