Cora's tournament video from today 5/18/13

[Cora Sek]

The 1st video is of Coach Mike and Jacob helping Cora polish up her rubber guard. Got to meet John and all his family from 10thplanet Sherman. Really great bunch of guys. I "thought" I know the rubber guard, but after while watching Coach Mike, I realize I didn't know Jack!!! LOL

[Cora Sek]

Cora's 1st NO Gi match

[Cora Sek]

2nd NO Gi match

[Cora Sek]

1st Gi match

[Cora Sek]

2nd Gi match

[Cora Sek]

So yall seen all the matches, now please help me understand something. It seems we always running into something we never encounter before at each tournament. The last one was the "cup" incident. Now its this. After Cora won her 1st NO Gi match, they started to change things in the bracket. Usually its OK by me, but this time it was different. You see they had put that 13 yr old boy that had beaten Cora before to go against her. Cora is fighting in the 9-10 yr old bracket. This boy had finished and beaten all the kids in the 11-12 yr old bracket. Once I see this going on. I went and talk to the organizer of the tournament. I told him "I didn't sign my daughter up to fight a 12 or 13 yr old boy and that's not right that he just jump into her division like that". So he put Cora down at the bottom of the bracket and that boy end up fighting some other kid. Then when Cora won her 2nd NO Gi match, she was to face the same 13 yr old boy!!! Frustrated, I told the ref that Cora isn't going to fight him. So Cora took 2nd place. If that kid didn't jump into her division, she would have 1st place. THe kid is good I'm not taking that from him, but he is fighting down...which is a true definition of "Sandbagging". What really ticked me off is that the tournament allow this to happen. If a kid has beaten everyone in the higher age division, why allow him to come down to fight the younger kids????? So am I wrong for pulling Cora out of that fight???

[michael h]

I am personally of the opinion that if someone beats everyone in their division and they are going to be moved anywhere it should either be to the next higher weight class, next higher age group (for kids), or the next higher skill division. Moving someone down in any of these ways is not fair to the competitors in the division. If the reason you didn't want Cora to face him was for safety sake (which is understandable) then no doubt you were totally justified, if you didn't want to let her compete because you did not want to condone sandbagging then I am not sure. Your protest in that regard would no doubt fall on deaf ears in terms of the organizer since he already has your money and if you choose to not compete next time no skin off his nose. I feel like it is unfortunate that Cora missed out on first place and another chance to compete and the whole event just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I was thinking of hitting one of these events but I think I will steer clear. Hope Cora didn't feel down in anyway. She is the first place winner as far as I can see.

[Slick Rick]

Yeah it doesn't sound right that they would let the boy sandbag like that. Sandbaggers will eventually meet their maker. They'll end up being short timers anyway or they'll forever be sandbagging and never go up a division. I find their logic amusing.

On the flipside, Cora could have taken it as an opportunity to see how well her defense has improved against the very person that beat her. A litmus test if sorts. Always take a win or a loss as a learning experience. Had Cora went against the boy, she would have gotten 2nd, in a loss, or 1st, in the win.

I know that most of us, if bracketed against, say Marcelo/Lavato/Mendes/Cobrinha, probably wouldn't win the match. But, we've been underdogs from day one. To have the opportunity to give it your all and possibly upset the expected victor... Yeah that would be awesome!!! Nothing to lose.

[Cora Sek]

Rick: I understand where you coming from bro. But after seeing this boy face crushed and hurt a couple of kids in his division, we just didn't want to take that chance. We tested her against him already and feel that aalthough she has improved, she is not at his level yet. But more importantly we did it as a protest against sandbaggers. If we agree to fight, they will always sandbag, jumping down to find more fights. But if we refuse to fight then they will know we won't accept this type of sportmanship.

[Slick Rick]

I like that Bruce! A protest against sandbagging is nothing to feel bad about at all.