Grand Champions International Cup - 11/17/13

My first tournament back as a competitor in 8 months, and I'm very glad this was my re-entry as it was a smaller event.  In the past this tournament has been quite large, but the last several years has been seeing a decreasing number of adult competitors.  This year, in particular, the tournament director decided to allow no registration at the door, pre-registration only.  It's very typical, in the adult divisions, for competitors to come on the day of the competition and register, so removing this ability certainly limited the competitor's pool.  On to my performance:

Kata - 2nd place
Opened first round with Sochin against Gojushiho-Sho, the Gojushiho was pretty good, but a little wobbly.  My sochin, however felt very strong, good solid, finishes to stances and stayed low throughout.  I had a little fumble with my feet from the last shuto-uke into the mae-geri, but nothing to throw me too far off.

Second round was Kanku-Sho against Kanku-Dai; this competition had brown and black belts combined, so there were some lower level kata thrown in.  However, the kanku-dai wasn't particularly good.  Too many pregnant pauses, and a lot of rising and dropping when there shouldn't be.  Kanku-Sho was a little wobbly for me in the opening sequence but settled down with oi-tsuki soto-uke combinations and went strong from there.  Mae-geri were very sharp with good body momentum into tate-uraken-uchi.  The jump, as far as I could tell, was very nice, once I stop attempting to make my hand and foot meet with the mikazuki-geri it's usually fairly smooth.

Finished off with Gojushiho-sho against Sochin, I'm pretty steamed about this one.  The kata felt perfect!  And then, disaster struck; after the shuto-uchi/shuto-uke sequence did soto-uke, mae-geri with the drop punch and stepping away with the gedan barai behind...and instead of pulling back with the shuto-uke I pulled back into gedan barai as if I was going into empi.  I was beyond livid, caught myself without too much hesitation, but it was pretty obvious.  The rest of the kata felt just as great as before the mistake...oh well, got me a second place (of course, if I'd gotten first place, I would have competed for Grand Champion with a grand prize of $500).

Kumite - 3rd place, doesn't say much since there were only 4 in my division, I was fighting heavyweight.

Kumite was completely different from usual, my fighting was leaps and bounds above how I was fighting previously, lots of angles, changes of direction, misdirection and constant action.  I lost 7-1, but my fighting was still the best yet, I think I got robbed on a few points, but it is what it is.  The guy I was fighting is a national team member plus a local favorite, somethings can't be overcome.  Anyway, I definitely feel like my regular gym sessions are really paying off, my legs have more spring and power in them than I remember, my cardio hasn't suffered as much as I expected to have.

No more competitions until Feburary, so over the winter I'm going to start incorporating more sprinting sessions to increase power output in my legs and continue lifting the way I have been; aggressively and explosively.  Skill work is definitely on the menu, that's for the dojo, though.

All-in-all a decent performance, and if I can find any videos I will certainly post them.

Thanks for reading!

Never Stop Growing

I realize that there are many people that only pursue karate training as a hobby, as a form of exercise or for the sheer pleasure.  Not everybody is as passionate about this activity as I am (which is a shame, but nobody's perfect), but even those people pursuing a hobby should want to get better at it.  You can't improve at an activity without learning more about it, that involves daily training but research, reading and questioning as well.

Everyday I try to read more about karate as a topic (history, training methodology, and karate blogs), about physical training, weight training and psychology.  All of these are aspects of my improvement in becoming a better karate-ka.  I wrote a post on a different blog which pertains to life in general, but is perfectly applicable to karate or any other endeavor.

As karate-ka we have to continually grow, to cause evolution of the art, and improve the transmission of the art beyond our generations.  Read, learn and practice; that's the formula to constant growth.

Enjoy the linked post.

Never Stop Growing

What kind of karate-ka do you want to be?

I'm sure everybody has some perception or idea of what kind of karate-ka they wish to be, or what shape or general design they want their karate to look and feel like.  However, I doubt most of us have every put that concept into words and identified the attributes, or even properly defined what we're attempting to do.  Sit down right now and take out a pen and paper; efficiency experts in all fields always attribute success in any given endeavor to hinge significantly upon list-making and goal setting.  Your karate-career aspirations are goals like any other, and the method by which you get there is a process just like any project for work or school.

Once you have those goals written down, you have a tangible target to aim for.  It might be another karate-ka you wish to be able to emulate; becoming the next Frank Brennan or Kagawa Sensei are not easily attained goals.  Respectable as that might be, I'd much prefer to be the first me.  In that regard, I refer back to a tip I received from Edmond Otis Sensei during a training camp in June of this year.  Choose 3 words that you would use to describe the general impression you want your karate to have; I chose dynamic, powerful, flexible.  Each of these words have variable definitions and that's kind of the point.  I can decide when I'm ready whether or not I've met those words, and then choose to change the definition or change the descriptions entirely.

Having goals is useful puts an "end-point" in sight, and that can be detrimental to our progress.  I refer to Andre Bertel Sensei's post, Endless Journey, which soundly ascribes the journey as opposed to the end.  I agree the journey is most important, but every trip has stop overs along the way.  Create your own layovers and sight-seeing spots, these are your short-term goals.  The next rank test or competition are just that, layovers along the way.  Your end-goals are the same, not endings but points to continue from.

So tell me what you think of your karate?  How do you want your karate to be described?  What kind of karate-ka do you want to be?