ITKF nationals

Next weekend my province is hosting the ITKF nationals, the selection tourniment for team canada at the worlds held later in the year. As a lowely 2nd kyu I won't be able to attend the worlds even if i manage to win an event, so its just a learning expirence for me.

This will be my thrid time around competeting in a national event for karate, and the butterflies are starting already. I'll be competeting in ippon kumite (don't laugh medualant, lol) and kata. I'll be preforming Bassai dai and Jion in kata, both of which I've been working for some time now, well bassai for a long time. My kumite feels better than my kata right now, I've been away for school for 2 years so my technique has gotten sloppy, but I have gotten better at punching people in the face, lol.

Just reporting in again, so now I'm obligated to post the results of the ass whooping thats going to happen. Wish me luck and keep a look ot for the emergency flare i will launch into the air if I start to loose a fight, I ecpect one of you guys (goons) to swing in and bail me out, lol.

Now i have to go train.

Am I that bad SOL? Actually, as I am constantly evolving I really don't hate sport karate as much as you may think. For me it is not the rules, but how people "play" within them. I believe that any legit karate can be utilized within most forms of fighting competition from ippon kumite to mma. So good luck and remember, fight your fight.

Good luck SOL. You know what to do, just do it!

i only kid med, i've never been one for playing in kumite. it might be cheesy to say, but i like to treat it like life and death, at least in my head.

Best of luck!

only 3 of us in my devision, there was spposed to be 4 but one guy had to bail a few days before the competetion, oh well.

over all the competetion was awsome! with some of the hardest kumite i've ever seen. we had around 50 competetors in all the devisions, numbers were down because people had to fly to newfoundland, which in case you don't know is way the hell away from anywhere.

my parents got to see me compete for the first time which was great too, but my mom on the camera failed to video tape ant of the guys in my devision, lol. i'll get the video up soon so it can be picked to pieces. my kata went well, jion felt like my stronger kata going in, however i lost ballance in it a few times making my bassai dai the higher scoring for me.

ok, enough chit chat. i won both my events!!. gold in kata, dispite the loss of ballance, and a gold in kumite. with only 3 of us there was a bi up for grabs, and i got it. man i hate getting the bi! i'd rather earn it. as a result i only had one fight.....my foot work is something i've been working on since the last nationals and i think it paied off for me this time. the guy i fought was solid as hell and had very good timing, and i think he should have won to tell you the truth.

anyway, i'll be getting the video up as soon as my brother comes home and uploads it for me, lol.

osu

Nice one SOL. Shame about the Bi, why don't they do a round robin when they have three competitors? Makes much more sense to me. Anyway congrats, and I'm looking forward to the videos!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cf9X6gQCsJc

the first kata was a demo for the judges to get a feel for the average score to give for our devision and was not for points. the second one was bassai dai, and the third was jion. the strange thing was jion was feeling like my stronger kata going into the competetion, however i goofed it up hard core, lol. you can see the loss of ballance on the last gedan uke, and on the high x block combitnation i messed up the arm movement again, hard core. what the hell is the point of practice if it never works, lol. as i said before i got a bi in kumite, oh well. so i only had one fight. my foot work was what i've been working on most for that, and i think it has up alot from last years nationals. i still need to keep my freaking hands up, and im kinda proud of the foot sweeps, i love the look on the opponents face when you catch him with thoes. that "!" expression that only an exclimationa mark can describe, lol.

over all im please with how it went, there will always be things to work on which has been made painfully apparent by the camera, lol. please feel free to nail it with advice, i know i need it, it can only help. unless your name ends with the number 33, in that case don't reply

thanks

I don't know much about Shotokan kata, but you looked very sharp and exact in your movements.

The sparring was not my kind of thing either, I can't stand point stop. However, you played well, and it's not your fault the rules are not up my streak.

Nice job, Mark! Thanks for sharing.

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over all im please with how it went, there will always be things to work on which has been made painfully apparent by the camera, lol. please feel free to nail it with advice, i know i need it, it can only help. unless your name ends with the number 33, in that case don't reply

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Lol yeah, if only that rule would apply to all posts .

Anyway, very nice job man! Yous iz gotz da skillz or whatever the kids are saying these days.