Sensei Tom O'Brien
Green Belt
We just came back from the AAU Karate Tournament. 6 of us went & we took 7 silver medals. I’m so proud of everybody that my head can’t fit thru the door. I won 2 medals in the old man’s division in kata & kobudo. It’s the 1st time I did Bo. I worked my butt off on that Bo form & I felt good because I did not make any mistakes. The 48 yr. old guy from TKD, Tom (who trained with me for about 2 mos. now) won one in kumite. Tom lost to a 6th deg. Black belt in his 2nd tournament ever. The red belt, Josh from TKD who came with me from my friend’s Dojang won one in kumite in the 17/18 yr. old, advanced div. he lost to a black belt national champ. Steve my brown belt won 1 ea. in kumite & kata in the advanced division. My son Ben, a purple belt, won 1 in kumite. He knocked out a green belt with a mawashi geri to the solar plexus & beat a black belt. Tournaments can be very crazy. Ben folded up this green belt so that he took about 5 mins. To recover & didn’t even get a point for it. When I said “He should get a point for that.” his family & friends asked me why. I responded “Because he hit him with a clean shot that’s why!” That same green belt won the div. Isn’t that nuts? Anyway it doesn’t matter because I told Ben “Look, if it was a real fight there would not have been any referee to give him 5 mins. to recover.” The important thing is he discovered his gyaku zuki & he admitted that he should also be doing kata.
The martial arts are so wild sometimes. After the tournament I went home, took a shower & went straight to a wedding. Wow, talk about culture shock. One minute IÂ’m in the middle of the chaos of a tournament & the next minute IÂ’m in this really fancy wedding dressed in a monkey suit. I feel like a fish out of water. Then I find out this 23 yr. old girl, black belt wants to go back into training & she wants to train with me. Then my wife, who hasnÂ’t worked out with me for 2 years, says to me that if Rachel comes then she is going to come back too. My wife was a yellow belt on the verge of becoming a green belt when she quit. Now tell me the martial arts arenÂ’t nuts. IÂ’m lovin it though. I took some pictures & I will try to post them. Talk about interesting! Thanks for putting up with my rambling nonsense. Anybody else got tourney stories? Happy New Year.
Sensei Tom
The martial arts are so wild sometimes. After the tournament I went home, took a shower & went straight to a wedding. Wow, talk about culture shock. One minute IÂ’m in the middle of the chaos of a tournament & the next minute IÂ’m in this really fancy wedding dressed in a monkey suit. I feel like a fish out of water. Then I find out this 23 yr. old girl, black belt wants to go back into training & she wants to train with me. Then my wife, who hasnÂ’t worked out with me for 2 years, says to me that if Rachel comes then she is going to come back too. My wife was a yellow belt on the verge of becoming a green belt when she quit. Now tell me the martial arts arenÂ’t nuts. IÂ’m lovin it though. I took some pictures & I will try to post them. Talk about interesting! Thanks for putting up with my rambling nonsense. Anybody else got tourney stories? Happy New Year.
Sensei Tom