Today he participated in his very first tournament and he did so very well. This was an inter-school tournament that included all 9 of Grandmaster Kong's dojangs. So, there were a lot of kids there that Liam has never met, never sparred against, never seen their skills.
This was only half of the gym full of kids
Liam competed in patterns and sparring. They also had categories for breaking but as he hasn't done that yet, we didn't sign him up for that.
First, he did his pattern. This is the same pattern he will do next month when he tests for his red stripe. I apologize for the camera work - we were in the bleachers with lots of other people.
When all of the kids in his group had demonstrated their pattern and been scored, they awarded medals and certificates. They gave a gold, silver, and bronze medal to the top three kids and certificates to the others.
Liam won a bronze!
Look! I got a medal!
These aren't chintzy participation medals either. They're heavy and large with emblems on both sides.
After the patterns were finished, they moved onto sparring. Liam sparred twice, losing the first bout but winning the second. The bout he won was against a red belt.
Liam is on the right.
Liam on the left, facing the camera.
And he medaled again! He won another bronze for his sparring.
Getting his medal (Liam second from left)
Grinning from ear to ear
He's worked very hard over the last year and a half and this is such a marvelous validation of all that hard work. He earned those medals. We couldn't be more proud of him. More importantly, he couldn't be more proud of himself.
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