Saturday, March 14, 2009

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.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent job Kelsi.. First tournament is always the hardest..I think because of the freak out factor. And yes the sitting around part is par for the course. Congrts to you for having the courage to do it. I am really proud of you. Have a great week.
Love Ya,
Jen

TWINTALES said...

Thanks Jen. It was quite an experience and I'm still processing a lot of it. I wish we were closer so we could tournament together although, obviously it would have to wait until you pop that kid out. Let's talk soon so I can download all the stuff I learned and get your take on sparring in tournament. xoxo

Anonymous said...

Hey Kelsi,
I got your message. I was actually already in bed, very tired yesterday. Do you have some time this weekend we could catch up?
Jen