I don't know how to feel after the tournament. I've taken a couple of days to think about it, but I'm still frustrated and confused to the point where I'm seriously thinking about giving it up. Anyways, I guess I should explain why. The tournament was very long, and very draining. I rode up to the aiki clinic the day before with head sensei, sword sensei, and aiki sensei, and spent three hours listening to sword sensei talk about everything from trade shows to fish. When I go to the clinic, head honcho sensei did his usual teaching way too much in a two hour period. I was paired with goth kid, who just kept talking.
So then, the day of the tournament. My first event (1 hour into it) is all- kyu weapons division (18-34). I think I knew I was screwed when I saw there were red belts in our division and a kid with beautiful arnis sticks (they weren't tacky, either- nice dark-colored wood, unlike my pinewood arnis sticks). There was a girl from our system and my rank doing sai which pissed me off. We don't start doing sai kata until brown belt stripe. I should have brought my bokken and did anything except the only bo kata I knew. Needless to say, I was rather non-competitive. There were 20 people in our division- way more than normal, and of course I drew first. So now I'm really screwed. I got every score from a 7.5 down to a 6.2. This one judge gave low 6's to everyone who wasn't from his school, who he gave high 7's. I wasn't happy, I felt embarrased, and all I wanted to do was leave, but there were 19 other people to sit through. The other kids from our system did ichi-bo kata as well, except they did it with a couple extra moves in it and didn't do complete strikes. Me and this other kid were the only ones who didn't have cheezy tapered bos (if you're an adult, I'm sorry- use a full-sized bo). The sai girl wasn't all that good. A white belt did a nunchaku kata, forgot half of it, got stuck for five minutes, and still got low to mid 7's. As I suspected, the kid with the arnis was awesome and he easily won, getting high 7's. If all this wasn't enough, the competition was stopped twice for announcements. The only division time clocked in at just under an hour! Did I mention I really had to pee?
So, after that I bummed around for another 2 hours until my next event, the kata green-purple division (18-34). Now here was some really odd placements. I was glad to be rid of the brown belt, but there were still those two red belts from a tae kown do school that were obviously way more experienced than the rest of us. And there were this guys who were 34 (questionably) who were griping about being in with us. There was also a guy with a midnight blue colored belt (?)- I dunno what division he was supposed to be in. So here we are- I wasn't first this time, thank god, and here is another girl my rank from our system doing a kata she shouldn't have known yet. The guy who ended up winning was from my old school and did a decent version of heian godan (ironic, since I did that last year and got 4th). I thought I did really well, but it got low to mid 7s and didn't place. Furthermore, one of my old instructos walks by and says to someone "You can definitely see who comes from what school by how bad the stances are," as he glances towards me. What am I supposed to make of that?
Right after is the women's green-to-purple kumite division. This was one of the few glimmer of good things to happen all day. I went first again and drew the same girl I'd barely lost to last year- she went to my old school and had a big cheering section (karate is like a clique there). I knew I had to be aggressive so I threw a lot of kicks right out of the gate. We went 3-2 after a long fight, I finally won. Next was a short green belt who wasn't that hard to beat and I think I scored 3-1 against her. The semi-final match with the tae kwon do red belt was harder than hell. She was really tall and had a little more meat on her than me, but I tried to stay level-headed about it. She wasn't all that good and if I was better it would have been easy but I kept walking into her punches, effectively scoring on myself. Then, she hit me in the head, and the ref stopped the fight. He asked if I was okay, and I was down 2-1 and managed to come back strong. I tied her, and then, I couldn't put her away even though I knew I could! I must have scored at least 4 times but it wasn't conclusive enough. Then I walked in on a punch again and lost. Bummer. So right after I draw a short purple belt for third place. She was easy to put away, and I scored 3-0 on her. So, after all that I actually walked away with something. Bork.
So by then, I was tired as hell. Overall, our school really didn't do all that great. Wheezy kid (who has a baby brother who looks exactly like him-frightening!) got a couple of 4ths and Owl got a 1st and 3rd or something like that. The little senseis got nothing for the first time ever. They got their ass kicked all day by some professional kid who was about 17 and a foot taller than everyone else in the division. He won everything- kata, weapons, self defense, etc. When it came time for kumite, he kicked the shit out of everyone. Then, he drew a kid who was pathetically small compared to him. The crowd was like "Oh god" and for good reason as this jackass was a dirty fighter. The referee gave him a warning and he reacted by "going easy" on this kid by hitting a karate kid style crane stance and letting the poor kid shuffle into his impending doom. The crowd actually booed. It was the longest closing of distance ever. Then just as this little kid gets close, the pro tries to take his block off, misses, and the little kid kicks him in the head. Everybody cheered. Ah, there is a god. So the ref gave a warning to the little kid for a head shot and took a point away from the pro for unsportsmanlike conduct. So the next go, the pro is pissed off and drilled the poor kid to the floor. So much for light contact. So the pro got disqualified and the little kid won. It's only too bad he didn't win on skill.
Given all these feelings I had going into class monday, I was already on edge. Then, Prince Valiant decides to flex his 6" muscles. What a brat. Nobody respects him for the reason he puts down people and is lazy himself. He bitched about us not having good stances (keep in mind, this is an 11 year old) and gave my doppleganger 5 pushups with a cocky smile on his face. I wanted to hit him! And because all the adult blackbelts were late, the little senseis were running the show and all hell broke loose. And everyone is surprised at this? Something is going to blow here, and I'm afraid it's going to be me. I'm so angry at the situation. Why should I waste my money on this?
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