2008 Spring Championship

Jake had an awesome tournament in Mobile this weekend! He received gold medals for Traditional Forms & Free Design! He got out in his first round of sparring, but it was a good match. We are so proud of the sportsmanship he shows! He was the first to start clapping for the other boys & when those around him would came back from sparring he would always tell them they did good.

We were at a corner mat, so you can not see everything else going on behind us, but they have 60+ rings going at one time. I could not hear where everyone was from this time, but at the last tournament he had boys from 5 states in his ring. There were a couple of boys he has competed against before, so the kids start getting to know each other. This was Jake's last tournament in this division, starting at regional here in Jackson this summer, he will be in the 11-14 group.

Scoring is 1-5, but they pretty much never give a 1 or a 5. There are 3 judges & the scores are added together so a 12 would be as high as we would expect to see. Jake got as 11.5! He ended up in a ring with no free design competition, although there was a lot going on around us. His free design is really good & it counts toward National standings anyway. They get points for each medal they win at the 2 National Tournaments & that is how they get their national rankings at the end of the year. Jake's is off to a great start for 2008!