Saturday, July 01, 2006

Tournament

Well, the tournament was last Saturday, and it went pretty well! I rode up with Rodney (one of our adult brown belts), and had a wonderful time getting to know him on a more casual level. I love getting to know people, because there's always a story behind them, something that you can't find out just by looking at them. Anyway, we had a lot of laughs, despite the fact that we were both sleepy (we left at 6:30 am).
We got to the tournament and got registered and changed, then waited for the opening ceremonies. It started at the usual 1 1/2 hours behind schedule, but once it started, it rolled right along! I watched the children's competition, then went out to lunch.
Got back just in time for breaking competition. We found out when we got to the tournament that the boards we broke had to be at least 3/4 inch. We had planned on using 1/2 inch boards, so we had to scavenge for full size boards and switch kicks around. I ended up breaking with 360 back kick, hammer fist, and 360 hook kick. I broke the first two no problem, but the hook kick gave me problems. I tried to break it two times (you're given 3 chances), but it hurt too much to try it a third time. Despite only breaking 2/3 of my boards, I took 2nd place and one of the masters came up to me and said he didn't know why it wouldn't break; it was a solid kick.
Directly after breaking was the demo competition. There were only two teams, so we were allowed to take our time setting up. The other team went first; they were good when they were actually doing TKD, but when they started doing this weird dance and then got on the floor and did the "worm", I lost a lot of respect for them. If you're going to do TKD, actually do TKD. Don't dress it up with dancing and gymnastics and whatnot. It looks cool, but it isn't martial arts. After they finished, we did our demo (and we did a knockout job, if I may say so). We broke all our boards, we kiyaped loudly, we used self-defense, showed a bo staff kata, and had some entertaining fight scenes. They won. Not sure how, but they won. But its alright, because we did our best and that's all that matters in the end.
My last division was forms, and there were only three 3rd dan girls aged 14-17, so I was guarenteed at least 3rd. All those months of training comes down to a 2 minute form, then its over. I thought I did very well on my form, as did the first girl who went. The third girl didn't have a lot of power, her movements were sloppy, and her kiyap was weak. I took 2nd. I was a little disappointed, but like I said earlier, I did my best.
Ms. Swing gave me a hug and said she thought my form was beautiful. Rodney sat me down and said, "You got first place. The color of you medal doesn't matter. You got first place." That made me smile. Mr. Coleman told me that the other girl was good, but he didn't like her rhythym. (she went a lot slower than I did, overexaggerating her moves). All in all, it was a great tournament!