counting to 12 in Japanese

 Paige has been taking Judo for about 6 months now and decided she wanted to try out a tournament.
I had no idea what to expect, or how any of it works. I didn't understand the rules, or the scoring, or even what the referee's were saying. They were speaking all their commands in Japanese. Paige told me though. She schooled me in some basic Judo. You must be on your back for the pin to count, and she understands all of the Japanese commands, even counted to 12 for me.

 What neither of us knew was she would be fighting kids in the entire "Novice" category. There are 3 levels in novice. she is the lowest. Her first fight was an orange belt (2 levels above her) Paige didn't win, but she gave that girl a run for her money. The match actually timed out before there was a clear winner and they had to go on technical scores. (As I said...no idea) The next girl she fought was a yellow belt (One level higher than Paige) This girl plaid dirty and gave a crushing grip around Paige's neck. The harder Paige fought the harder she squeezed. Paige took the loss and was happy to breath again.

It might have been enough to be done with Judo tournaments, but we are trying to explain about not letting one bad egg ruin your fun. She was a bit shook up for a few hours after. unfortunately there were some tough coaches (like the bad guy in karate kid) and they had some mean kids because of it.
Our little community center Judo group might not be able to stand up to some of those rough DOJO's, but Paige gave her all and did well. We shall see what future we have in Judo from here on out.
At least she can count to 12 in Japanese !