Tournament troubles...as always

Amongst the trials of two weeks of finals- which have depleted our sanity, health, and root beer- Batta and I have been subjected to the annual crapfest that is preparing for the tournament. Once again, the little kids who monpolize time anyway are given special attention, in which head sensei teaches katas way too hard for ten year olds to comprehend. Wheezy kid has a tonfa kata- *sigh* - he's still about 4'7" and can barely hold them, let alone can do the sai kata he should be doing. Oh, and....I wonder if someone's gonna tell him to take the stickers off of them.

There's so many reason I hate the tournament- takes away instruction time, takes too long, I usually have to do it, etc. Blah blah blah. But the one thing I hate the most is taking my refined katas to the tournament only to realize you are in the same division as some professional whose katas are so hard he/she can do a shit job and still win. ARGH! But of course, Head Sensei talks me into doing it every year, and I suppose this year is no different. I only wish Batta could come, but he will be away.

I HATE SPARRING. I can't fathom how the rules for point sparring teaches you everything except how to cheat the rules to your advantage. There's nothing worse than a Tae Kwon Do professional white belt doing shitty pump kicks to try to push you out of the ring, or those people that push the boundaries of "no contact" *laugh* by drilling you in the face and acting like it was an accident. We've been sparring a lot recently (thanks, Batta) and I have a couple of choice bruises to show for it. We wished we sparred more frequently, instead of doing a ton of it just before the tourney. It is pretty much a guarantee even time we do, that someone ends up getting hurt. This time is was Tank's kid. Oh well, Darwinism.

I can't really understand if participating in this tourney every year is doing me any good. It certainly won't get me ranked any faster, or hold any promise of shiny medals and more confidence. I suppose I do it out of boredom. I must go to school out of boredom, too. Rats.