By Risa Askerooth
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On March 29 and 30, Senior Angela Lee and Sophomore Christian Lee grappled their way to the top of the ranks at the North American Grappling Association (NAGA) tournament held at Radford High School. Both competed in the expert division and Christian Lee came away with a third place medal and a first place belt, while Angela Lee won two gold medals and two first place belts.
“It was good. As usual, we always tell them that hard work pays off so it’s nice when they can actually see it with results like winning a belt, a championship belt or gold medal,” said Ken Lee, Christian and Angela Lee’s father and coach, “I was very proud of them.”
The tournament offered divisions with and without a gi, a karate training uniform. Christian Lee competed in the expert men’s and teen’s no-gi divisions and Angela Lee competed in the expert women’s and teen’s gi and no-gi divisions. They had both competed in the NAGA tournament previously, in which Christian Lee won a first and third place title and Angela Lee took two first place and two second place titles. “Usually how it was before, when I competed, I would always not do so well in the gi division but this year I’ve been training pretty hard, working on it so I felt good about it,” expressed Angela Lee. Christian Lee added, “I wasn’t really nervous, (I’ve) kind of competed a lot so it’s not really anything.”
Although they train year-round, Christian and Angela Lee started focusing more heavily on grappling six weeks prior to the tournament, training four hours a day, five days a week. “We have some specific classes where we only do jujitsu but also we have MMA classes where we do everything, but in those classes, specifically training for the tournament, we kind of geared it more towards grappling,” said Christian Lee. Angela Lee stated, “We’ve been paying more attention to details of the techniques and just drilling over and over again.”
Christian and Angela Lee have been martial artists for years but they still enjoy training and competing in martial arts tournaments. “I still love it after all this time. It’s always fun to go out there and compete,” said Angela Lee. The Lee family also owns a training facility, called United MMA. “It’s always been a way of life,” said Ken Lee, “They really enjoy (it). I don’t have to force them, they actually enjoy training.”
With the NAGA tournament returning in October, Angela and Christian Lee will have the opportunity to further improve as martial artists in the next grappling tournament.
