Silver and Gold in Toronto

The Toronto Tournament Trip started on Friday afternoon, when we arrived at our hotel. You can see our Travel blog for fun pictures outside this tournament.

At 7 a.m  we woke up and got ready to meet Mr. Sparks for an 8:00 breakfast at the Hotel. We then headed out to Humber College for the Tournament on Saturday March 26th.

Lots of people there - from even as far as Saskatchewan!  Tyler is in Ring 8 - and the youngest in his rank.  He is mixed with men of Yellow and Green belt... and then those of Red and double black stripe. 

He warms up and tries to get his mind off things - Ipod and headphones....

All do patterns first.

There were many from the hosting school that had to redo patterns as nerves got the better of them, and they forgot their next movement, in fact... as I watched, more than 1/2.  Some others, just went through the motions,,, and then there are those who just put all 100% with power and grace through every move... yes I am talking about my son.

All contentders have averaged about 7's and 7 1/2's... a couple have received 8's - Tyler is last.

Breathing with every completed movement



Pounding feet on the ground has got the attention of little ones in the other ring!



Little ones in other ring look on

Scoring time....Fingers represent numbers, the crossing over the arms mean 1/2...
The results:  8.5, 8.5, 8.0 , 6.0???  and 8.5!!

Tyler gets Silver - 1 point short of Gold.

This particular young black belt judge scored high for his own club members... that was very apparent even when the competitors had to start over cause they did not know their next move... and he also gave high scores to those who were just going with the flow...  He had it out for Tyler for whatever reason.  Tyler kept asking what he did wrong to those around him, they tried to assure him, that it was nothing, but a bad mark from a judge and to just take it in stride... stuff like this happens in sports... look at figure skating... 10's across the board.. and one judge a 7 - It's all par for the course.

Next is sparring... and look who is control of the ring... yup... #6 judge... *$&%!

How to divide up the group for sparring.  Coloured belts? consider sizes? weights...  Tyler and an older gentleman at a higher rank are considered to fight due to similar weight categories... the other men are about 50 - 100lbs more than them... and then there are the men who are of lower rank... sooooo all in all.  Ty has to win this ONE fight to get GOLD. 

Head contact is worth 2pts... Tyler goes forward, backward and hits him over 4 times in one single "attempt"

Warning against Tyler within the first 10 seconds.  I put the camera down, cause now I know he has it in for Tyler... this is not going to be a "fair" all out "sparring round".  so I didn't get alot of good leg, roundhouse shots... sorry

Look at the judges eye

You see in the next shots the judge doesn't look to happy - but has to award Tyler Winner of Sparring... Look at his face!

Thank goodness all the scores are tallyed up by the other 4 judges and his opionion doesn't count.  You can only give warnings... but Ty knows what to do to go around those... and still come out strong! 

The biggest trophy that Ty has received so far.

Tyler can't wait for the tournament in May in hull, where he will have more chances to spar with more people... but he is still proud of his achievments today.!

Your peers, friends, family, and club know what you are capable of... and you have proven time and time again of your skills and athletic abilities... you should be more than proud of today's accomplishments.  Congrats Tyler.!