Potomac Kempo Spring Tournament

On April 29 we had our Potomac Kempo Kempo Spring Tournament.  As usual the pictures below are from the wonderful Cascades Photography and if you like any of the pictures below that is where you can go to buy some!  Which I recommend.  I might get one myself this year, maybe two.  

This year I got the joy of judging!  It was fun, but is very difficult.  

Rachel I think did a better job at judging people than me.  I had problems judging my own students.  Because I wanted them all to win, and they by default are taught to do their techniques the way I like them.  But I persevered!

No Stephen this is not me surrendering.  Neve does not accept surrenders.

Random picture of a beautiful woman.  Cutting fresh baked bread.

Sparring was even more fun to judge.  I got the low belts as you see.  I want to point out I got some complements for how well I did!

Rachel got some higher ranks, and had some more problems with them controlling their power sadly.  

Here is Sensei Cassie on the right, the chief instructor of my dojo, and in the middle is Carlos one of my students since he was a white belt!  He always goes home with a fist full of trophies, and this year was no different!

I just thought this was a good picture of Rachel.

I swear the only reason they have board breaking as an event is to get pictures of us making some funny faces.

This is quite possibly one of the coolest pictures ever, and I might just buy it.  Yup, that's my girlfriend!

I can't get enough pictures of Rachel with a Katana.  It is a good look for her.

This is a sweep.  Get close to the opponent, right arm goes across shoulders and pulls across to your left, right foot is like a pendulum upwards, and then backwards to sweep out their front leg.

When done correctly they end on the ground like this, totally at your mercy! hahaha!

This is just a picture of me doing one of my techniques.  

Rachel chilling with one of our friends, Dianne.

Some black belt sparring!  He wasn't calling anything as points unless the strikes had the potential to bruise a rib.....

Evidently Carson, my opponent for these two pictures was a fan of upper cuts.

I like the look on Kevin's face on this one, as I introduce him to my foot.  In the end though I did lose to him, to take 2nd place in black belt sparring!

This is Rachel sparring!  She did well, but sadly lost.  But then come to think of it, we both ended up with 2nd place trophies.

At the end of the day my dojo took home the tournament cup!  This is most exciting as this was the first year that my dojo has ever won it.  

Anyways I hope everyone likes the pictures!  It was a long but very fun day!  I am very glad that Mom was able to come and see it!  Next tournament is in November!  In case anyone is interested.....

UPDATE:  If you go to Cascades Photography and like any of the pictures, you can now get the digital versions for 50 cents by entering in the code "firefly" upon checkout.  I'll probably get a couple myself in the next day or two.