Medals from today's Self-defense competition. See story below for details. Congratulations Doug, Michael, Chuck, and Mike!

Competition is still going strong at the 2009 U.S. Open World Martial Arts Championships.  We have taken a break after our day’s events and grabbing something to eat, getting some rest, and prepping for tomorrow.  The day started off pretty calm and got a little crazy come event time.

The team synchronized event (for me and Michael) was scheduled at the same time as the Self-Defense competition (the whole team) and we were told to contact a coordinator to make sure our times were not conflicting.  Well, the coordinator said it wouldn’t be a problem because they would not start the events over the top of each other and it would be okay…um…not so sure about that   It ends up, they were calling me and Michael for Self-Defense at the same time we were walking on stage for the team-synch event.  I ended up, like a dipwad, starting on the wrong side of the stage which threw

Father and sons arriving for the U.S. Open this morning (Michael, Nathaniel, and Doug)...Beautiful day in Orlando for the tournament!

Michael off at the beginning with our timing, so we were constantly catching up with each other through our form.  Big lessons learned for us in that type of event, but despite my goof up, we did good and got some great feedback and Michael said we got pretty high scores considering.  I didn’t get to see any as they were yelling at us to go to Self-Defense and pulling us off the stage.  We still don’t know how we placed in that event and Holly is doing some checking with the judges to find out how we did overall.  Michael said what he saw was that the scores were all pretty close, and there were definitely some really good teams that bettered us, but I was proud that we overcame the chaos and stood our ground and kept going.

Bit of a blur...but here is Michael in the forefront throwing down some moves, with Doug mirroring him in the back (the blur is pretty much representative of the entire morning:)

I am really proud of Michael as he is not a big competitor type (if you know Michael, you know he is shy and very artistic and stays pretty much to himself).  He really showed up well and it was a great tribute to our time training together over the past few months.  We have never competed in an event together, so I am really proud of our job together.

The Self-Defense competition went well.  We had some pretty stiff competition from several groups and the scores there were super tight on some things.  We placed 7th overall out of a pretty big division.  That’s right people…7th in the World in Self-Defense in our first year competing at the U.S. Open.  I was really proud of our team, who performed well.  Side note:  I have made friends with the other six teams ahead of us, so we never get into with each other if we bump into one another on the street…wouldn’t be pretty I assure you   We learned a lot about this division as well, which is not as well-publicized but is always a crowd favorite.  Having never seen it before or been a part of it, I learned a lot about taking real life self-defense and presenting in a more dynamic way.

Our Team presenting to the judges during Self-defense event...very proud of everyone on our team!

I got a chance to congratulate the winning team from today who you will see tomorrow night during the Night of Champions.  Really impressive and I can’t wait to see them perform again.

So, after a day of crazy scheduling, running between events just to make it to the ring on time, placing 7th World wide, and getting to compete with my son for the first time ever…I am pretty happy with the experience and am looking forward to tomorrow’s event.

Tomorrow’s event will be against the very best in the world in my division, and I have taken a BIG chance in even challenging them as I have no seeded position in the circuit, so I will have to claw my way up to the top.  This will be no easy climb at all!  I decided, with my coach’s guidance, to do it this way…kinda jump in the big pond from the getgo and take on the big fish!  After all, I’m not here to play ping-pong!

Nathaniel enjoying some pre-tournament fun...with a bo staff in his hand of course! (People better watch out for this one in a few years!)

For now, enjoy the day, get some grub and mentally shift gears for tomorrow morning.

I will update you as soon as I know what is happening for tomorrow!

Happy 4th tomorrow by the way…thanks for all those who give of themselves to deliver and protect our freedom!