Category Archives: Sports

My little warrior

This weekend Brandon and I went to Niagara Falls so the boy could compete in the Ontario Open BJJ competition.  It’s one of the toughest competitions there is and attracts a lot of high level talent and unfortunately Brandon got beat up a bit.  He went 0-4 in his division and the other kids were simply to big/strong for him, he was the only 12 year old, the others were 13 and obviously going through puberty so it looked like a boy fighting with a man.

I always tell Brandon that it’s ok to lose but don’t lose because the other person outworked you and it broke my heart after watching him getting thrown around for a few minutes in his first fight, he came back crying saying he didn’t work hard enough. 🙁  He did, this boy doesn’t have any quit in him but sometimes that’s how it goes and despite being demoralized, he continued to fight hard.  Sigh only his 4th competition so next year he’ll do some easier ones to get more experience.

There were like 10 other families from Action & Reaction that came and we all booked the same hotel so the kids hung out before and after the competition.  Saturday night after dinner, we went to the touristy areas and played around, we all bought the Family Pass cards and lol it was funny when Brandon went on the ferris wheel.  He’s scared of heights and as bad as this sounds, his terror was funny for the people in our pod lol.

We left Niagara this morning at around 9, went to Toronto to have pho for lunch with my mom then came home and relaxed the rest of the day.  Maggie didn’t come with us so it was nice to see her and the last work week of the year for me starts Monday. 🙂

Brandon I’m so proud that despite the adversity, you didn’t give up and fought your hardest.  It didn’t go your way this time but that’s ok, keep training and try again in the future!

Back from Montreal

On Thursday I went to Montreal with Eddy to watch the Canadian F1 Grand Prix and it was absolutely amazing…  Got back around 5pm today, am pretty tired but it was so damn worth it.

A few photos from Saturday’s a qualifying (and an impact in the Ferrari Challenge race 1) I edited with the my Surface, will post more later.

So worth it, Eddy and I are already making arrangements (along with some more friends) to go in 2023.

WOO!!!

Next weekend, Eddy and I will be going to the Canadian Grand prix in Montreal at circuit Gille Villeneuve and I just got the tickets!!!

We’ll be sitting at turn 10 right where the arrowhead is and there’s a ton of passing opportunities at the hairpin so yeah I’m pretty damn excited.  Our seats are pretty close to the front so we may have to deal with the fence but that’s ok, my first F1 experience so I’ll take it.  I can’t wait it’s going to be great!!!

 

Great effort!!!

Yesterday Brandon did his 2nd ever Brazilian Jujitsu competition, this time it was the Ontario Open which draws some really tough competitors from all over the province and Brandon was placed in the 12-13 year old group with a max weight of 132 lbs.  He’s 11 (turning 12 this year) and weighed in at the competition at 120.2 lbs so we knew he’d have a difficult time.  His group was split into two brackets with the winner of the brackets fighting for gold & silver.

Brandon submitted his first opponent by rear naked choke but lost to the next boy, who was huge and taller than I was!  Still B put in a great effort and didn’t give up despite the odds, I’m so proud of him.  He went 1-1 and split bronze with another boy in the second bracket.

I really couldn’t be more proud of my boy, his second competition and went against some really tough kids.  All the competitors should be commended, they’re so brave and did so well.  Brandon’s at the bottom of the grey belt league in terms of experience and now fighting against kids who are going through puberty so it’s going to be a tough road ahead but he’s got a great attitude and mindset, when he gets bigger he’s going to be a monster. 🙂

Happy Mothers day to all the moms out there, I’ll talk about our weekend tomorrow as I think Brandon deserves his own post.

Champ!

Yesterday Brandon competed in his first BJJ competition, it was just an in house tournament from his gym and a few other friendly gyms and boy was he nervous.  He kept saying he’s fine but you could see it in his face so I told him that it doesn’t matter if he wins or loses as long as he works hard that’s all that matters.  There were 5 kids in his group and he was tied for smallest but he came out on top!  He went 3-1, he was tied with a girl at that record but because he scored more points overall, he won gold. 🙂

The boy in the video is about the same size as Brandon but the grey/black belt is 2 belts higher than what B is at.  The only submission allowed was armbar from mount which he has a hard time executing, none of the kids bothered to go for the sub and rather worked on positioning.  I was surprised how well he did, his aggressiveness and control was very impressive and he got what he deserved. 🙂  A benefit that the other kids had over Brandon was they were being coached from the sidelines so for his last match (with the big boy), I asked Kevin if he’d coach Brandon and it worked out pretty well.

The provincials are in a couple of weeks, it’ll be much tougher so let’s see if he’s up for it or not.  In any case, I’ve started calling him champ at home and you can see he likes it. 😉

Getting better!

Brandon has really been progressing the last few couple of weeks and he got a great compliment from another white belt with 3 stripe student today, that she was surprised he wasn’t a grey belt.

The boy in the white gi is a more advanced white belt and quite a bit bigger than Brandon, he use to beat Brandon quite easily but now my boy can hold his own!  During the drill class, the kids are suppose to go 90%, as if it’s an actual competition and Brandon won all 3 5 minute fights, in a row with no break!  Two grey & white belts kids and one white belt with 3 stripes, not bad!

A good night!

Typically before Brazilian Jujitsu I tell Brandon what I want him to work on and last night I asked him to grab his opponents gi more and the results were immediate.  He was able to control his training partners a lot more and was able to compete with kids that usually beat him.

After only 4 months of practicing BJJ, you can really see his confidence in himself increase and he seems stronger than kids his age/size.  He’s looking forward to competing and compared to other white belts I think he’ll do alright. 🙂

Fun weekend!

Well I certainly had a great weekend!  The fun started Friday, I went for a hike with my colleague at work Shafi at the Lower Don Parklands and I don’t think I could have asked for nicer weather.  Cool enough that the ground was frozen but warm enough that after climbing some hills I was sweating a bit.  Unfortunately we didn’t see any birds of prey, I saw a falcon or something like that last year but oh well this year there were small birds that were really hard to shoot.

If you zoom in on the branches you’ll be able to see the birds.  We walked by the Christmas tree and someone must have redecorated because all the ornaments were new.  I guess the city is removing it but I wish they wouldn’t, I thought it’s rather nice that someone took their time to decorate a random tree that you only see if you  hike into the park.

Shafi and I went for lunch in Greek town then went our separate ways but I would see him, Mario and Eddy in the evening as we organized to go to the Aurora Winter Festival at Ontario Place.

Taking photos at night is definitely a lot more challenging as the camera wants to expose like it’s the day so you need to shoot manual. Since it was dark, all of us were playing with long exposures and I think the boat ride & ferris wheel turned out really well.  The LED lights were also really cool, I wish Maggie and Brandon came along as they’d both have fun but the wife thought it’d be too cold.  Hehe in the last photo Eddy is charming the TTC lady, she was asking him about photography stuff, if we were a club or something.

Saturday as typical was Brandon’s day with all of his activities but today was special.  Brandon went for his first Brazilian Jujitsu grading and he did great!

He really does love practicing BJJ and after a bunch of drills they got the kids to roll and the kids rolled hard!  Brandon dominated  his first fight completely moving from position to position and the second was a draw but Brandon got the takedown and stayed on top the whole time.  He got his first white stripe and was beaming with pride and I couldn’t be prouder.  Next year he wants to try some competitions, it won’t be easy but I think it’ll be a great learning opportunity for him.

After BJJ grading I dropped him off at a friend’s house to play while I relaxed at home.  A really fun weekend and with my time off I realize how damn lucky I am to have Maggie, Brandon and even Slinky!

Another fun class

I love watching Brandon participate in BJJ, lol sometimes I think I should do it too but the timing just doesn’t work anyway today Brandon was practicing a new move, the kimura.  It’s dangerous so that’s why there were more instructors on hand but he definitely had a good time.

He had a good time with the free rolling and in the skills training session got to practice with an actual black belt.  LOL this is one of his favorite activities and I am a bit jealous sitting on the sidelines.

Learning to arm bar

So today at Brandon’s BJJ class the instructors were teaching the kids how to do an arm bar.  Pretty cool, it was slow and wasn’t for points, just practice but it looks neat!

The boy loves BJJ and he almost always has a smile on his face, even when he’s doing free rolling. 🙂