the wonder that is my son

Let me formally introduce you to Andrew, the kid I've been calling "my son" since I started posting here. As I said yesterday, Andrew started practicing kenpo when he was about 2 months shy of 5 years of age. He just turned 9, making it a full 4 years that he's been going at it. Slowly but surely, he's learned stuff, until he sort of hit a wall about a year ago. He was able to get over that wall this past spring, as we started competing together and he started practicing more and more.

Tonight, we had our last practice session before our biggest competition ever, the Quebec Open. He took a one hour class first, one hour during which I practiced both my bo and my traditional katas, and then he joined me for another 45 minutes in which he practiced both his traditional and his bo katas under my supervision.

I told you we both started learning the bo in the Fall and both competed for the first time in February, well, here's a video of him in that first competition:


It was far from perfect, but I was proud of him for having learned that kata, and having the guts to present it.

Following that first competition, he was addicted to the bo, seriously. I asked him if he wanted private lessons and he said "oh yeah". He later told me he would like to be able to practice with me half an hour before his Wednesday night class. That was arranged with his instructor so we could "borrow" a corner of their room in the first of the two hours in the evening. I kept seeing him improve bit by bit, a little every week but my wife was absolutely shocked when she saw him at the latest competition, about three weeks ago. As I said yesterday, at that competition, he had cranked up his level of karate a few notches.

This is his bo kata on that competition. See how much he improved...


I have all 9 competitors on video from that competition and the notes they received. Andrew came in about 4th or 5th. I don't know really since it was a small competition and they only gave out medals to the first three. Anyway, the finishing position wasn't a big deal. To see him do his kata that way, in a much more convincing way that he'd ever done it, well it made my day, my week, my year. :)

On that competition, he brought back a first place in the age 9-10, intermediate underbelt category, despite having just turned 9 a couple weeks before that and competing against many 10 year olds. Here's the kata he presented, it's called Circle of the Tiger. Is it perfect? Nope, but it was the best I'd seen him do it so far.


We had a good talk with his instructor last Wednesday, not his bo instructor but his regular kenpo instructor, regarding his bo kata and he told us this: Andrew knows the kata, it's a nice kata with good strikes and such, but Andrew is not delivering it as a kata but a bit too much like simply a combination of moves that he learned. That's the one last touch that we worked on tonight, having Andrew deliver his kata as if he really had multiple opponents against him and wow. He struggled at first but the very last time he did it, he really nailed it. He looked aggressive and intent, a very solid performance. If he does it that way tomorrow, he should do very well. If he does it that way, no matter the result though, I'll be proud of him because it will be the best he's ever done it and that's all I'm asking of him. Give it all you got no matter what...

Now, about me tonight... I did half an hour with my bo kata and was frustrated by it at times, like I was havig a hard time with it. Got back in the groove until a class needed the room and went to the side to work on my traditional kata. That went well, I'm getting there but I feel like I'd need another 6 months to really feel comfortable with that kata. Not that it's overly difficult, but a kata takes time to master. Still, it's going way better than it was just a couple of weeks ago so we'll see...

I probably won't post anything tomorrow as the day of competing will be followed by a big night show that we will attend, my son and I with my wife (who will also double as official camerawoman of our karate team during the day ;) )...

Anyways, wish us luck!

FM