Into The Den of the Tiger | Henry Fought Memorial Youth Tournament

Young Forest Martial Arts showed up in full force (of five) competitors for the annual Henry Fought Memorial Youth Martial Arts Tournament hosted by Den of the Tiger. And it’s a good thing we showed up in force because the competition was as fierce as to be expected from this tournament! We had a couple of new competitors represent in the beginner divisions, a student freshly moving up to intermediate, and a couple of students breaking into the advanced divisions. I am proud to announce our students did well in their respective divisions. But more importantly, and more impressively, I got a lot of complements on their behaviors and attitudes. Last year everyone of our competitors won the coveted sportsmanship award – only awarded to one competitor per division. This year I was told that some of the other instructors stepped up their sportsmanship training; raising the bar in an already steep competition for sportsmanship awards. And though not all of our students won a sportsmanship award, we had one student take home the prize. It gives me great pride to see our students not only perform physical martial arts well, but apply mental martial arts (Life Skills and Mental Skills) so well against such great competition – and to know that our students are really challenging other schools to raise the bar, as they do to us. Great job to all the competitors!

Thank you Sensei Fought and Den of the Tiger for hosting such a great event and inviting us. Thanks to the other schools and instructors for turning out such great kids and representatives of traditional martial arts – and of course, for challenging our students to get better. Thanks to all the volunteers – both martial artists, parents, and others – who helped make such a great tournament. And as always; thanks to all the parents and families that have their children in martial arts, and travel (sometimes many hours) to these events, and spend all day watching and supporting their children and respective martial arts school. These events, and many of the schools, could not be possible without your support!