Sparring Tournament in Auburn

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I love visiting Sensei Bennati’s dojo for tournaments because I get to see all of my friends there and I can get new feedback from my kata or sparring from other black belts who might have a different perspective than the black bets in my dojo. This tournament was a point only tournament but they also had the flag game which was fun. Since I was one of the high ranked brown belts there I got to help judge again. I helped judge the tiny tiger and little dragon sparring and flag game. I was still getting used to calling out points if I saw them just like the last few tournaments I judged at but I still feel like I’m getting better as it is really fun. Since I am an older than the other brown belts at Sensei Bennati’s dojo the divisions were a little weird. First they put me and a brown belt together since we were older but then they put me and her with the 15-14 group of boys so we were together for the flag game and point sparring divisions. The flag game was like a little warm up for the sparring just to move around a bit. I haven’t played that game in around 3 years so it was really fun to experience and I won second place in that. I had 3 matches in point sparring and won the first 2. The last match I lost to my friend Broden, I’ve beaten him in the last 2 or 3 tournaments we’ve competed in so I was actually proud of him to see that he beat me. Throughout the entire tournament I realized that my opponents have gotten way better than the last time I fought them all. They were faster, stronger, and they had new techniques but that just means that I have to train harder for the next time I face them.

My current Challenge progress as of November 7, 2024.