A couple of weeks ago I went to stay with Mum and Granny for the weekend and I was asked by my karate teacher to go to a tournament on the Sunday morning so I asked Mum if she could take me to it but she said that she was going to go to the zoo with my sister and brother, so my Granny and Poppa Ashley took me to it instead.
On Sunday, I got ready to go. I had to pack all of the things that I brought to Granny's house in my bag so that I could go from the tournament at Wesley College in South Perth to my aunty's mother-in-law's house to see her. And, after that, back to my Dad's house. But I was to excited to think about any of that stuff. When we were all ready we left Granny's house and so did Mum. At this point, I was a little nervous but still excited.
When we got there I looked around the College was huge. It looked a bit like a church. We were doing the tournament inside in a basketball court. I found the change rooms and I got changed. When I came out I paid for the tournament. After I had paid, I had to wait a while until we started our warm ups.
When we had finished the warm ups we had to wait another minute or two until some girls came up to do some sparring. Then some older boys came up to do sparring too. The boys were much better than the little girls because they were older and probably had more experience. My poppa actually helped with the scoring and recorded what the judges called out.
After a long time of watching people doing sparring, I got to do my kata, which is a series of about 20 defensive and offensive moves. We had to do the kata in pairs for the tournament. Whoever does the best wins that round. In the first round, I had to go against a girl from another school. She was very good but for some reason I won anyway. In the second round, I had to verse my friend from class, Kewin, who is also very good. He beat me that time. In the third round, I went against another kid from a different school (a boy this time) and I won.
At this point, Kewin had won three rounds so he was in first place. The boy from another school was in last place because he had lost three rounds. I had won two and lost one. The girl had also won two and lost one so we had to have a rematch to see who would come 2nd and who would come 3rd. Unfortunately, I tried to do a harder kata against her and stuffed it up. She won and I came third. But I still got a place and I got a medal!
Then I watched my friend Cameron do his kata. He came second and got a trophy. After that we left to have some lunch. I had a spinach and ricotta roll that was very tasty from Brumbys and got a juice from the place next door. When we had had lunch we went to see my aunty's mother-in-law Rannita. She is very nice. She let us stay for quite a while and gave us little chocolates. I helped Poppa Ashley look for a dog to buy for Granny in the paper. When we left I was very sad because Rannita was so nice but now I knew that I was going home now to my house.
When I got home, I showed everybody the medal. Dad and Bridget were very proud of me and so were Nanna and Poppa when they found out.
A couple of weeks later on another weekend with my mum there was a karate grading on the Saturday that I wanted to go to. The best part was that I was told by my sensei to try and skip my orange belt by going for my orange belt grading and my yellow belt grading too. He said he thought that a was good enough to try both. Everybody was saying that I should try hard to get either orange or yellow and it doesn't matter if I do not pass yellow or even orange.
So on Saturday morning I got up really early so that I would be absolutely ready for when mum woke up. I was feeling really excited because I might actually be getting a new belt! At about eight o'clock we left to go into Perth to where the grading was happening. At that point, I was really excited and a little bit nervous. When we got there I felt even more nervous and excited. I got helped to the change room because mum was still looking for a park. I got changed and then started warm ups with all the white belts. After doing warm ups we did “pre-arranged” which is four blocks and four attacks. In class you would go with a partner and one would attack and the other would defend then you would swap roles. But, in the grading, we didn't do it with a partner we just did it with an invisible partner. After doing the pre-arranged we lined up in a grid pattern and did the orange belt kata all together. I thought it was easy and a bit fun. After doing the orange belt kata all the white belts bowed and went home except me and one other guy.
All the orange belts and me and the other guy bowed in and started warm ups, then when the warm ups were over we lined up in about five lines and did the first yellow belt kata one row at a time it was harder than the orange belt kata. (I was in the second row.) Then we did the second yellow belt kata in rows again but this time one row would stand up and then go one person at a time until the row was finished. Then that row would sit down and the next row would get up. That one was even harder than the first yellow belt kata!
When the second yellow belt kata was over the orange belts, me and the other guy bowed and went home too. I was really nervous about finishing the grading because I didn't know if I would get my yellow or even my orange belt, but I was also really excited because of the same reason. I also had to wait until the next week to get my results.
So on Monday I was feeling all excited to get my results at the first karate class. However, I find out that I had to wait until Wednesday. So on Wednesday I did the class and, at the end, I waited until I heard my name and when I did I went up to my sensei and bowed to him. He gave me a certificate but I had my eyes closed, then to the whole class he said “Kaleb skipped orange belt” and I opened my eyes and there in my hand was a yellow belt and certificate for yellow belt! :)
Now I can't wait until my next grading were I will go for green or maybe even blue belt!