Yesterday morning, I woke up at 6:50 am and my first thought was, it's morning already?!, as my sleep the night before was short and shallow because of all the jitters and mental rehearsals of my Pinan II. And my second thought was, I have a 8 am meeting at Hunter College for tournament volunteers! So after getting ready in record speed, I quickly threw together two fried egg whites with onion and tomatoes on an everything bagel and Max and I hoped in the car and somehow made it to Hunter College just past 8 am. By the time I got there, the gym was buzzing with life and it was safe to say that nobody in their right mind would have tried to rob Hunter College that morning with the place so densely packed with karateka. I checked in and headed to the gym to attend the meeting that Senpai Barbara was holding for volunteers in her group, got a quick tutorial in scorekeeping and timekeeping and headed to the locker room and proceeded to get lost in the miles and miles of locker rows before settling a locker and getting changed. Kyu kata started at 9:30 am and so that was less than an hour away.
I did some stretching and reviewed some parts of the kata mostly the side thrust kick out of crane stance which I was afraid I would lose my balance on and the basics such as returning to stance correctly at the end of my kata. Other than that, I made some rounds and spoke with others I saw from class (see below). Despite being mortified of making a fool of myself, I was in good spirits with all of the festivities to come (see below). Even Max was in good spirits despite having to practically park in Canada--not really but it was far! (see below).
The announcement for kyu kata came all too soon and myself and a half dozen other women participating in the yellow belt division were called over to ring 2. I was a bit afraid that I'd go first I must admit but I was ready either way as there was no turning back. I thanked all the luck stars in the entire milky way galaxy when I was told I would be going 3rd. In addition, the judges told us that the first three participants would not receive scores until after the three of us completed our kata and that lessened some of my anxieties. I believe this call was made--and I'm not privy to the reasoning exactly--because the judges wanted to create a solid foundation and an appropriate rubric for scoring all 8 of us participating in this division and the seeing the first 3 without scoring yet would help to foster this. Many of us who have went early in the kata division of a tournament (I was 2nd to go in May) know that being one of the first three up isn't always the best spot to be in because a) it's nerve-wrecking, b) you haven't really seen anyone else do their kata yet so you perspective of how it looks in the ring from a spectator view isn't available and c) the judges haven't seen anybody else do their kata yet either.
Well, I was ready by the time they had called me. I approached the judges, bowed, gave my name, my dojo and, my kata. And in no time at all, I heard Yoi! (meaning "get ready") and Hajime! (meaning "begin"). I started a bit off mostly because the floor was slippery (ask anyone doing kumite in the tournament) but quickly gained my bearing and was able to do a half way decent kata afterall. I nailed the first kai (yell that is designed to release energy and break down your opponent's nervous system) which I was happy about because my kai is pretty weak mostly, I kept my balance on my kick and on the last move, an upper block, I almost forgot to kai but remembered a split second later and added it (better late than never). After I finished, the judges spoke for a little bit and called each of us to receive our scores. When I was called up I received mostly 8's and after dropping the lowest and highest score, I received a 40.5. Overall, I finished 5th out of 8 women in my division but I was pretty happy because I had a great time, had worked pretty hard on learning one of the more difficult Pinan kata, and had overcome my fear of getting back up there after coming last (7th out of 7 women) in the May tournament. With my kata over, I was free to get some more pictures and some movies of Max in the kumite portion where he came in first place in the advanced green belt division :)
I finally got a chance to get in on some kumite action later in the day when I was timekeeper for team kumite. It was my first time volunteering and I had a blast. After a quick bite to eat I was back to watch the children's tournament. I must admit that seeing 4 and 5 year olds doing kata is the cutest thing that I've ever seen in my life. Following the children's tournament, there was a children's demonstration including a portion by the Seido junior black belts. These kids were great as they broke boards and wowed the audience with jumping side kicks over 4 of their peers, breaking a boards. One moment stuck out to me though. A little girl who was part of the junior black belt demonstration attempted to break a board with her elbow and as all of her peers broke their boards, hers was only one that didn't. After another attempt, it did not break and the little girl began crying. I was way high up in the bleachers watching and I could hear her and it really bothered me to see her so upset because even at 22 years old I could relate to that feeling all too well. But with help and encouragement from Nidame and the audience she was able to break the board after a few tries. The audience erupted in a thunderous applause and I was cheering her along with them because it was very brave to continue to try when it would have been so easy to give up. That is what makes Seido Karate such an amazing thing to be a part of. Other inspiring moments included the special demonstration where students from the Blind program (for visually impaired students) and the Young Adult Institute program (for students who have various disabilities). Also, Nidame Kyoshi Akira received a ceremonial belt from Kaicho who gave a brief speech expressing how proud he was of Nidame and how hard has worked.
Later that day, we saw more amazing feats in the breaking competition where black belts not only broke wooden boards but baseball bats and concrete slabs. One participant broke two concrete slaps with his forehead as well as two concrete slaps with his hand which scored him a 49.5 out of 50 and another participant broke a wooden board with one finger as well as another board via a spinning heel kick. Kyoshi Paul, who scored an amazing 49.9 and finished in first place broke one baseball bat with his hand and two baseball bats with a single kick. The black belt action didn't end there but culminated in the final fights which crowned two new grand champions (one man and one woman black belt) and the presentation of the SOGO awards for men and women black belts who competed in kata, kumite, and breaking.
At around 7 pm, the tournament came to an end and exhausted but happy, I called it a day. My first Benefit Tournament was an unforgettable experience and now I am ready to continue training and I look forward to what's to come :) This coming Saturday is promotion and I'm going for advanced yellow belt. I am fine tuning everything for promotion and I hope it's a successful one. Anyhow, I'll write following the promotion.
