Well, I'm sitting here in an Internet cafe in Shibuya, a few days after the SKIF World Championships. As I expected, I did not get out of the eliminations in kata. I lost my first round in the kohaku competition, doing Empi against a German competitor. I missed a kiai.
Now, just as I said in 1992 and in 2000, I will not enter any more karate competitions. Since about maybe a month or two ago, I seldom trained to prepare for this world championships. It is totally unlike me to not be focused on a task at hand. Moreover, even during the tournament, after I had been eliminated, I felt very little of my accustomed need to be out there going against the best. I wasn't disappointed with the result. I didnt have any ambition to go out there again and show what I'm really made of.
This time is unlike the previous two "retirements." Following my exit from competition before, I had this nagging feeling in the back of my head that my time really hadn't come. I still felt as if there was a lot of fight left in me. But now, I am absolutely positive that I am no longer interested in competing in karate. It's the end of an era.
The good news is that the United States now has a world kata champion: Clay Morton.
He did a great job.
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4 comments:
Hi Martin!
I've never forgotten the time you went to a competition in high school, then came back and told me you'd forgotten everything in the middle and had no idea what came next. I thought that was so charming of you. I admired your ability to do that and just keep going with a shrug. When did you tell me that...? Mr. Dabel's Physical Science class?
And I cannot forget your performance at the Talent Show a couple years later. It was some kind of Japanese fighting act, with ninjas jumping on stage from all angles and beating each other up. I couldn't follow the story line, but everyone was laughing, especially when you spoke your lines and then kept your mouths moving to mimic dubbed-in voices. Since it's the only thing I remember from the Talent Show, I would say it was quite memorable!
The end of an era, hm? Then I shall say, "Congratulations!" and also, I might add that I am happy to see that you are alive and well. : ) Trina and Greg showed me the way to your blog.
Love, Kimi
is this THE ms. kimi swigert(sp?) who i used to sit next to in, i think, mr. longs freshman english class?
i can hardly believe it...but what an incredibly pleasant surprise. :) what have you been up to?
every once in a while over the years (decades? hehehe) ive thought of you and wondered how youve been. and now, im having yet another one of those moments!
drop me a line at nobida@yahoo.com sometime soon. would love to catch up.
omg I'm soo nervous about the 2nd round of tryouts in march.
ahhhhhhhhh.
do u know what the purpose is? is it to basically get the positions or wtvr?
Martin NOOBIIIIIDDDAAAAAA!!!
in a box of poptarts :-P
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