Monday, April 20, 2009

Maine Martial Arts Challenge Tournament - Winthrop Maine April 18, 2009














On April 18, 2009 seven of our students ventured up to the 32nd annual Maine Martial Arts Challenge Karate Tournament in Winthrop, Maine. This was our first time to the tournament. A matter a fact it was the first time for six of the seven students to ever compete in a tournament who. Several parents and a couple of our others students (Justin Collander, Tyler Horning, and Issabelle Cushman), came along to watch the tournament. In the end our students had an extremely successful day. Yellow Belt BenjaminSchade started of competing in forms. He competed against 9 0r 10 other competitors in the beginner 10-12 year old boys division. Many of his competition were of higher rank and had competed before. When the dust was settled Ben took 2nd place for his demonstration of hyung (form) Pyung An Cho Dan (1). Emma Slocum and Christine Skroski competed in the girls 10-12 begginer division. Emma took second place and Christine took third place. Truman Slocum and Kevin McCaloney competed in forms but struck no gold for their great effort. Truman next competed in the boys intermediate 12-14 fighting (sparring ) division. He one his first three matches pretty convincingly. His fourth match was a tough challenge and he did not come out on top. He took a second place in this very competitive division. Zechariah Thomas competed in forms and fighting. He did not have as many competitors as Ben or Truman because I think they knew he was coming. Zechariah performed Pyung An 3 and took second place. He also took second place in fighting. One of his first points was an incredible spinning side kick that was right on the money to his opponents head gear (face). Madeline Skroski missed her initial appearance for forms but was allowed to demonstrate her for Kummu 1 in front of the judges and was awarded 4th place. Overall it was a great day of learning, competition, friendship and fun. We celebrated by eating lunch at the Round Robbin restaurant in Augusta. Job well done your preparation paid off!