Late last night we heard that our friends from St. Louis, Brett Thomason, Terry Creamer and Jill Bingham from Terry Creamer’s All Star Karate, were also going to the tournament. They are friends we only get to see at tournaments so it was exciting to see them and get to chat during the few minutes we had between events. I’m a fan of Brett’s, but I’m a total Creamer Groupie, so getting to hang out with him turns me into a giggling, babbling idiot. Our events started with weapons kata. I tried out my new sai kata, Chatan Yara, and discovered, too late, that it’s very hard to control sai with shaking hands. I still have a bit of a problem with stage fright, and shake uncontrollably at times. It didn’t help that our judges were twitchy. Apparently, one of them had been hit by a weapon at a tournament recently and everyone was a little nervous. One judge actually cringed during one of my moves, even though I was a good two to three feet away from them at the time. BFF Teri and I finished fourth and fifth respectively out of five competitors. Not a good showing for either of us.
In between weapons and empty handed kata, Brett came over. “I saw you sai kata,” he said.
“Yaaaah,” I said slowly. “I did way better practicing, I’ll probably stick with Tokameni for the big tournaments and save the sai for local ones for a while.”
Brett didn’t say anything, just looked at me from the corner of his eye.
Empty hand kata was next. I went with Sunsu. Confidence issues aside, it remains my favorite kata. It’s Isshinryu’s only “real” kata, having been made by Shimabuku, rather than being “borrowed” from the other styles that Isshinryu was derived from. I looked forward to learning it since I was a yellow belt. When I perform it, I feel a connection with my predecessors I just don’t get from the other kata.
I tied for second with a guy named Chris and, to break the tie, we were told to pick our style’s most basic kata. We’re both Isshinryu, but he selected the H-pattern and I did Seisan. I didn’t even think about H-pattern because (1) my school doesn’t considered it a kata and (2) I learned it out of order, so I learned it after Seisan. His H-pattern out-performed my Seisan, so he got second and I got third.
I’ve been thinking about how to handle this. I want to respect T’s feelings, but it’s the first time it EVER happened, so I’ll just say: I beat Teri in kata.
One of the judges told Teri he marked her down because he was familiar with her kata (Chinto) and she left out a move. T said she performed the kata as she learned it. He apologized for marking her down. I’m totally bummed that Teri got marked down like that. At open tournaments, judges are supposed to act like they don’t know your kata, even if they do. I must say, however, that T took her first loss very well.
We shook hands with the judges afterward. One of them looked at me in the eye and said warmly, “It was a very good kata. You have excellent form. I just wanted to see more power from you.” It wasn’t the first time I heard this comment, but I guess I don’t know what they want from me when they say it. I thought I was exhibiting power. I’ll have to talk to Sensei, because I must be misunderstanding what people mean by this.
Walking back to get our trophies, I actually cried. It was the first time I got a trophy at a large tournament, where I didn’t get third out of three. I pulled myself up to the middle (3 out of 5).
Sparring was…well, I did really badly. I got third place and that was WITH a bye. I lost 5-0 and didn’t even come close to making a point. I got a nice bruise forming on my head where my opponent kicked me in the head. Or maybe it’s from the other time she kicked me in the head. To be honest, I really don’t remember a lot from this bout except a really good blow she got to my ribs. It was the type of punch that knocks the wind from you and leaves you wheezing for several minutes afterward.
T forfeited after taking a hard kick. She was was getting ready to do a side thrust and received a short hard kick from underneath. I think her opponent was aiming for T’s thigh but missed and hit…well, it hit T in the hoo-ha. (I think that’s the medical term for it.) Luckily there was a good center judge who recognized how hard the kick was. Terri limped her way through another point before she gave up.
By the time we packed up our gear it was 2 p.m. We ignored our pangs of hunger to watch Brett and Creamer compete. Sitting down next to Jill, Creamer leaned over, “I saw you Chatan Yara,” he said.
“Yaaaah, I know. I’m doing Tokameni next time.” He didn’t reply.
We watched as Brett took another first place finish with his oar kata. I’m always impressed with his power and precision. For the first time, I thought “how does he make the movements look so strong?”
We watch Creamer take first in the Master’s tournament. I giggled when I saw him stand in front of the judges with one eye brow cocked waiting for their attention. I wish I could exude that kind of confidence.
When he got back, we waited for Brett to perform his kusanku. He and Creamer had made some minor tweaks to the kata for competition and it was his first time performing the new kata. Creamer looked down at me again, and said, “You know, I saw your Chatan Yara.”
“Yaaaah,” I said. “I did much better at practice.” I paused. “I do love that kata, though. You know what I mean?” I met his eyes and he gave a short nod of understanding.
As we watched Brett perform his empty handed kata, I realized, that Creamer had twice mentioned seeing my Chatan Yara and Brett had mentioned it to me separately. “Holy crap,” I thought, “they probably talked to each other about my kata.”
We didn’t stay for the Grands. Our stomachs were make growling noises. Jeca (my eldest) was curled in a fetal position, waiting on T and I to give the word it was time to leave. We gave hugs to Jill and Brett.
When, I went to hug Creamer goodbye, I tentatively asked, “so what did you think of it?”
“Of your Chatan Yara?”
“Yah.”
He pursed his lips for a moment. “We’ll talk.”
Son of a…
As we walked out, I heard Creamer call out behind us, “Come down some weekend. We’ll work on that kata.”
Maybe it is time for a road trip.
