. . . and it was one for the record books. It was the 3rd or 4th time groups from Ligo Dojo had traveled by car to Shihan Marty Petrovich’s annual Kyokushin-Kan Open Tournament in Maine. This time we were 3 instructors (Nathan Ligo, Amy and Don) and 3 kids (Mike 14, Dylan 10, and Luiz 7)

Everyone had a great learning experience and everyone placed in one or more divisions. Luiz took 4th place in his division in both kata and kumite, Dylan took 2nd in his division in Kata, and 2nd in his division in kumite. That’s Dylan, above, at the far right. His name is written on his glove.

Here’s the six of us Friday morning. Having spent the night in Washington, DC, we were here on the New Jersey Turnpike, passing New York City.

Here we are (below) on our way south (at a pit-stop in Maine), but we place the picture here to introduce our newest student, Michael, above with such a big smile, and below, as well, in the grey hooded sweatshirt. Mike is 14 and a white belt, and he won first place in his division against two boys who were far more experienced than he. Click “play” on the below video. It’s only 9 second’s long, and we meant to be taking still shots, but we wanted to share an image of him with his trophy. There’s an actual video of his match lower on the page.

As is the case with many of these tournaments, there were only 3 boys in Mike’s division, which was made by age group. Usually, he wouldn’t have been in a division with a yellow belt and a green belt, but there wasn’t a better match for him this time. Since he was the white belt, they gave him a “buy” to the final, whereas the other two boys had to fight to see which one of them would advance. Mike was already guaranteed 1st or 2nd place. How surprised we all were when he took first! See video of his match below.

Ligo Dojo instructor Amy Kaufman took 3rd place in the advanced women’s kata division.

This was a relatively small tournament as most of ours are, still, in the US. Here are all the juvenile competitors.

The tournament was held at a convention center and Amy had a chance to take the boys to the pool after their matches.

Here we are (above and below) at the National Air and Space Museum in Washing DC on the return trip posing with the SR71 Blackbird, and with none other than the Space Shuttle! We also had a chance to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and get hot dogs in Central Park. Not bad for what was really just 3 days. We left Chapel Hill at 9 pm on Thursday night, slept in DC , and then drove all day Friday to Maine for a Saturday Competition. On the way south Sunday, we spent 4 hours in New York City, spend the night again Sunday night in DC (Monday was Memorial Day), and then saw the Air and Space Museum Monday morning and were home by dinner since it was a school night.

This is Dylan, having only his 2nd tournament experience.

Our youngest, Luiz, competing.

And this is Mike wining the final.

Ligo Dojo Instructor Donald Harris took 3rd place. There were 4 in his division and he lost this fight (above) against the young man who won the middle weight division, and then won the fight off for 3rd place, below.