So, with kata out of the way, I was feeling a lot less nervous and actually looking forward to the kumite portion of the tournament that happened last week Friday and Saturday.
On Friday, I left work at 5 pm again and headed to Honbu to meet up with my brother who had to bring my green belt to me that I left at home earlier that morning. I was in such a rush to leave that I left my belt in my smaller gym bag when I put everything in my larger gym bag I use for kumite. My poor brother had to come to the city (I bribed him with lunch, get my keys, stop by my place in Forest Hills and pick up my belt, go back home to Jamaica to get ready and then come all the way back to the city. Whew! He really saved my butt. Of course, I could have used a loaner belt but I don't know...isn't that bad luck? Yeah, I'm a bit superstitious, haha. After I had my belt safe in my hands, I changed and loosened up for the individual kumite event at 6 pm. I wasn't quite sure how to warm up for a kumite event so I just did some stretching and tried to mentally prepare myself. I warned my brother that I'd get pulverized as I had only been fighting 6 weeks or so. I guess a part of me was afraid of looking completely ridiculous. I clearly expected more competition so I was prepared to lose my first match. Well, it turned out to be only four competitors in my division (green/adv. green belt women), which meant two matches. I won my first match much to my surprise and I waiting to fight in the finals before I knew it. Believe me, two minute rounds go fast (little did I know the rounds on Saturday were going to be 30 seconds) when you're on your way to winning the match. The downside is when you know you are in all odds not going to win a match, 2 minutes can be a long time. It was such with my second match. I fought a really amazing point fighter who I have never been able to score a point on yet. The final score was 4-0, as in I scored 0 points. Well, I finished in 2nd. Won one, lost one. Not bad for my first kumite tournament. The fact that it was such a small division kinda hinders my ability to assess how well I fight in terms of green belt women but the upside is I received a ton of valuable feedback and encouragement.
Going into Saturday's team kumite event, I had some idea what I needed to do though I expected to fight more matches. 7 teams, including ours, showed up for this event. Max and I were a little late (long story...short version: Max thought his car was towed or stolen for the second week in a row when it turned out to be parked right down the block from the apartment building, hot coffee spilled on me, we parked far...) as in we can about 15 minutes before the 2 o'clock event was scheduled to start. I quickly stretched and had a quick huddle with our team. And naturally, my first match was against the person I lost to the night before ;) I didn't score again so being the first of six 30 second fights, I put my team at a disadvantage by losing 5-0. In th end, we got beat 20-5 but it was such a fun experience in all honestly. In fact we got a second chance to fight and we actually won our next team match (I actually scored though I lost 3-1). And finally, we fought a third time for 5th place and the funny thing was I one my first match of the day 3-2 but my team lost the match placing 6th.
All in all, it was a priceless experience. I got lots of good advice and feedback on my sparing including my favorite piece of advice coming from Sei Shihan Michael: 'You're fighting in slow motion and you need to speed it up'. I know now that I definitely need to be quicker. I was also told by others that I fight too close to my opponent and moving back will give me an advantage.
After the tournament was over, we went next door to Limerick's to celebrate Max's b-day for like the 3rd time that week...lucky punk :P It was a grand old Seido time with a couple dozen people eating and drinking together.
Well, can't wait until future Seido events. I'm most likely going Seido summer camp this year in July and of course there is October tournament, which prompted me to start this blog in the first place.
Danielle
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Interdojo Tournament--Kata
Last night was the kata portion of Interdojo Tournament and all color belts from advanced white to advanced brown participated.
Now going into this, I was my usual nervous nelly self. My stomach hurt all day and I was edgy at work. I left work at 5 pm since the tournament started at 6pm and I could feel my nervs rising like a tide. I did my best to talk them down because I remember all too well what they did for me in February promotion. Also, I had to mentally talk down the fear I had of failure. Last year, I came in last and I felt terrible that night. But what a difference a year makes! This year I wasn't even concerned with placing. Considering I had just received my belt on March 12th (after a couple of weeks of make-ups following the February 21st promotion), I wasn't expecting to perform a flawless kata.
After picking up Max's birthday present (a brand new heavyweight gi which I dropped off to the cleaners at 9 am that morning to sew the Seido patches on), I hurried to Honbu to go over my kata a bit more. I had written it out earlier to get a mental grasp on the kata but I quickly realized my nerves might be a problem when I couldn't even hold a crane stance I was so shaky.
I must say though, I had plenty of encouragement from different black belts while I practiced downstairs. And once I went up at six, I quickly realized that I was surrounded by my friends, instructors, and peers. Not to mention, there were less than 40 competitors all together and the intimacy of it all was truly charming. I had to laugh when I realized I was the only green belt woman competing (though later another green belt woman from the 14th street dojo arrived). I mean this gives new meaning to "competing with yourself"...literally. Well, naturally, I was the first person in my ring to do my kata (it figures). I bowed to all my seniors and the judges before starting Pinan 4 and once again it was over in a blink (whew). It wasn't perfect by a country mile but I was pleased that I was able to stick moves I couldn't just a half hour before when I was practicing. My kiai was loud for like the first time ever, haha. I received pretty much all 8s and one 8.5 but my highest and lowest score was dropped so I got an even 40 out of 50. Meaning, it was okay-good but could use some improvement, which is what I plan to do regardless.
The competition itself was about an hour but we spent the second half of the tournament doing kata in groups and individually for Kaicho and the judges without being scored. And I must say that that was the most fun I've had in a while :) I did at least 5 katas last night and doing them with my peers who I train with everyday and getting feedback from seniors who have been studying since my parents were my age was a priceless experience.
At the end, we were all given certificates. I received a 2nd place certificate for the green belt women's division kata (there were only two of us, haha) and Max received a 1st place certificate (he was the only brown belt, haha, but I think his kata, Seido 4 I think, which scored a 45 out of 50 was awesome :)). After that we sung "Happy Birthday" to Max who turned 29 yesterday and had a raffle (you know one of those magical raffles with strange odds where one guy won three times, haha).
Well, Friday is individual kumite. I fully expect it to be more competitive as in more competitors. And finally, there's the team kumite, which I am looking forward to a great deal :)
Danielle
Now going into this, I was my usual nervous nelly self. My stomach hurt all day and I was edgy at work. I left work at 5 pm since the tournament started at 6pm and I could feel my nervs rising like a tide. I did my best to talk them down because I remember all too well what they did for me in February promotion. Also, I had to mentally talk down the fear I had of failure. Last year, I came in last and I felt terrible that night. But what a difference a year makes! This year I wasn't even concerned with placing. Considering I had just received my belt on March 12th (after a couple of weeks of make-ups following the February 21st promotion), I wasn't expecting to perform a flawless kata.
After picking up Max's birthday present (a brand new heavyweight gi which I dropped off to the cleaners at 9 am that morning to sew the Seido patches on), I hurried to Honbu to go over my kata a bit more. I had written it out earlier to get a mental grasp on the kata but I quickly realized my nerves might be a problem when I couldn't even hold a crane stance I was so shaky.
I must say though, I had plenty of encouragement from different black belts while I practiced downstairs. And once I went up at six, I quickly realized that I was surrounded by my friends, instructors, and peers. Not to mention, there were less than 40 competitors all together and the intimacy of it all was truly charming. I had to laugh when I realized I was the only green belt woman competing (though later another green belt woman from the 14th street dojo arrived). I mean this gives new meaning to "competing with yourself"...literally. Well, naturally, I was the first person in my ring to do my kata (it figures). I bowed to all my seniors and the judges before starting Pinan 4 and once again it was over in a blink (whew). It wasn't perfect by a country mile but I was pleased that I was able to stick moves I couldn't just a half hour before when I was practicing. My kiai was loud for like the first time ever, haha. I received pretty much all 8s and one 8.5 but my highest and lowest score was dropped so I got an even 40 out of 50. Meaning, it was okay-good but could use some improvement, which is what I plan to do regardless.
The competition itself was about an hour but we spent the second half of the tournament doing kata in groups and individually for Kaicho and the judges without being scored. And I must say that that was the most fun I've had in a while :) I did at least 5 katas last night and doing them with my peers who I train with everyday and getting feedback from seniors who have been studying since my parents were my age was a priceless experience.
At the end, we were all given certificates. I received a 2nd place certificate for the green belt women's division kata (there were only two of us, haha) and Max received a 1st place certificate (he was the only brown belt, haha, but I think his kata, Seido 4 I think, which scored a 45 out of 50 was awesome :)). After that we sung "Happy Birthday" to Max who turned 29 yesterday and had a raffle (you know one of those magical raffles with strange odds where one guy won three times, haha).
Well, Friday is individual kumite. I fully expect it to be more competitive as in more competitors. And finally, there's the team kumite, which I am looking forward to a great deal :)
Danielle
Friday, May 1, 2009
Kumite Team Complete, Pinan IV Rocks My Life :)
In the two weeks since I've posted something up, I've registered for Interdojo Tournament and helped to put together a team with Max. The team is as follows:
Green Belt (Female): Danielle (me, no ring name, lol, I'll leave that to you guys)
Green Belt (Male): Tae aka "The Brooklyn Warrior"
Brown Belt (Male): Max aka "The Ukrainian Punisher"
Brown Belt (Women): Sharlene aka "The Finisher"
Black Belt (Male): Senpai Kwan aka "Mr Lightening"
Black Belt (Female): Kelly aka "The Teenage Wonder"
Blame the excruciating World Wrestling Entertainment style names on me, the team has no part in this terrible joke, ;)
Well all jokes aside, I am happy to be on a team with such great people who really embody the Seido spirit. Looking forward to Saturday, May 9th!
Pinan IV...that kata rocks my life for real. I'm doing Pinan IV for the interdojo tournament kata division. I learned the kata only about 6 weeks ago but I think that I'm at the point where I can do it at tournament. It won't be perfect but it will be a good opportunity to get some feedback and see others do it.
Well, this next week will be pretty busy but I'm looking forward it :)
Danielle
Green Belt (Female): Danielle (me, no ring name, lol, I'll leave that to you guys)
Green Belt (Male): Tae aka "The Brooklyn Warrior"
Brown Belt (Male): Max aka "The Ukrainian Punisher"
Brown Belt (Women): Sharlene aka "The Finisher"
Black Belt (Male): Senpai Kwan aka "Mr Lightening"
Black Belt (Female): Kelly aka "The Teenage Wonder"
Blame the excruciating World Wrestling Entertainment style names on me, the team has no part in this terrible joke, ;)
Well all jokes aside, I am happy to be on a team with such great people who really embody the Seido spirit. Looking forward to Saturday, May 9th!
Pinan IV...that kata rocks my life for real. I'm doing Pinan IV for the interdojo tournament kata division. I learned the kata only about 6 weeks ago but I think that I'm at the point where I can do it at tournament. It won't be perfect but it will be a good opportunity to get some feedback and see others do it.
Well, this next week will be pretty busy but I'm looking forward it :)
Danielle
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