Ninja Warriors

 This past weekend the girls and I competed in our first martial arts tournament!  We've been doing family classes with a school called Defence Lab with our friends Erin and Emmy for about six months now.  All of us really enjoy the classes, but were a bit intimidated by the idea of a tournament competition.  When Erin's husband, Russ, started classes as well, he was determined to go to tournament and the girls and I weren't going to leave Erin and Emmy out there all alone!  We all packed up and headed to Dallas for the weekend.

Before we left, we got together for a girly tournament prep party - complete with team spirit nail painting!

No one had any idea what to expect from this experience and when we saw everything set up in the hotel, we were a little bit freaked out!  The adults were set to go first and all three of us were competing against each other (because how many other 40+ year old orange belts could there possibly be??) haha.  

There were three segments to the main competition:  form, flag sparring and point sparring.  The form segment is where you have to do a set sequence of moves and show the judges optimal form in body position, etc.  Erin, Russ and I swept this part of the competition and came in 1, 2, and 3 - with me in 3rd.  My scores were great and I was super happy with the way things went.  Bronze medal - hooray!

Flag sparring is where you have flags hanging from your belt and your opponent has to grab them off before you can get theirs.  It ends up being more fun than competitive for me so I lost miserably... lol

Point sparring is a three part face off.  Basically you show your opponent a kick/punch combination (but not hitting each other) and the judges rule who won that part of the three part series.  I did pretty well in this area, but didn't end up placing.  Erin got first in this and Russ got second - DL represented!

After the adults competed, we were all excited and relieved it was over and I think the kids were more excited than ever.  Now they knew exactly what to expect when it was their turn in a few hours!

We mingled about the hotel and ended up taking a break upstairs before their time slot began.

Finally it was time!  Emmy was in a separate ring and all three of my girls were competing against each other in the same ring as another girl, Whitleigh, from Defence Lab.  It was super cute to see these little girls all in a row.

The girls did the exact same thing as the adults - Forms were first!

Forms are scored on a scale of 1 to 10 and the average "fine/good" score is around a 6, "good-er" is around a 7 and awesome is 8 and up.  All of our kids were in the 8's!  Lia even scored into the 9's for one judge!  Our coaches had given us the goal of being in the upper 7's at least and were so excited to see the scores post!  There were 8 total kids in their ring and several were older/more advanced, so none of the girls placed in forms, but they did awesome!

Next up was flag sparring.  Our favorite was when Erin and Halle were pitted against each other.

At this point, most of the other rings were done competing and several DL people had come over to watch.  We had quite the cheering section!!

Watch to the end of this video - hilarious!

Erin actually ended up winning GOLD in flag sparring - she is fast and sneaky!!  She was so proud of herself!   

Last up was point sparring.  The judges will call the winner of the round by pointing in the direction of the winner.  It was adorable to watch the kids' faces when they realized they won that round.

Erin ended up winning SILVER in point sparring - she was awesome!!  

Lia and Halle were understandably bummed they did not win a medal in the main segment of the competition, so we entered them into board breaking!  If you broke all 4 boards on the first try, you won gold.  If you broke them all, but took a few tries, you got silver and if you got at least 3 breaks, you got bronze. 

I was so happy they were able to win SILVER medals!!!  They were very excited and proud to have a medal to show for their efforts and courage.

One of our coaches - who is usually quite intimidating!  The kids got to see him as a supporter and cheerleader during this experience - which was so awesome.

Emmy won medals in board breaking and point sparring!  She was super proud.

After the competition was over, it was pool time!!!

This Defence Lab thing has become more than "just a thing we do" to something we really all enjoy.  Todd and I were just over the moon proud of the girls and their courage, tenacity, and confidence.  Even when things didn't go their way, they handled it with grace and excellent sportsmanship.  Everything I could have hoped for from this experience - especially for my non-sporty girls!!  Can't wait for the next one!