Day 4

A year and a half ago, we would not pay for G3 to compete in combat sparring. He wasn’t good. If he scored a few points in one match it was a lot but never enough to win. He was always eliminated in the first round—often within the first thirty seconds. When we switched schools, his new instructors put more emphasis on combat. After four months of training with them, they encouraged us sign G3 up to combat spar at a B tournament. We were reluctant.

They insisted that he was fast, that he had trained well, that he was ready to compete. To humor them—because we didn’t think they were right—we signed him up. Well, they were right. He was ready because he took third place. A huge accomplishment at the time. Six months later, we were pleasantly shocked when he won at Fall Nationals. Being ranked in the top ten in the world and winning the District Championship were also incredible—totally unexpected—highlights of the year.

Today, he completed in the World Championship. He won his first two matches—he even beat the boy who was ranked number 1. However, he lost the third round match 10-9. He then went on the fight for third and lost. He just missed the podium—again. He was incredibly disappointed. Being forth in the world is still impressive, but the kid is like me. He’s seeing where he fell short instead of focusing on how far he has come. Last year, if you told me he was going to qualify, I wouldn’t have believed you. Come September, he’ll just have to train harder.

Sparring is G3’s weakest event. He doesn’t enjoy it as much as he enjoys the other events. This year he was asked to be on the sparring team and said yes, provided he was the alternate. He was called on a few times to compete, but he was happy to focus predominantly on his individual performances. When the team qualified for the World Championship, one of the starting sparers was unable to fly out to Phoenix. In order for the team to compete, they asked G3 if he would fill in. He said yes…and so here we are.

The team sparring competition was over very quickly. They lost their first match by one point.

It was nearly five o’clock when we got back to the hotel. Too late to do much. But way to early to go to the bed. I took advantage of the down time to read by the pool. It was quiet and peaceful, but so damn hot—in the shade—that just sitting still I sweated profusely. G3 took a swim. It’s so hot in the sun that the water was barely refreshing. He said today was much less fun than yesterday. I agree. Not only did today’s competition end in disappointment for him, we also didn’t have friends to hang out with.

Today ended the 2022-2023 season. Tomorrow is the first tournament of the 2023-2024 season. We are going to bed early so that G3 is well rested to compete again.