Gabriel has been going to the Vire Judo Club for about three months now. It is a once-a-week program for kids of different age groups. He is in the youngest age group: 5 years old.
He enjoys it quite well, but since the school year began, he has been much more enthusiastic about his weekly pony lesson than judo.
Still, he likes the running, the jumping, and the chaos of the judo club. The physicality of it, I guess.
So, at the Club, the coach only very recently (two weeks ago) started the juniors with combats. They had a mini internal competition at the club last week, and he won that. Natalya was there, and it took her by surprise. Since they kept throwing opponents at Gabriel, and he beat all comers. The coach looked over at Natalya at one point and just raised his eyebrows.
Natalya and I have been doing that regarding Gabriel from Day One.
The concept of winning didn't really strike him at all, though, it seemed to Mama.
So today, there was a big tournament in Domfront, a mediaeval town about an hour from here, where clubs from all over Calvados come to compete. Gabriel wanted to go, so we made the trip there, with no expectations at all.
Natalya and I were taken aback by the crowd - of junior judo practitioners, and parents. It was quite an event; we were expecting something more low key, but we could not have been more off the mark.
So it works like this. They group the kids off by approx age, and then by weight. This can work to one's advanatage, or disadvantage.
Gabriel, unfortunately, ended up against mostly yellow belts, who are a year older. But I shouldn't say unfortunately, because whatever advantage they might have thought they had did not really work out for them when faced with the Iron Russian/American Gabriel Never Give Up Boy.
The matches go through elimination. We watched one boy who was clearly experienced and more like a pouncing panther than a boy. We watched that boy knock out a few others, and we just had this feeling that he was going to be up against Gabriel in the end. And that is exactly what happened.
I am used to competitions, but this thing had my insides churning like a torrent. Gabriel kept winning, and as he won against the first, the second, the tension was getting a bit hard to take. As for my poor, dear wife, who is not enamoured of competitions in the first place: I thought she would either start crying catastrophically, or have a kiniption (sp?) on the spot. Golly, what fun it was in hindsight! But it sure was tension-wrought when experiencing it first-hand.
So, back to the matches and the rules. They need to pin on the back for 5 seconds. But often, they have a go at each other, and there is no decisive result after thirty or sixty seconds, so the referee starts them over again. Meanwhile, judges are judging and awarding points. So, it is not always an "all or nothing" result. Meaning, if two opponents are close, the points might have to be the deciding factor. But the judges always like to keep them going for multiple encounters, until one wins outright.
But when they keep the boys going into these re-engagements, one after the other, the tension gets ten times worse. And that is what happened with Gabriel and this boy in the final. They went through five encounters, as the judges could not give the win to one or the other. For the final go (you can see this in the video), the referee told the two boys: "This is the last fight. Whoever's back hits the ground first has lost. No counting of seconds for the pin. Back down, it's over."
And that's what Gabriel did. Put this boy on his back in a really cool move, to end it with Gabrielean decisiveness. LOL
One final thing. You are going to see Gabriel pull off a miracle stunt here. I watched a lot of fights today, and I never saw the stunt that Gabriel pulled (which he did twice). He was thrown back, and a shoulder touched the ground. It looks like he will surely lose. All the opponent has to do is press the advantage, and bring their weight to bear. But every time, Gabriel (in his classic fashion) absolutely refused to even contemplate to give up, and would SWITCH THE OTHER GUY ON HIS BACK before he even knew what had happened. Just incredible. Real determination there.
We just shake our heads.
Now we are seeing what we know of Gabriel finally being put to good use!
Hahahahaha!
:-)
Arrival and warming up
Gabriel waving
Gabriel waving here, too
He is the next match to go. He is chewing on his belt
He is up. The red belt: it is not related to rank or level. A red belt is simply put on one of every pair of opponents so that the judges can instantly tell them apart
The first tournament match of his life, and he is up against a yellow belt (2nd level; Gabriel is first level - white belt)
The yellow belt is down, with referee gesture indicating such
And now he is really pinned! The judge had to lean down and inform Gabriel that he has to let go now
The second opponent
The third opponent - the panther
Check this out:
Gabriel going down hard
But within seconds, it is the opponent who is going down hard. HUH?
*Arrival and warmup*
*The matches*
*The awards*