Off Street parking Fighter
Getting up at 6:30am and arriving at 8:15am for the karate tournament was a complete waste of time. There was no registry desk, just multiple copies of the day's schedule posted up around the sports halls stating the times of the groups by grade and age. Instructors group, which I was competing in, was starting at 2:30pm - 6 f*cking hours to hang around! If I had known that...
Anyway, it gave us a chance to watch the kids battle it out and get a sense of what to prepare for. The place was packed with proud parents with video cameras, kids either running wild or plugged into PSPs/Gameboys in silent trances and judges looking a little bored. There were 8 rings marked out with tables of judges between, spectators filling the gaps or sitting at the tiered rows of seats. Judging and competitor quality was varied which made some of the results a little strange. One of my students achieved bronze medal in kata which was great news. She nearly got gold if she hadn't paused too long for a move. When competitors finished their kata 3 judges would hold up their score. The first competitor to go would set the standard with an average score and the majority would just get the same until one or two looked a lot better to make the judges' job easier. The higher the grade, the higher score you're expected to get. With the kumite (sparring), half and full-points were awarded for punching/kicking as close to your opponent as possible returning your fist/foot back to the starting position and shouting the 'ki-ai' (not the kung-fu 'hi-ya' sound but more like 'huhh').
Nerves started kicking in watching the taught black and brown belts with the speed they were doing. With an or so before our event, Kerry turned up to watch me settling my nerves. Lucky the event hadn't over-ran so by 2:30pm I had registered and knew which of the 4 possible rings I would compete in. There must have been around 18 instructors competing in each ring and I didn't know any of them! All the Southampton club guys I knew were in other rings. More stretching and limited eye-contact with the others continued until our judge summoned us to perform our kata. I was third to go with the first guy's slightly shakey performance and one quite good kata from the second. I felt mine went quite well accept for the first ki-ai which sounded completely gay, which I put down to lack of water. Lucky no-one laughed and it didn't put me off much either. The senior judge gave me an average score of 67 (70 is good) which left me a little miffed and the strange marking continued when a later competitor did the same kata as me but a lot worse achieving the same mark.
Next was the sparring which was when the tension really started to kick in. I kept myself busy with more stretching and broke the ice with some friendly faces. Others preferred practising strikes or even punching the hall's dividing net tied into a massive punch-bag. Kerry, meanwhile was closeby worrying about which nutter was to take my head off or go psycho on me. Her observation caught one psycho taking it out on the gathered net. Her worst fear had come true (unknown to me) as this long-haired Steven Seagal wanna-be was my first opponent! Conquering my fears I launched in with some fast punches but we were separated by the ref and asked to both calm it down. Next attack resulted in a half-point to me massaging my ego. Third attack was a quick score to me again multiplying my confidence - I was a full point ahead (out of 3 possible). Although I was concentrating on every move the psycho gave I could hear a couple of voices calling my name in support which warmed my soul. My opponent picked up his performance slightly and planted a strike into my right arm (which still hurts today) but only after I placed a faster punch to his body - score! After that I was flying in with attacks with little counter-action winning with no score against me - I was through to the next round. Kerry later told me how utterly f*cked off the guy looked being beaten by me. I'm sure he was a higher grade as well as he tried using slightly more advanced moves on me.
Next opponent was different. Back in October was the World Club championship in Oz which all GB competitors were given a Union Jack patch to sew onto their karate suit. My opponent had one such badge. I stuck to my same strategy using speed and getting in first. Again the first clash resulted in the ref splitting us and advising to calm down. After that his experience shone through with his technique to complete the correct move winning the points. At times I felt I had the faster connection but the judge decided to ignore this and preferred the opponent's correctness. I threw all I had into it but lost as time was called. By then I was glad it was over as the mouth-guard I was wearing didn't allow adequate breathing and I was pretty well knackered. Waited around until a champ of the ring was announced - the same guy who knocked me out was the winner who went on to the semi-final. I went away from the tournament happy at Kerry's joy of beating a psycho and being beaten without any serious (or facial) injuries by probably the guy who won the whole event! Next tournament is in Southampton in June.
The evening was a recovery session of take-away and DVDs. Kerry's choice was The Constant Gardener which was very good though left a guilt trip of how bad Africa is being treated, whereas my sci-fi nerd innerself came out and demanded Serenity. Thankfully the critics were right on its entertainment value, with sci-fi mixed up with styles such as Western, Buffy, bit of Matrix and zombie stuff. Highlight was the tough guy character named Jayne (which weirdly is the middle name of one my department's male managers). If it had anyone more famous than the actor playing Steve the Pirate from Dodgeball I think it could have been a bigger hit.
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Anyway, it gave us a chance to watch the kids battle it out and get a sense of what to prepare for. The place was packed with proud parents with video cameras, kids either running wild or plugged into PSPs/Gameboys in silent trances and judges looking a little bored. There were 8 rings marked out with tables of judges between, spectators filling the gaps or sitting at the tiered rows of seats. Judging and competitor quality was varied which made some of the results a little strange. One of my students achieved bronze medal in kata which was great news. She nearly got gold if she hadn't paused too long for a move. When competitors finished their kata 3 judges would hold up their score. The first competitor to go would set the standard with an average score and the majority would just get the same until one or two looked a lot better to make the judges' job easier. The higher the grade, the higher score you're expected to get. With the kumite (sparring), half and full-points were awarded for punching/kicking as close to your opponent as possible returning your fist/foot back to the starting position and shouting the 'ki-ai' (not the kung-fu 'hi-ya' sound but more like 'huhh').
Nerves started kicking in watching the taught black and brown belts with the speed they were doing. With an or so before our event, Kerry turned up to watch me settling my nerves. Lucky the event hadn't over-ran so by 2:30pm I had registered and knew which of the 4 possible rings I would compete in. There must have been around 18 instructors competing in each ring and I didn't know any of them! All the Southampton club guys I knew were in other rings. More stretching and limited eye-contact with the others continued until our judge summoned us to perform our kata. I was third to go with the first guy's slightly shakey performance and one quite good kata from the second. I felt mine went quite well accept for the first ki-ai which sounded completely gay, which I put down to lack of water. Lucky no-one laughed and it didn't put me off much either. The senior judge gave me an average score of 67 (70 is good) which left me a little miffed and the strange marking continued when a later competitor did the same kata as me but a lot worse achieving the same mark.
Next was the sparring which was when the tension really started to kick in. I kept myself busy with more stretching and broke the ice with some friendly faces. Others preferred practising strikes or even punching the hall's dividing net tied into a massive punch-bag. Kerry, meanwhile was closeby worrying about which nutter was to take my head off or go psycho on me. Her observation caught one psycho taking it out on the gathered net. Her worst fear had come true (unknown to me) as this long-haired Steven Seagal wanna-be was my first opponent! Conquering my fears I launched in with some fast punches but we were separated by the ref and asked to both calm it down. Next attack resulted in a half-point to me massaging my ego. Third attack was a quick score to me again multiplying my confidence - I was a full point ahead (out of 3 possible). Although I was concentrating on every move the psycho gave I could hear a couple of voices calling my name in support which warmed my soul. My opponent picked up his performance slightly and planted a strike into my right arm (which still hurts today) but only after I placed a faster punch to his body - score! After that I was flying in with attacks with little counter-action winning with no score against me - I was through to the next round. Kerry later told me how utterly f*cked off the guy looked being beaten by me. I'm sure he was a higher grade as well as he tried using slightly more advanced moves on me.
Next opponent was different. Back in October was the World Club championship in Oz which all GB competitors were given a Union Jack patch to sew onto their karate suit. My opponent had one such badge. I stuck to my same strategy using speed and getting in first. Again the first clash resulted in the ref splitting us and advising to calm down. After that his experience shone through with his technique to complete the correct move winning the points. At times I felt I had the faster connection but the judge decided to ignore this and preferred the opponent's correctness. I threw all I had into it but lost as time was called. By then I was glad it was over as the mouth-guard I was wearing didn't allow adequate breathing and I was pretty well knackered. Waited around until a champ of the ring was announced - the same guy who knocked me out was the winner who went on to the semi-final. I went away from the tournament happy at Kerry's joy of beating a psycho and being beaten without any serious (or facial) injuries by probably the guy who won the whole event! Next tournament is in Southampton in June.
The evening was a recovery session of take-away and DVDs. Kerry's choice was The Constant Gardener which was very good though left a guilt trip of how bad Africa is being treated, whereas my sci-fi nerd innerself came out and demanded Serenity. Thankfully the critics were right on its entertainment value, with sci-fi mixed up with styles such as Western, Buffy, bit of Matrix and zombie stuff. Highlight was the tough guy character named Jayne (which weirdly is the middle name of one my department's male managers). If it had anyone more famous than the actor playing Steve the Pirate from Dodgeball I think it could have been a bigger hit.
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