Getting closer, Getting excited!

Bobby found out today that he is definitely "IN", meaning he's got the blessings of his Master to receive his black belt- first degree!!!

New uniforms are in, as well as the necessary patches. He got sized for his custom-made black belt too! I was at a meeting and wasn't present for this unfortunately but I'm told that once he put the belt on to check for proper size, he didn't want to take it off! I can't say as I blame him either. He was forced to 'reset his goals", as they put it, last cycle as he broke his arm about halfway through that first cycle. Still, to make it all the way through in two attempts is quite an achievement for anyone, even more so for an eleven year old kid.

I made it home in time to talk to him before he fell asleep, and he's pretty stoked. He's already worried about stage fright. I think he'll do fine, and tried to tell him that this is no different than participating in one of the many tournaments he's been in and had no trouble with stage fright. He said "Dad, that place is gonna have 2000 people in it, and that's a lot of people!"

The next two weeks will be awfully busy preparing for Power Weekend. It's now held at the Mulroy Civic Center in downtown Syracuse. He'll be busy perfecting his creative kumatae, and working on board-breaking too!

I'm a proud proud daddy right now. If he gets hurt between now and October 14, he'll be grounded until he's 28, lol!

Black Belt Bobby

Bobby has been working tirelessly on earning his forst degree black belt. This weekend he joined 2 dozen others from all the Lavalles dojo's at Lavalles HQ in Liverpool NY for what they call a pre-exam. An hour and a half of kada's and sparring followed by a timed 2 mile run, and doing this with others that he's not used to working out with as normally he works with kids from Team Cicero only.


This made it interesting, as although all schools teach the same discipline, each Sensei has their own methods. Therefore, one school might teach that you don't hit in the head while sparring, another might say "Hit to win". I guess out there in the real world one can't count on their opponent playing by the rules.

They've got an awesome team that coaches the kids with their running, Mr Bill, Mr Pies, and Mr Dave (not shown) . Bobby has got his two mile time down to 15:11 which is about as long as it takes this old man to get out of bed in the morning!