Monday, April 20, 2009

A Beginner's Point of View 53.5

Day 53.5:

Today was the friendly invitational tournament. “Friendly” was a word used to explain that there was no cost to join. The only limitation was that there was no opportunity for testing afterwards. I still need more time to train before I can test again, but anyone else was would have been ready couldn’t test there. The whole point was to bring many different schools together and have fun competing.

Before the tournament started, there was a line to check your shinai to make sure it was safe enough to use. I had splinters that I never knew I had. When I reached into my bag, I found that I had forgot to bring the sandpaper that I planned on bringing. I nearly had to give up my shinai and borrow one from Sensei to compete! That would have really made me disappointed in myself. I was very lucky that someone else had brought along a metal tool to scrape off splinters. I thanked him very much because he did not have to loan it to me. I still had to go back in line multiple times to get all of the splinters out, but I finally got my shinai to pass. They also had these huge stickers with a unique serial code them to tell different kendoka apart. We wrapped them around our side tare flaps. At the end of the day, it felt torn paper and lots of gunk on my tare. I tried using a wet toothbrush and my thumbs to get the gunk off. I only mostly succeeded. I think I’ll need to try over and over to get it all off. I hope I don’t have to resrt to using chemicals to get the gunk off, that might remove the dark-colored dye.

This tournament was a lot of fun. Since there was no testing afterwards, then there was no real pressure. This led to a more relaxed attitude for everyone. What was different in this tournament was that there were two Mudansha divisions. There was a “3-Kyu and Below” division and a separate “1-Kyu to 2-Kyu” division. This is not what happened at the previous tournament, but this new way does seem to make the matches advance much faster.

My first opponent had a skill level equal to my own. He was also very good at hiki-men. He would often wait for me to attack, then he would perform hiki-men very fast and hit me. However, I noticed that he would not hit me with the monouchi, which is the length of the sword from saki-gawa to the naka-yui. Instead, he would hit me with the middle of the shinai, where the bamboo forms the thick knot. That is not a point, so the match would continue. In order to win, I tried using a technique that I did not do very well in class. I would start back from a step before issoku-no-maai and then step a big step forward with my right foot. I raise my shinai up and step fast with my left foot. Then I swing down while stepping with my right foot. Then I follow through with normal Kendo ashi steps while passing by. It took me three times before I landed it well enough for the judges, but when it worked it was what won the match.

My second opponent was much bigger than I was, both in height and build. He was the first opponent I’ve faced that was actually stronger than I was. I tried using the same technique, only it almost was good enough. His Kendo technique was flawless, constantly performing suriage-men and hiki-men perfect every time, except for when I would move just out of his monouchi range unexpectedly. I tried my best, but I was outfought by a much better opponent. It was like sparring with sempai. Later, I learned from his classmates that he had been studying Kumdo for 4 years and entered into this Kendo tournament without a ranking. I do not want to sound like I’m complaining, but it seems to me that he should have been put into a higher bracket, like perhaps the Shodan-Nidan division. However, he did win fair and square. He went on to win the “3-Kyu and Below” division.

Later, the last competition of the day was the Team Division. We had originally planned to have Sensei, myself, and 3 other classmates show up, which would make a full team. However, one of us had a last-minute obligation and another of us had to leave early. This left only 3 of us total for the team match. I took the 2nd position, Sensei took the 5th position of Taisho, and the remaining classmate took the 1st position. This would require us to all win our matches to continue to the next round. However, not all of us won. I won my match. My opponent was shorter and smaller than I was. My opponent’s teammates must have told him to stall for time, because he would do the same thing over and over. He would wait for me to attack, then come to tai-atari. Once I tried to step back, he would follow me everywhere. It took a combination of pushing and stepping back to gain any space. Over and over I stepped back, then charged forward to strike. Over and over my opponent would follow me to tai-atari. I used my technique of charging from long distance to move past his defenses. I eventually scored two points and won, but it was a tough fight anyway. After we lost the team match, I complimented my opponent on his defense, it really was very good.

After the divisions were done, all the schools lined up for the awards ceremony. My classmate that stayed with us took 3rd Place in the “3-Kyu and Below” Division. She got a certificate and a tenugui for a prize. Perhaps it was the size of the gym, but I was not sweating as much as I did at the previous tournament. This gym was twice as big and not quite as many participants.

I think I’m going to take a break from Kendo for a short time. I partially re-sprained my wrists again even though I was pacing myself. I’m going to give them a proper long time to heal before going back to it. I sincerely hope it will be less than 2 weeks. I don’t like missing class, but I don’t like constantly re-spraining myself because I’m in a hurry to improve my form.

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