I'm no longer the champ

The US Naginata Federation yesterday concluded its 2006 national championships and US team tryouts, which were held at Sonoma State University. And with its conclusion, I am now a former national champion. Kevin Saxton beat me in the men's individual shiai finals 1-0 -- in overtime.

I came out with two silvers and a bronze, a result that is far from the three golds I aspired to, but not so bad of a record, either. (For official results, click here.) More importantly, I qualified for the US world championship naginata team that will be sent to Belgium next year.

The tournament was smaller than what most people expected it to be, but the numbers once more belied the quality of competitors.

A number of veterans were there again -- including Saxton, Peterson, and Schmucker -- but what made the experience really interesting were the newcomers to the yudansha division. As I expected, Engalla of the Greater New York Naginata Federation (who isn't really a newcomer, but is nonetheless relatively new compared to the abovementioned competitors) has come into his own -- actually defeating Peterson in a match. His teammate, Magpayo, did a similar feat (he also beat me in the team match!). Goerzen, of the Northern California Naginata Federation, also showed huge improvements. During his matches with Saxton and Schmucker he held his composure and mostly refrained from doing the "stupid" things (eccentric kamae and moves) that he often does in practice.

Prior to the tournament, we had four days of seminars and workshops. Although I enjoyed almost every one of them that I attended, I have to say that after four days of training, sometimes over the course of 12 hours (including lunch and dinner breaks), my feet and legs were killing me. It was worth it, however, to re-establish ties with naginata practioners around the country. Some of them I havent seen in years. I had a lot of fun BSing with teammates, rivals, and sensei.

I cannot wait for the next event, whenever that may be.

I'll be working on a video, which I hope to have up on Google Video by the end of this week. It should be fun to watch.

So ... I have two world championships to train for now: the Shotokan Karate International World Championships in Tokyo (November 2006) and the International Naginata Federation World Championships in Belgium (August 2007).

Wish me luck.