Karate 68 My First Tournament in Devon

Am I nervous? You bet I am. Actually I am keeping my nervousness under control by pretending I don’t give a damn about the outcome. I honestly think that I will do well just to get through it and not trip over my own feet or embarrass myself too much. Obviously, I am at home right now writing this before the tournament. I am sucking back some coffee then will be warming up and practicing in the few minutes I’ll have before I have to go. This week I have not been able to practice at all because of work, and even had to miss my last Tuesday’s class because I was dealing with computer issues until 8:30 PM and the same all week really! I really would be a lot more confident if I could have another week to practice.

I just haven’t done the katas enough yet to have them burned into my muscle memory. I am still extremely sore in the legs from cleaning the leaves and dirt from the cracks on our deck so I will be needing a serious warm up to get rid of the stiffness and soreness before the tournament starts. The soreness is from bending over at the waist and over-stretching my hamstrings if you are curious why.

Yes, I have a lot of excuses NOT to do this tournament, but I’ll do it anyway if only because I don’t want to, if you can understand that at all. Well, off I go! Be back this afternoon.

Well I am back from the tournament with shiny things. It was a small field, so I managed to get 3rd place in kata and 2nd place in sparring for my division. I really got my ass kicked by Brittany, who came in first. She is a very good fighter, fast and talented. I guess I am happy about that, I expected much less. The great people from Goju Ryu came to compete. They are from the Sylvan Lake area. I met some really fine people in my division. Tim is an orange belt in Goju Ryu, and Coreen (spelling?) also an orange belt, both from the Sylvan Lake dojo. I think it is really nice of them to come and support us.

By far the most difficult thing to do well is kata. I know a lot (but not all) about what I am doing wrong and how to do it right, but knowing and doing are two separate things entirely. I could have done so much better, and I will with more experience and practice. I had fun, but had to leave early because I have to create some sort of plan to solve some problems our Jar Media Ltd. clients are having. I guess I am cheating a bit by taking time off to blog about this.

I am looking forward to having a bit more time to practice, and I am certainly looking forward to the next tournament. For now, my next goal is grading to a Green Belt in December.