I survived!

Hello all. Well, as I said in my last post, this weekend was very busy. But I made it, and had a great time!

On Saturday I left the house around 7:30 to go to Mackenzie Lake and help set up the tournament. We had everything set up and ready to go in a little over an hour and the team selections and fighting began shortly there after. I was put onto Team 2, and being that I was fighting in the knockdown rounds I had quite the wait until I fought. Each person had roughly 2 fights (some more, some less) and we started the day off with the non-contact fighting for children and beginners. Everyone went out and did there best and to my knowledge made it through relatively unscathed.

I had to wait until 2 minutes before my first fight to find out who it was I was going to fight. First up was big Rudy, one of the kids/adult class members who trains with his daughter mostly in the intermediate class. He's tall and strong and doesn't fight much but he sure gives it his all when he is fighting. So I figured I would have my work cut out for me. Before we fought however, we (all the contact fighters) were advised to not go out and try and "kill" each other as no one wants to spends the holidays in pain. Sensei specifically told me that if it seems like I'm dominating the fight to back off a bit and don't hurt anybody. Good advice all around. Like I had mentioned before this tournament is geared to be fun and a good learning tournament; nobody needs to take it for any more than that. So in the ring I went. We were given 1 1/2 minutes to fight (most other tournament are 2 minute rounds, 3 for open division) and it took me that long to get into it. I didn't go near as hard as I could in this fight to start, and Sensei yelled at me to go harder so I stepped it up a bit. Like I said, Rudy is big and strong, but he seemed somewhat intimidated and I used that to move him around the mat and set up for my uchi mawashi keage (outside hooking axe kick) that I use in color belt fighting. It's a great kick to throw as it's easy to control for light contact to the head (which is a rule in color belt fights) and most opponents don't see it coming. It worked really well for me in each of my 3 fights in this tournament. I scored a wasari (1/2 point) against Rudy mid-way through the fight and then utilized my punches and low kicks to keep him on the move for the remainder, thus scoring 2 points for my team with the win.

Next up I fought my friend Gary, who fights and trains regularly with us fighters and fights in the 35 and over division in most of our tournaments. Gary is good at sneaking in jodan mawashi geri (high round house kick) when you least expect it so I knew I had to keep my guard up. This fight was a bit of a comedy of errors as Gary appeared to have scored a wasari by sneaking in his jodan mawashi geri but my guard was up so it appeared that I blocked it. To make matters worse for Gary I caught him unintentionally in the bridge of the nose with a finger (it scratched him and he started to bleed) while blocking one of his tecniques and he followed up the kick by immediately punching me in the face! That's a foul in our style and is usually rewarded with a chui (warning). The judges had to converse for a moment to decide what just happened. It was decided that the scoring kick was unconfirmed by the judges but that the punch was a foul and Gary was given a chui. I immediately went to work on his lower body throwing kicks to his inner and other thigh, one of which caught him a bit high as he was trying to move. This would normally be considered a foul on my part, but because I threw it towards his inner thigh and he moved into it he was considered at fault and no call was made. The fight stopped to give Gary a moment to recover and he came at me with more intensity once the fight started again. But I used this against him and then set him up when his hands dropped and caught him with a uchi mawashi keage. This not only earned me a 1/2 point, but also victory and another 2 points for my team as the time ran out on our fight. It's too bad we weren't given more time as it felt like both of us were just starting to get into a rhythm when the fight ended.

I wasn't sure if I was going to get to fight again but luckily for me Sensei Brad had one last fight set up. I was going to get to fight my good friend Stein in what would be my best fight of the day. Stein is a young strong fighter who continues to impress me with his constant growth as a fighter. We train with each other a lot and he always gives me a good workout. The fight started off as I would have expected, with both of us working low to set up for a high kick to score. I knew that Stein wasn't going to try and stand toe to toe and risk taking any damage from my punches and low kicks, so I used this to push him back and set him up for uchi mawashi keage which I scored with about 30 seconds into the fight. Now I know how I used to get whenever I was down a 1/2 point early in the fight and I knew Stein would do the same thing: go to the head as much as possible to get the point back. The problem with this is you stop fighting a smart fight and give your opponent too many clues as to what your game plan is and it becomes quite easy to defend against this type of attack. I spent the rest of the fight pushing Stein back and doing my best to block the flurry of high kicks that he threw my way. The fight remained back and for on offense/defense with Stein trying desperately to score the point back and force and extention, but he ran out of time and I scored 2 more points for my team. I liked this fight a lot as it was more physical then my previous 2 fights, but not to the degree that anyone was going to walk away hurt. It was more technical then my other fights and proved to me that Stein is a strong fighter who will only get better. Overall it was great to fight all three guys as I've never fought any of them in a tournament setting before and it was great to know that we could all go out there and put on a good show for the folks in attendance. And no one was hurt, which always makes me happy as fights in our style can be very physically demanding and there is always a chance of injury.

In the end, everyone had a good time and those who had never fought in a tournament before got their first taste of what it's like. Everyone did their best and everyone went home with a metal for their accomplishments. Team 1 was awarded Bronze, Team 3 Silver, and Team 2 (my team) was awarded Gold. Good job everybody! I'm looking forward to my next tournament, which I believe is the Calgary Cup in March, and stepping back into the ring, amping things up and continuing my growth as a fighter. The Team Tournament was nice for me in the sense that it showed me I can still go in and fight a good fight. I didn't fight to the extent that I would have like to, but it wasn't the sort of tournament for that. It was for fun and I had a lot! I'll post more in the next day or 2 about the rest of my busy Saturday, that includes getting a kick ass gift from my parents and some up close and personal time with some Burlesque Beauties. Take care.