April's karate-thing....

Today was promotions!! April went from a purple belt to a blue belt. She was sooooooo excited! Today was a special day for the students because they had some important guests attending promotions! The Grandmaster (big-wig) of April's form of karate was there! April's teacher (Sifo) had Grandmaster help out with the training and then later with handing out the belts. April got paired up with GM while they were training! GM is a big guy and April is so little! I was absolutely tickled to see her training with him!

A before picture of April with her old belt

And a couple of after pictures of April with her new belt. The man on the right side of the picture is Apri's teacher Sifo, behind April is GM and the man on the left is another Sifo who has a dojo in Denver.

I love this one! I wouldn't want to get in a fight these 4! They look mean!

I took a lot of video clips, so get comfortable!

Here is a video of April sparring with a little boy named Jackson

Here is April practicing her kicks and punches with GM. I got the impression that he has not worked with kids often (it's not as serious when you are working with kids age 4-6!), but he really got the hang of it and seemed to really enjoy himself by the end of class and was laughing right along with everyone else (it was soooo much fun to watch these promotions!)! Notice, at the end of this video, Sifo tells the kids to make mean faces. April puts on her mean face, throws a punch and GM puts his head down on the pad. He was LAUGHING at April's mean face! It was hilarious to see this big-wig, big important guy in the hierarchy, laughing at my 5 year old's mean face!! He even joked about April's mean face at the end of class. It was CUTE! April was in such a wonderful mood and was skipping and hopping all over (as you will see in this video and others!)

This next video is of April performing a foot stomp on GM. GM was not used to having kids *practice* on his person, but he took the beating my 5 year old laid on him like a real pro! :) He was a good sport and was telling her what a good job she was doing after every foot stomp! She LOVED the attention and the compliments!

Here April got to spar with GM. When I told Dan that GM was at promotions he says "So, you think I could take him?" First of all, I laughed out loud! Then I said "I don't see why not, your daughter did!" Here is the video proof of my 5 year old taking down a man 5 times her size who has every black belt known to man and has been doing this for half a century! In GM's defense, before they started sparring (and before I started recording, sadly) Sifo kindly asked GM to go a little easy on Miss April. That comment brought down the house! I'm so sad I didn't catch it on video!

(this one you will have to click on, I guess it was too big for the blog, but it's my favorite, so it couldn't be excluded!)

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y44/nadrennoc/?action=view&current=DSCF1648.flv

I told you, these promotions were the best ones EVER! Lots of fun and joking! *For those that don't know, in April's brand of karate they do not have tests to get their next belt. They earn their belt through regular attendance in class and by showing, in class, a knowledge and skill in what they are learning. When they get to promotion it's really just a day to celebrate, show off what they've been learning and be rewarded for their continious hard work, with their new belt. You will notice in the first picture I posted of April with her purple belt that it has 3 black strips. Over the past 2 months or so she has earned those stripes. 3 stripes shows that she has earned the right to be promoted to her new belt.* Promotions are never a somber affair, but this one was downright FUN!

Here is April doing her Kata. She did it perfectly!