For me, November 13 was an almost perfect day. It started out with a Rocky’s Tournament, was followed up by some musical theatre and ended with splitting a serving of creme brulee with the husband. The only problem was I had to leave the tournament before I had a chance to participate in some sparring (because of the afore-mentioned theatre tickets). Although, even missing out on sparring couldn’t put a damper on Sunday’s overall awesomeness.
The MSOI-Team all arrived early. There were three kids competing for the first time, so I walked each of them through the bow-in rituals.
There was only one minor melt down and it took place before the tournament started. One of the girls’ on the team had burst into sudden, angry tears, when she was practicing her kata. Panicked, I grabbed her into an awkward hug, turned us around toward the stands and yelled, “MOM!!”
The girls’ mom had her head turned away as she talked to someone else in the stand. Even though I didn’t say her name, she instinctively knew which mom I was calling for, and rushed over to take my place.
Eventually, we were able to ascertain that our team member had “forgotten” how to do her chicken headed blocks. She became increasingly irritated when her mom pointed out that she did know how to do it, she’s practiced it a hundred times and she just needed to relax. She refused her mom’s suggestion of stepping away for a minute to get something to eat or drink.
“A’ight,” I said. “Left foot forward, right foot back. Set your left hand high and your right hand low.” I got into the set position and gave her mom a nod that said, “OK, I’ve got this now.”
We went through that section of the kata over and over. If she set the wrong hand on top or got flustered, I didn’t give her a chance to resume her crying. I just snapped, “Again!” And we’d start over at the beginning.
After a few times, Enia joined us. “Do you want me to go over it with her?”
I remembered my promise, after the last tournament, to let the kids prop each other up when they needed it. I needed to trust them to be a real team.
“You know, that would be great. Thanks.” I leaned over and added in in a stage whisper, “If you can calm her down a little, too, that would be awesome.”
Enia gave a small smile and a thumbs up. Then, I stepped aside, so she could help her teammate.
* * *
Blackbelt kata and weapons were the first events. The idea was to get our events out of the way so we’d be free to judge the kyu levels. (Conversely, the blackbelt sparring is last, to make sure we don’t sneak out early.)
For my open hand kata, I performed Kusanku. When prepping for the blackbelt test, I had (more or less) set Sunsu aside while I worked on kata I felt weren’t as strong. My thinking was that, because Sunsu was my tournament kata all last year, I had spent a great deal of practice time on it and, if I wanted the other kata to be strong, I should work on them instead. By the time the tournament rolled around, I had realized I had practiced Kusanku more than any of the others.
This is the fun part, another blackbelt named George, performed the same kata. Why is that fun? Because George has his belt in Tae Kwon Do and I’m always thrilled to see “our” kata performed by other styles.
* * *
In weapon’s kata, I performed Chantan Yara (kind of) and Teri performed Hamahiga, which she learned this summer at the AOKA training weekend.
During my kata, I started shaking uncontrollably. (Stupid stage fright!) This is only the second time I’ve tried a weapons kata other than Tokimeni in competition, so I imagine some amount of nerves are to be expected.
About half-way through I remembered what Sensei said about a good kiai chasing the butterflies away. So I picked a fairly strong move from the kata and threw in an extra kiai. The good news was it worked, the butterflies were gone. Unfortunately, the sound of my own voice had chased the kata right out of my head.
So, I’m not totally sure what the last half of my kata was, but I’d like to think it was vaguely similar to Chantan Yara.
* * *
I acted as score keeper, rather than judge for the kyu kata. It gave me a chance to watch and see if I would have scored the same way as the other judges. It also allowed my bossing, controlling nature to flourish. (“Next up for kata, Jose! Lisa on deck for scoring!”)
I was corner judge for sparring. Some of the more experienced (and male) judges tried to talk me into score keeping, but I stood my ground. I may not be comfortable judging kata, but I KNOW how to call points in a ring. (Plus, the score sheets baffle me. I can never remember how the bye is supposed to work.)
After the five and six year old white belts went through, Sensei Rocky entered the ring. “You’re next group are higher belts,” he said. “They’re going to go harder if you let them. Make sure to call them on contact. Keep control of the ring.”
He looked at me directly, “You know how they are.”
“Oh, yah,” I laughed. “I know.”
The other two ring judges looked at me, with puzzled expressions. I explained, “It’s not really a Rocky’s tournament unless I’ve been called for contact…twice.” It was a bonding moment. We chuckled and fist-bumped and I was one of the guys. (Of course, I didn’t add that it’s usually just Teri and I sparring each other at these tournaments…I figured some things are best left unsaid.)
* * *
Now for the fun stuff:
Me: 3rd for kata, 3rd for weapons (out of three), left before sparring.
BFF Teri: 2nd for weapons, 1st for sparring. Although Teri didn’t place in kata, she was trying something brand new that isn’t among the traditional Isshinryu kata. Personally, I thought it was …pretty. Based on what I saw (we didn’t discuss it), I think her performance will have more power and purpose, once she works out the bunkai. Then, it will be truly awesome. (You know, like her kata normally is.)
Team-MSOI: Everyone brought home at least one trophy.
