Kaleigh's first Karate tournramant with MIKA Karate

About 5 weeks ago, Kaleigh asked to go to an open house at a local Karate dojo.  We had been looking for something extracurricular for her to get into and we felt this was a good option.  Within a few minutes of being there she gave me our secret nod indicating that she wanted to sign up. We did and since then she has not missed a class.  She goes 5 days a week and recently started tournament team training.

In the past I have had some poor experiences with Karate academies.  I have felt that they were dogmatic, needlessly patriotic, or too authoritarian.  I have not had any of these issues with Mika in Randolph.  Everyone bows and pays respect to each other regardless of age or belt, there is not spiritual talk, and not a flag to be seen.  Ashley and I feel really comfortable with Kaleigh being there.  I would highly recommend this academy to anyone in the area that wanted to introduce themselves or their child into Karate.

After Kaleigh's 2nd tournament team training she wanted to attend her first tournament.  We packed her up and headed to Wells.  She was one of only a handful of white belts in the tournament but she was extremely brave and not only completed her routine in the forms category but also jumped into the sparring ring.

She did an awesome job.  We were so proud of her.  It was also great that we could hear the other folks from her academy cheering her on from the stands.  It was an amazing experience for her and build a lot of confidence.  Ashley asked her what she wanted to improve on for the next tournament and Kaleigh responded with "nothing.  I did awesome."

Sadly, we had to leave before they took a group picture but we were pretty sure we saw everyone compete before we had to leave.  The MIKA team did an amazing job and we are so proud to have Kaleigh be a part of this.