Loving your child's mind: Alana as Champion

Yeah. Tell me what happened last weekend, Alana.

So last weekend in Florida, my brother and I competed in the Kids Pan Championships. It's a once-a-year thing. It's kind of the biggest tournament for kids that kids are able to go to. Most people would say it has the most prestige. So going to it is really, really fun. Um, I went on Sunday. It was a 3-day tournament. Um, Sunday was the last day. I had 3 matches. Um, I had a bye in the first round, which means that I was a high seed in the bracket, so I didn't have to do the first round. I won all 3, and I won my 4th title in a row. Um, and then I got promoted to orange belt on the podium.

Congrats. Congrats. Very good. Um, did you have to, uh, qualify to get to this tournament somehow?

No, this tournament, anybody could sign up, but, um, they would seed the bracket. So who goes where in the bracket, depending on how you did in previous, in previous tournaments and opens.

And so normally there would have been 4 rounds, but because you were highly ranked, you skip the first round?

For my bracket, there was a total of 4 rounds. And yes, I did. I was able to skip the first round. That depends on the bracket, though. Me being a girl and of a specific weight class, there aren't as many people my age, weight than there are maybe for boys or for a higher or lower weight class or maybe for a different belt. Um, mine happened to have 10 to 12 kids, I think.

Got it. And then, um, were any of your matches hard?

They were, uh, they were challenging. My first one I submitted, I believe, and the second one was more difficult. It took me 3 and a half minutes to pass her guard and get to a good position. I wasn't able to submit, so I won on points. And then the third one, I was able to submit the girl in the finals.

All right. And so there, it's by girls and weight class and also belt, or just girls in weight class?

There's gender, weight class, age, and belt. I think that's what separates it.

Got it. And what belt came before orange? What belt were used to you? Were you?

Yeah.

Okay. And then, um, orange— what comes after orange?

I believe it's green. Yeah, green. And then once you do all the green belts, it's to the adult belt promotion, which is blue. It starts off as blue.

And got it. How far until you're a black belt?

Um, I mean, that could range from anywhere from maybe 18 to I mean, you can get your black belt. Depends, it just depends on how long you've been training. I think at the path, with the path I'm on, my friends too, we could get our black belts by the time we're maybe 18 or 19.

All right, so are you proud of what you did?

Yes.

And this was your big— would you say it was one of your biggest goals of the year, was to win this?

Yes, definitely.

So now that you've won, first, do you have any other big tournaments, or that was the climax and now it's kind of lower stuff, smaller stuff?

I have one more big tournament. It's the one on the 16th in Las Vegas. Um, it is nogi, so it's not gi like IBJJF, like Pans. It's nogi without the kimono. So that kind of differentiates it. What was exciting was that it's only a couple weeks after PANS, so, you know, I'd have to work extra hard training in nogi.

So is this one, would you say, about just as big or a bigger deal or just different?

Well, it is different, but it may be a bigger deal because it's new. You have to qualify to get in. Um, and I think they've done more marketing, honestly. They've made it seem super big, especially for the kids. Um, I, I think I'm really going to enjoy it because they're doing their best to make it super cool for the kids to be competing alongside the adults.

Have you competed with most of the other people that are in this tournament or not?

Um, in my bracket, only one person. Um, They've separated the brackets by age and weight, not belt this time. So it depends, or it just depended on who I was paired with. I think there's 3 other people in my bracket.

And do you know how competitive you're going to be?

I mean, the whole tournament is going to be super competitive, but if you're talking about just me, I'm going to be really competitive. Kind of a big deal because it's the first one. You know, it's not the 18th or the 15th or, you know, the 4th. It's the very first one.

And are you saying there are only 3 people in your bracket, so you only have to beat 2 people to win? Is that correct?

No, there's 4 including me. They separate— they made the brackets a little smaller than people were expecting because of the weight difference in the brackets. So I'm 11-12 girls. I think the weight ranges from maybe 30 or 36 kgs to, I don't know, 120 or something pounds. I don't know how much that is in kgs. So you can't really put a girl who's 3/4 my weight with a girl who's double my weight.

Right, right.

So they separated it a little bit. So it still has a lot of prestige, but the brackets are a bit smaller.

Got it. Well, so, um, I was wondering if you were kind of done, but it sounds like you're not done. You've got another big one coming, but you're excited about it. Um, are you gonna train super hard for this one?

I have been, um, and I will continue to. This past week was really hard, um, really hard training. And then this week is going to be a really big push. Because the week after this we're gonna taper. Um, I'm training with the adults and the adults who are helping the adults who are competing in ADCC, so I get to kind of listen and hear and, um, know what they're doing, especially the ones that are experienced and have done this before. Um, so by taper I mean, um, training less, sleeping more, eating more, resting more. So that the day of the tournament I'm relaxed, full of energy, and strong.

How many days before the tournament do you start tapering?

Well, that depends. I think I compete on Friday and we're leaving early Thursday morning because it's just a drive up to Las Vegas. It's— I think it's like 6 hours, um, maybe a week before or a little more. Just because we've been training so much. And this is my first time too, so I'm just going to see how this plays out. But I'm excited.

How many hours a day do you train?

4, 5, 6, depending.

Wow. Wow. That's a lot. That's a lot. Is your body pretty exhausted every day?

Yes, um, especially during the weekends. But it's not just because of that day, it's the buildup of the past few months, which I find especially difficult because, um, even if I'm not training for tournaments, I'd like to stick to this path. Um, it doesn't really make sense to stop training if you're not, you know, competing because you still want to get better. Uh, yeah.

So you wanna keep training 4 to 6 hours a day nonstop?

That's my goal. I'd love to keep doing that. Um, cause if I stop, then it's gonna get hard. It's gonna be harder to get back on.

Fair enough. Um, what do you do when you're not training?

When I'm not training, you know, we go home. My brother's been training actually with me. He's been coming to 7:00 AM and doing all the classes. So my brother and I, we go home, we shower, we rest, um, I don't know, do some math or read, go outside and get sun. I'm not watching my weight for this next tournament, so I get to bulk and eat as much as I want. I could gain 5 pounds in the next 3 weeks if I wanted to, which is a delight because We eat really, really healthy food and it's also super tasty.

So it sounds like you're kind of at the lower end of the weight class, so you've got plenty of space to eat.

Yes.

Well, and then math, you're working on Algebra 1, is that correct?

I think I'll be going into 8th grade math.

Got it. How far through it are you?

I'm only just beginning. I wanted to work on it a little bit during the summer. And then really start it during the school year. Yeah, because I'd still be a grade above what I actually am.

That's right, you're going into 7th grade, so if you're doing 8th grade math, you're, you're ahead. Um, and then how about reading? What are you reading right now?

That's difficult. Um, right now I'm not reading a series in particular. I'm trying my best to pick up books that I've attempted in the past but found difficult. I've been reading Robinson Crusoe. I remember a long time ago when I was younger, I tried to read it and it was a bit challenging. But now I think I get it a little bit more. Also Atlas Shrugged.

Do you know if you're reading the abridged version of Robinson Crusoe or the original one?

I'm not sure. We have a couple different, maybe two different copies. I wasn't aware that there are multiple versions.

Yeah, I mean, the original version is very difficult. It's very difficult because it was written so long ago. The English is quite different. So you might check to see if it's a no edited or abridged or anything.

I kind of enjoy reading texts like that because it kind of really forces me to think, because I don't talk like that. I find it difficult to read things that are written different than I talk. Um, you know, now in the modern age, I guess we do talk a lot different than we did a little while ago.

So you like reading books with sort of old-fashioned English?

I think it's pretty and it's interesting to read. Um, I mean, the English where they say, you know, thee and thine.

Yeah.

Bible, King James Version. I like that.

Yeah.

Um, I think that's really pretty.

How about Atlas Shrugged? Is that difficult, not difficult, or some— or just right?

Well, it's in the— or the book that I have, it's in the language that I use, so it's not as difficult as other books. Um, the story is a bit difficult for me to wrap my head around just because it jumps from place to place to place, but doing okay.

How far into it are you?

I think I got— I'm not quite sure if it was maybe like a fifth or a quarter, but I feel like somewhere around there.

There's some books, and I'm thinking of Dostoevsky. Have you ever heard of Dostoevsky?

No.

He's a famous Russian author. But there's some books where I often found maybe the first 50 or 100 pages were a little bit hard because they spend— some authors spend a long time kind of getting to know the characters and locations and what's going on. And then once you get everything set up, then the plot gets going and it's really fun and exciting.

I found that in books before, not especially difficult books, but maybe more of the books that I read a couple years ago. Um, it kind of took me a little while to get into it, and then once I did, I really enjoyed it.

Yeah, I'm trying to remember. It's been a long time since I read Atlas Shrugged, but I'm wondering if it's sort of just getting to the point where the plot's getting rolling, because I do think there is sort of some setup early on. Do— does it feel like the plot's going or not yet?

Um, I think it may be getting started.

Okay, good. Well, marvelous. And how about listening to history podcasts? Are you listening to any history podcasts?

We were listening to one on Alexander the Great, and we had— I think my dad was listening to it, but he started over for me. Thank you. Um, we're not quite in the middle. I think we're still kind of at the beginning, um, because when we were in Florida, we kind of stopped. But it's really interesting hearing about Oh, it was talking about the difference between facts and lore in Alexander the Great and also in modern times, which I thought was interesting because he said that the ratio changes time to time. And I didn't really understand, but there have been a few examples that have come up in the past couple of months and weeks in actually this world right now. That my dad's kind of explained to me.

Excellent.

So I'm enjoying that.

And then is it inspiring that Alexander started his, as it were, career so young?

Yes, definitely.

He's of course very famous for conquering much of the world. How old was he when he started doing the conquering?

The number 16 is in my mind, but I'm not sure if that's correct.

Yeah, but not too far beyond where you are, right?

No.

Okay.

Sometimes listening to things like that where the people who are doing the things who are so much— are not a lot older than me, it's kind of inspiring.

Is it intimidating at all or not at all?

A little bit, um, because of course the question comes to mind, will I be able to do that? Um, but, uh, times are different. I don't think I can exactly mount a conquering campaign of the world right now.

Of course, of course, of course. When we manifest our individual genius in new and different ways today, and that's actually a good thing because the flip side of all the conquering is all the killing of people, which is actually pretty gruesome, but still kind of an amazing story of achievement despite how gruesome it is. Well, cool. I'm going to be traveling the next couple of weeks, so good— I hate to say good luck on your tournament. You know, may you enter with balance and confidence and achieve your goals. How about that?

Thank you. You're welcome.

In which case, I'll see you in a few weeks. Take care.

Thank you. Bye. You too.

Bye-bye.