My shotokan Karate competition - Dec 12, 2009

[Blade96]

I think people wanted to hear how it went. well i might just give some kind of little synopsis as to what happens juring it for maybe it might help other rookies who'd love to know what one is like. just as i wanted to know.

Heck, am I tired. My legs are shot! (Note to self: dont go ice skating the same day you have shotokan.) anyway....

The competition was held in like this great big gym where they have the bleachers along one wall where people can sit, and like a scoreboard and clock and stuff because its also used for volleyball and basketball and stuff. In the middle of it was this great big blue mat thats orange around the edges and thats where people sparr and do kata and whatnot. You have some judges in front of you, and in addition, one sits at each corner. Thats so they get all angles of you while yuu sparr and do Kata and stuff. The scores are ranked up to 18 point something for white belts in individual kata, and for higher ones its 20 point something.

When its your turn, you bow into the ring, walk to a strip of tape placed on the floor, stop, bow again, and say your kata. The tape is there. Thats so you know where your starting your kata from so you end up in exactly the same place when you finish. When you finish, you stay in yoi position while the judges mark you. They mark like figure skating competitions...one will give you a 6.0, another 5.9, another 6.1, and so on. The highest score and the lowest one is both dropped from the final score. Then they add them up and they'll say like '17.1' as the final score. (This is for kata competition.) when they announce the scores, you get into the position from when you can bow (forgot the japanese name for it haha), walk backwards, when you reach the edge of mat bow again, then return to your place.

My brown belt friend Wanda was funny. She couldn't remember her bassai dai. and I said, How in the sugar do ye go to a competition and forget your kata? she said i think in japan that would call for a caning. Funakoshi would turn over in his grave lol. so she did heian godan instead. anyway she got a silver medal for her kata and a silver medal for her sparring. you could do pretty much any kata you wanted, though if you was a higher belt like brown and you did a low belt kata like heian shodan you'd probably get marks like 2.0. lol. they frown on high belts trying to get away with doing lower belt katas.

oh btw, JUniors went first. That's kids. and the kata competitions were always first, then kumite. and they always went by belt color. lower belts always went first, and black belts (well our association frowns upon kids being given black belts, for good reasons, thats pretty much a mcdojo tactic) As Alcatraz said to me, There were a couple who looked tired, after kata presumably because they didnt breathe. There were some who rushed their katas, and some who just didnt seem very with it, not really into it. One of the black belts who teaches me at my dojo was a judging the kids and he graded really hard, he always gave them the lowest scores.

in sparring, one little green belt took a smack in the face and was crying and had to be helped off because he got hurt. another one, a female little orange belt, had her leg hurt.

When my 2 brown belt friends from my dojo sparred, the one who got the gold medal got hit in the face and her lip bled. But she won anyway. and the other took a silver. they both did good.

Not so many people were at the competition - maybe 50, maybe 100.

anyway, how did I do? well there were two of us white belts - me, and a male white belt from my dojo who registered. I went first. barked out 'heian shodan' the judge repeated it, then i went to yoi and started. I did it right, no mistakes, never forgot one move. I had judges in front of me, and one at each corner, so there were two at an angle from me in front, and two at my back, one at each side. I did nice loud Kiai's. 2 of them. when I was done, the judges gave their scores, i got 18.2. Then the male white belt did his (my kiai's were louder than his) and he got ranked 18.0. So i beat him. since males and females are in separate categories, we were both given gold medals. But even if we did directly compete, I would have gotten the gold regardless because I beat him anyway. So thats what happened and thats how I did. I ranked verrrrrry high in my first competition! I'm really happy about it, too.

I also wanna thank everyone of you who gave me advice! It was put to good use =] Yer all pocketfulls of fly in my book.

__________________

[Ichi_Geki]

Ossu,

Congratulations. Glad to hear you did well. Although I am a guy, I love to hear it when girls beat the guys, haha. I bet you can't wait for the next one, aye?

[Blade96]

Ossu,

Congratulations. Glad to hear you did well. Although I am a guy, I love to hear it when girls beat the guys, haha. I bet you can't wait for the next one, aye?

~ Oss ~ ,

Thank you =]

haha, yeah. btw I competed injured. while i was walkin around waiting to compete Wanda noticed that I was bleeding and there was a pool of blood the total size of four American quarters on the floor . Seems I stepped on one the metal steps and it sliced off part of my toe. Not much just enough to make it bleed quite a bit. They were right surprised; I was walkin around like nothing happened, I didnt even know i'd been cut until they poiinted it out to me. They fixed me up, my sensei said to me Ya think you got enough blood to do kata? Oh ya. got enough for that. Then, I said to him, I can pass out. lol.

I'm fine btw. Just stinging a bit thats all. it only needed a bandaid.

btw the other white belt said to me, 'wait til we get paired up in class in sparring btw I'll get ya then' Ignoring the fact that in class on friday I nearly took out a black belt during sparring and he had to twist to get out of the way of my kick to the groin area. Meanwhile the other white belt, who i beat in competition, got smacked in the face by the brown belt he was sparring with.

but oh yeah. It was fun to beat the guy =]

btw i posted my account of the tournament on another forum and just copypasted it to this one cause i didnt feel like writing it all up again. Just letting you know

Edited December 13, 2009 by Blade96

[Ichi_Geki]

Ossu,

Congratulations. Glad to hear you did well. Although I am a guy, I love to hear it when girls beat the guys, haha. I bet you can't wait for the next one, aye?

haha, yeah. btw I competed injured. while i was walkin around waiting to compete Wanda noticed that I was bleeding and there was a pool of blood the total size of four American quarters on the floor . Seems I stepped on one the metal steps and it sliced off part of my toe. Not much just enough to make it bleed quite a bit. They were right surprised; I was walkin around like nothing happened, I didnt even know i'd been cut until they poiinted it out to me. They fixed me up, my sensei said to me Ya think you got enough blood to do kata? Oh ya. got enough for that. Then, I said to him, I can pass out. lol.

I'm fine btw. Just stinging a bit thats all. it only needed a bandaid.

btw the other white belt said to me, 'wait til we get paired up in class in sparring btw I'll get ya then' Ignoring the fact that in class on friday I nearly took out a black belt during sparring and he had to twist to get out of the way of my kick to the groin area. Meanwhile the other white belt, who i beat in competition, got smacked in the face by the brown belt he was sparring with.

but oh yeah. It was fun to beat the guy =]

Thats wondeful...The part about you continuing on...not the part where you cut yourself. Thats never good.

Although I have never had to compete with an injury that was spur of the moment, I did have to spar for a test with a sling on my right arm. I did win the match...but it was an extreme test. I believe I was going for ikkyu at the time. But it was definately a different "scenario".

I wish you the best of luck, in your training.

[Chuck]

Congrats!

Osu!

[Blade96]

well its shotokan karate. Ya gotta take more than a cut sometimes in this shotokan 'empty hand way (of life)', aka karate-do.

thanks btw again. =] I wanted to compete, and I was going to compete. cut or no cut.

[Jay]

Very well done

Sounds like you did really well.

Now I believe heian nidan comes next if I can remember my karate days:P

[Blade96]

Oss, thank you =]

Yes, its heian nidan thats next. well first its my grading, I make yellow belt, then start heian nidan =]

Then when i make yellow belt, I can sparr in the next tournament.

[ElShaft]

well done you must be really chuffed

[tallgeese]

Nice work!