From: rjq@phys.ksu.edu (Rob Quinn)
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: My first tournament - Results
Date: 30 Sep 92 19:48:08 GMT
Article-I.D.: moe.1ad09oINNfg4
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: bohr.phys.ksu.edu



[enter story telling mode....the top is my "story", and at the end are some
 comments/questions]
 
In <1992Sep28.190133.123053@zeus.calpoly.edu> lchong@zeus.calpoly.edu (Leo Chong) writes:
>By the way, it was my first tournament and I fought as a heavy weight green
>belt.  For some reason, it felt like I was in an amusement part, waiting
>in line for hours, going in for a ride of my life.

 I thought my first tournament was kind of like a cub scout meeting. Tons of
little kids running about everywhere, with plenty of colors on their belts.
All of their sparring was over quickly though, and they didn't stick around
for long.

 I had calmed down a lot, but I was still pretty nervous. We didn't find our
hotel and get to sleep until about 5am, but I didn't feel tired at all the
next day. Or hungry or thirsty. That's a first for me. There was a ton of
waiting around. Registration started at 10am, and the final demonstrations
weren't over until 8 or 9pm.

 Three of our white belts were unable to go, so there was only 3 white
belts, one black belt doing forms, and one black belt sparring. We were all
unprepared - I had to buy all of my equipment at the tournament. $93 bucks
for a cup, mouth piece, chest pad, arms & leg pads, and head gear. Did I
get ripped bad?

 Besides being my first tournament, it was also the first time I had worn
a cup, worn a mouth piece, or fought with pads on. I kept gagging on the
mouth piece, and I was afraid I would choke on it when I started breathing
hard in a fight.

 When it finally came time to do forms, I was worried. Everyone had interesting
forms that I had never seen. I burned through my simple form, despite everyones
warnings. Next time, there's always next time to do better.

 At the end of the day, Christopher Poos demonstrated two forms for the crowd.
He was very impressive.

 The whole day I had been trying to pick out who I would be sparring against.
I didn't see but one or two other white belts, though apparently Bobby Lee
(our instructor) saw about 6 others. I didn't realize that besides the young
children, there were three age groups. In the end, there were only 5 people
in the light weight white/yellow belt group, and that was counting the two
of us from Manhattan. The heavy weight range was much fuller, probably 10 to
15. I'm very glad I didn't eat all day. The light weight cutoff was 150lbs, and
I weighed myself at 149.5 when I first got there. Close.
 One scary looking guy must have read news and took the suggestion of not
shaving for several days. He barely missed the cutoff, and was sent over to
the heavy weights. 
 Scott, my classmate, drew the 'by' (or is it 'bye'?) and sat out the first
round. I sat down and watched the first fight. It was the first real fight
I had seen of the day. The winner fought a lot like me, lots of reverse
side kicks. Then it was my turn to fight, against the guy I had been talking
to. Bobby was coaching me, telling me I had to be aggressive, and fight hard.
Everyone kept saying that. I knew there were only 2 one minute rounds, and
that I had to fight hard from the beginning. I wish they had been longer
rounds. My first step out, of my first real fight ever, my first kick!! Bamm,
I got knocked down. I looked around and the judges, and I had one clear
thought - "What a way to start out". I don't remember the rest of the round. I
felt like I was fighting from a losing position, and I think that made me fight
a little harder. Right after the time up call, he landed a kick on my leg.
 Between rounds, Bobby came over and said "attack attack attack!". I was kind
of worried, but Bobby said I was doing good, and I felt a lot better. It was
nothing like sparring in class. I was straightening my uniform, when I noticed
my opponent watching me. I don't know why I did it (well maybe I do know...)
but I pulled the ends of my white belt down and "straightened" them out
where he could see them. The referee called us in, we took our stances. I
felt much better. The guy took half a step toward me, and I jump reverse kicked
him in the face. I could have sworn I felt his tooth cut into my foot, but
I know he had a mouth piece on. Maybe it was something on his head gear.
I took a deep breath and saw that he was down. I felt like a ping-pong ball.
I was bouncing all over the place, I couldn't stand still. I forced my self to
calm down, and the guy got back up. He was very pissed. Very very pissed.
 It changed the way I fight. Normally I'm always defensive, I always get forced
from the ring, and I rarely attack. Now I did attack. I felt a lot different,
and I still do.
 I don't remember the rest of the round, except that he kicked me below
the belt twice, and I hit him in the head once. Somewhere in there I also
got a warning for backhanding.  At the end of the round, I still didn't think
I had made up enough points to cover my first round, but I guess I had. My
first real fight ever, and I won. I think it helped my confidence a lot. I
could feel a difference last night while working out in class. Much better.
 While waiting for my next fight, I watched the heavy weights. Our other
white belt, Chris, was fighting. Chris kicked his opponent in the side,
and then received two round houses to the head. I could have sworn the two
of them were exchanging words. Then Chris kicked the guy in the head, and
he collapsed just like in the movies. I couldn't believe it. Scary.
 Then I was back in, fighting against the guy with the reverse side kicks.
He got off to an early lead, and I never caught up. I didn't feel like being
aggressive any more. I knew I had second. Between rounds Bobby coached me
again, and then I felt like taking 1st. Just as I felt the aggression coming
back, the second round was over. Damn, I wish we had had more time.
 I felt like in the end I was trying to run him down, but everyone else says
I was just running away the whole time, or standing still. I don't know.
 After the fight, some strange woman came out of the crowd to shake my hand.
I found out she was my opponents coach, and that I was always supposed to
shake hands with the other coach.
 The guy I had beat the first time was called back to fight against Scott for
3rd place, but he had left, so Scott took third.

 Grand Master Kang came up and shook my hand, and told me I had potential.
I don't think he saw my fight.... He said "good teacher, good student".
Anyway, I got a lot of encouragement from everyone, and I think that helped
my confidence a lot.
 Afterwards, there was some block and board breaking demonstrations, two
mock sword fights, and a few things like that. Then Daniele <last name?>,
the bronze medalist from the US Olympic Team fought against a local girl,
and beat her strongly.

 Anyway, that's the end of my story, now some points I learned/thought about.

>  1. Run the combinations through your head before the fight once in the ring 
>     because once the fight begins, there is no time to think.

 I'm still lacking on combinations. I'm starting to pick up series of attacks,
but they are still just single attacks end to end, and not working together.

>  2. Forget the crap you hear about attitude.  Attitude can make you fight
>     stupid.  Fight smart.

 Indeed. But I starting to think one of my main problems is too much thinking,
and not enough action. Of course Bobby's only been telling me that from Day 1,
but it just now sank in. He said (something like) I need to learn my alphabet
before I start worrying about how to spell.

 We didn't learn all of the customs tournament "extras" in class. I don't think
they are that important to Bobby. I didn't realize I was supposed to shake
hands with the coach too, and worry that I might have insulted the guy and his
class, and that that might have had something to do with him leaving so
quickly.

 While in the locker room talking to the guy who beat me, I was saying
that I hadn't seen any jump kicks, except my own. I was saying something
about jump reverse crescents, when a black belt (who I think judged my
match) came in. He overheard me, and said that no one uses them because
they are no good. Bobby later "disagreed" with that opinion. Anyone else
have any opinions or experiences to share with me?
 From my white belt prospective, I thought I saw plenty of uses for a jump
reverse crescent, or just a reverse crescent. Those were in other peoples
matches though, and I didn't feel up to trying one in my match. I saw a lot
of people, black belts especially, who would get up close and hug like boxers
do. The rules forbid pushing, but even a small push, or a step back would
have put them in a perfect position. That's what I've learned in class, but
I'm unable to do it yet. Any thoughts for me?

 There were a millions kids running around at first, and I was afraid I
was going to get some fingers or toes broken while stretching out. Is that
common?

 I noticed there were very few kicks to the head. Is that normal?

 I found it very hard to resist striking to the head. I understand why they
have that rule, but it seemed to make it easy for people to concentrate their
defenses on their stomach/chest.

 It seemed the higher the belt, the more point oriented the people were.
I know that points are the way to win a match, but still I thought it made
the people look like good tournament fighters, but poor all around fighters.
Not that I would want to take on anyone much above yellow at this point.

 There are some tournaments coming up next month in Arkansas and Topeka,KS.
Is there anyone who read this far who is going?

 Summation: My first tournament was very exciting (for those few minutes
that I fought), and it seems to have a very good positive effect on my
sparring skills and confidence.

--
|                                                                Rob Quinn |
|                                                         rjq@phys.ksu.edu |
|                                                    QuinnBob@KSUVM.BITNET |