Tournament: full speed ahead!

It's hard to believe that, by this time next week, our tournament will be a thing of the past!

I have been blessed beyond measure by all of you who have, in many different ways, been so quick and eager to show what our core values mean to you. So many of you --- students and parents --- have been helping out, and have promised to be of support in whatever way you can.

Our students have shown that they are ready to meet the challenge I set for them. Almost everyone on the list of eligible students has demonstrated their eagerness to compete by pre-registering early. What has truly amazed me is how many of our new white belts have been working so hard to learn their kata. Last night we had our Competition Class, and our dojo was full of students who wanted to make sure they will be as ready as possible to do their absolute best next week. I felt that it was a personal triumph for some of our very little ones, and some of our most shy students, to perform in front of so many people. I just know they will do well in competition!

If you are one of the handful of Shinjin Karate students who has not yet pre-registered, all is not lost. Although you've missed out on the discount, you can still register in the dojo this coming week and avoid having to wait in a long line to register at the tournament.

Today, a number of you showed up at our house to help build trophies. What a great crew we had! You were undaunted by the last-minute time change and by our lack of experience in trophy building. Very quickly, we had an assembly line going. If it weren't for the fact that some of the bases we needed weren't shipped, we would have all the trophies done.

Assembling the 1st Place trophies

1st Place trophies ready to be taken to the dojo

Previously assembled components

Our efficient assembly line working on the 2nd Place trophies

Thank you, thank you, thank you for giving up a big part of your Saturday to support your dojo!

All of the 1st & 2nd Place trophies are now in the dojo, awaiting transportation to the tournament next Saturday. I'm sure they will serve as an inspiration to all of our hard-working students as they spend next week training hard to prepare to compete. Our "factory workers" did a great job!

And, judging from the sounds I'm hearing right now coming up from my husband and sons in our garage, I expect that the Grand Champion trophies will be quite something...