Chris Branch and Stacy after collecting their trophies for weapons kata.
Stacy,Here’s the thing about competitive karate: you tend to see the same people over and over, especially at the larger tournaments. If you’re an adult in competitive karate, the field of competitors is even smaller, so there’s a greater sense of community. (Or, so I imagine.)
You did an outstanding job at the tournament. To do as well as you did when there is no fellow student support is commendable and not to mention coming so close to winning the Grand Championship.
Sensei
sent via email, Sept. 5, 2011
I went to the 29th Northwest Indiana, Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do Championship on Sept. 4 in Merrillville, IN. Teri and I usually go to these tournaments together, but she wasn’t able to go to this one. So, I was on my own. Well, I was kind of on my own.
Shortly after entering the Radisson and finding myself a corner to stash my stuff, Sensei Terry Creamer and Brett Thomason (from Terry Creamer’s All Star Karate Academy) walked in.
“I knew you’d be here!” I squealed, galloping over. I threw myself into their arms to collect a big hug from each of them. There was none of that hesitative, arms out gesturing that indicates you’re ready for a hug. I flung myself at each of them. If they weren’t prepared, they would have been tackled.
We talked about the AOKA training weekend and how much weight I’ve lost. Then, Brett and I started talking about CrossFit.
“I gotta know….what’s your Fran time?” he asked. I shook my head at him. “You haven’t done it yet?”
“No, but I did Linda on Thursday,” I said.
“Really?”
“Yah, I told the trainers I had a tournament today and, after counting on their fingers a couple times, they figured I should probably be over the soreness by today.”
We joked around about workouts where we had to push our trainers’ cars across parking lots and about flipping tires. All too soon, Brett and Sensei Creamer went to work. (Creamer was ring coordinator and Brett, in addition to competing, was doing various black-belt duties.)
Shortly after they left, Chris Branch came in. He and I text each other about tournaments we hear about. And the three of us (Chris, Teri and I) usually hang out together when we’re at the same tournament. (In my cell phone’s directory, he’s listed as “Karate Chris.”) There was playful shoving and smack talk, while waiting for our turn to compete.
I watched him pull a set of tonfa out of his bag. “Ooh, new kata"?”
“Yah, just learned it a couple days ago.”
“You did not,” I said.
“Well, I figured I’d shake things up a bit. And since it’s just you…” He paused and made an exaggerated “oops” face. (Hmm, how long was he planning that one?) “Of course it could back fire. Imagine how embarrassing that would be…losing to a girl!”
“Dude, you cannot get inside my head,” I said. “And even if you could, you’d be like ‘it’s dark and scary in here.Get me out!’” (OK, I seriously need to work on my trash talk.)
We laughed again and poked each other a couple more times before moving apart for some practice time.
Later, while Chris and I were waiting for the judges to add up he scores from our weapons kata, he said, “You going to that one tournament …I think it’s in October?”
“Huh, oh, no.” I wasn’t even sure what tournament he was talking about, but I planned on this being my last tourney of the year.
“You’re not? Why not?”
“Oh, uh, I’m testing soon. I just wanted to get in one more tournament before I got all…” I wriggled my fingers in front of my face while I searched for the term….“tunnel vision.”
“They’re supposed to have 6 foot trophies.”
I hesitated. “Really? Six foot?”
Then, I remembered that I’m only 5 feet, 5 inches tall. I giggled as I imagined myself trying to cart that hardware to my car. “No,” I said again, “tunnel vision.” (But, this time it was more of a mantra.)
“You just don’t want to help me carry my trophies out to the car,” he quipped.
So, anyway, here’s the thing about competitive karate: you see the same people over and over. They are your fellow students. And, sometimes your support networks comes from inside your dojo, sometimes it comes from people who live in other cities and states.
OK, here’s the fun stuff:
Weapons kata: I got first, Chris got second.
Empty hand kata: Christ got first, I got second and someone else got third. (There was 4 or 5 of us for kata.)
Sparring: I got first, a woman named Tina got second. And, I got to spar an exhibition match with a brown belt in the 18-34 division. I want to say the younger karate-ka’s name was Kim, but I’m not 100% on that.
Here’s the cool thing, after Kim beat the snot out of me, I complimented her lead round house. (This is the third time I’ve sparred her and I can’t find a way around that damn thing! I’ll post video of that, later.) Then, she asked if I was staying for the Grands. I was thoroughly confused because I just watched
Brett win the Grands a few minutes prior to our sparring.
But, apparently at this tournament, there’s a “Grand Champion/Judges Favorite” competition for kyu level, too. My first thought was “Oh, Teri is going to be pissed. She didn’t know about the Kyu Grands when she competed here last year!” My second thought was “hey, my bo kata qualifies me for that!”
We went to the ring where the judging would take place. Each of us looking around for people we knew had finished first. Well, Kim looked. I squinted toward the back of the room and realized that, unless Chris happened to already be standing within arms reach, I wasn’t going to see him without my glasses on.
It was just the two of us. I leaned over, “You know, we both knew it was going to come down between the two of us anyway….”
She smiled. “Yah, why have a bunch of other people here wasting everyone’s time.”
Since it was just the two of us, there was no scoring. We turned our backs to the judges who, presumably in unison, pointed at the competitor they thought should get the trophy. Kim won. I was told later that it was a split decision, 3-2. And, if that’s true, that is awesome. And, even if it isn’t, I still got to compete in the adult kyu grands!
One more thing: I reached my goal weight on Monday, 100lbs lost.
