Tournament

I left my house at 6:30 this morning. It was still dark and the mountains were shrouded in a thick mist. I listened to Louis Prima because I like to sing along and I knew if I was singing, I was breathing. It worked. I didn't forget to breathe for the entire 60 minute drive to Pomona for the tournament.

Once there, I sat around and waited for my division to compete in forms. It took hours. Finally it was our turn. Two girls went together and I went alone. My form was solid, it had snap and power with a loud qihap (HA!) at the end. I felt really good about it. I got a silver medal for it. I wanted gold and Master Dylan thought it deserved gold but considering I just learned this form 2 weeks ago, silver's pretty damn good and I'll take it.

Then, and I'm not kidding, 7 hours of waiting around later and it was finally our turn for the sparring competition. I went up against another orange belt, roughly the same size as me - maybe a little taller - and I felt relaxed and ready, not nervous. I did a loud qihap at the beginning, hoping to freak her out a little bit. Then everything went right out of my head. She kept throwing roundhouse left, roundhouse right, roundhouse left combos and I just couldn't seem to get out of her way. I was behind after the first round and Master Dylan told me to throw my right leg and pivot out of her way. He reminded me about my ax kick. So I went back out and immediately did a stance switch followed by a side kick to the stomach and an ax kick with my left. It got me a point and it startled her a little. That's when I really should have started throwing some combinations at her but I didn't. I lost against her but I gained some valuable information. I ended up taking bronze in sparring.

And now it's 9:30 and I just got home 30 minutes ago and I'm almost too exhausted to go to bed.

But I will.