This has been a long time, over five months since I last posted. And again, I’m posting about the kiddos. Shocking. Okay, so quick recap:

Willem and Lillian are both second degree black belts and teach at Plumer Karate America in Portage WI. Willem is senior instruction, and Lillian is a student instructor. The photo that is above, is both of them, posing with their former and current instructors, Ms Kohler (captain for the Team Eclipse competition team) and Ms Emma (their former instructor at Portage). The kids were excited to see both of them, Lillian a little more than Willem. I think Ms Emma might have been a little shocked to see how tall Willem had gotten.

Since the last post, they have both performed in the May black belt graduation show, performed during the Fourth of July parade here in Pardeeville, did demonstrations at Pardeeville High and Rio Elementary schools, performed a school demonstration at the Columbia County Fair, and performed during the Cow Chip Festival Parade.

Like most tournaments, the kiddos work almost the entire time, breaking only to compete. Since Lillian isn’t 16 yet (next June if you can believe it), she’s regulated to scorekeeping (along with the MRS) whereas Willem judges rings, as well as sparring matches. Both kids competed in traditional weapons (forms taught in the school) – Lillian her Chinese broadsword, and Willem his double chucks – and traditional forms. They opted for traditional this time around since doing open forms or weapons means coming up with a form, either open hand or weapon, and with both of them working it was a stretch to find time.

To say that the MRS and I are proud of these two would be a gross understatement. They continue to amaze and surprise us with their power, strength, and talent. We’d like to say that it’s mostly us, but the two wonderful women shown above have and continue to teach them so much when it comes to this artform. This time next year, they will be almost third degree black belts thanks in no small part to these two, and their other instructors – Mrs Schmidt, Mr Hunter, Mr and Mrs Plumer, Ms Megan, and several outside masters that continue to watch them during these tournaments – such as Mr Brooks, Mr Garcia, Mr Christensen, Mr Delgado, and others.

Below are videos and an photo album to scroll through.

And now for some videos. I did miss Lillian’s individual performance – but she was the only competitor in her age category for black belt, so she went onto grand champion (which is linked below).