2nd Annual Shidokan Atlanta Ultimate Judo and Shidokan Karate Cup

Missed Friday's blog as it was a very busy weekend. We hosted our 2nd Annual Judo and Karate Championships. This is my 15th event and 2nd tournament like this and there are still bumps in the road. The Judo tournament had more kids this time and more Masters (over 30) competitors. Our Karate tournament had more kids doing Kata than sparring, so some of the kids did not get a lot of matches. One good thing for some of my students is that they were able to compete in Judo and Karate. All of the Karate fights were Semi-knockdown (full contact Karate with pads). There were some exciting matches. Unfortunately, the were no knockdown matches (no pads) as some promises of attendence by other dojos was broken. One of our fighters had a work conflict and couldn't make it in, but some of the others (I won't call any names) either waited till the last minute to say they weren't coming or didn't show up at all. This is sad, because the sport of full contact karate in America is already small and the few organizations that compete under these rules barely support each other. Everybody kind of stays to their own. We probably had 10 plus dojos in the Judo tourament and 3 dojos for the Karate. The few that showed up made me happy and I have a couple of groups that I will support, and some I will no longer support. I had to in the past to get my students opportunity. So, now we will focus own building and growing within and joining with like-minded dojos. See you on the mats!