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