Team Tracy's Karate FTW!

My first karate tournament was on Saturday 20th March.  I was performing the Long 2 kata in the Senior women's beginner division.

Hubby and I got to the tournament an hour before it started.  Edgar, a Tracy's Karate black belt who is awesome at kata, helped me warm up, along with a child from another school.  Familiar faces arrived and congregated in one section of the stands, competitors warmed up on the gym floor.

I've never competed in a sports event before, and I was part of a big team on Saturday.  We stuck together on the floor and went in groups to watch each others kata, cheering when they finished.  My kata was in the Senior Women's Beginner division, just me and another lady.  And I did it.  I performed my kata in front of three judges and a bunch of strangers.  By unanimous vote, I won!

Afterwards everyone hugged me and cheered, and I have a monster trophy.  Winning is a huge bonus, the fact that I went to a tournament and did my kata in front of strangers was the goal.  What I didn't expect was that winning my division qualified me for the grand champion kata ring.  I had no hope of winning that one against eight others including two brown belts, but I did it anyway.

Tracy's Karate came home with Grand Champion men and women's sparring, Andy took grand champion for her kata and won her sparring division, Sam won her sparring division, Edgar won his open hand kata division, Patrick won his weapons kata division, the trophies piled up in our spectator section.

It was a fabulous day!  Hubby took video of my kata and several other people's kata, including one amazing sai kata.  I really want to learn to use sais in a kata.  Never thought I'd be able to perform in a tournament, and I did it.