Tournament update

It's already been two weeks since the SKI-USAF qualifying tournament for the SKIF world championships. I'm sorry I'm late for with this update.

I managed to place first in my division for kata and third place overall. I also, at the last minute, decided to do kumite. 12 years since i retired from competition, I entered the ring and got pretty much beat up. I'm not disheartened, though. My losing had more to do with ring rust than anything else, and now that I've gotten rid of some of that, I think I'll be in good shape for Japan. I placed third in my division.

A couple of observations.

In kata, as I thought, it seems the judges are more swayed by posing than they are by movement. The winner was good. But there seemed to be little of martial quality to his kata. the person who got second place in kata was better than the winner, in my opinion. I think what is needed now is for me to re-learn how to pose for the judges. I retired from competition to get away from the posing game, but I guess when in Rome I must do as Romans.

In kumite, as I said earlier, I attribute my loss more to a matter of ring rust than anything else. I saw the man coming, as he really loaded up to hit me. I timed him well earlier on, but he got me with two good shots...one as i was trying to beat him to the punch. Didn't help me any that he was 6-7 inches taller than me, and a sensei at a dojo in the city. he beat me 1-0.

Anyway, I've picked up my training, so I think I'll be okay in Japan.

Now I just have to prepare for the naginata nationals in two weeks.

It never ends.

Update: 07/18/2006
Just posted a video on Google Video of one of the kata I performed at the tournament. It isn't the most impressive kata around, but it's a start. Because I've not done a Shotokan kata for tournament in years, my stances are much higher and shorter than they should be (thanks to the shorin-ryu influence). Consider this a work in progress.