Otsuka Memorial Taikai
Entered my first kendo competition last saturday. Its promoted as a laid back friendly event (though I was disappointed with some of the participants).
Anyway, the basics of it are, you register to compete, all those competed a separated into 3 groups, low, middle and high rank. Teams of three are then picked with 1 player from each group. The matches are then fought first by the low rank, then middle rank, then high rank, so that you only fight someone of similar level.
I was in the low group, and was teamed up with another member from UMKC ('A')in the middle, and a senior player from kenshikan ('S') who is only 2nd kyu. From this line up, we figured we wouldn't do too well so we just set out to have some fun. 'A' was still nursing and injury and 'S' felt he would be outplayed against the other high grades.
For our first round match, I was paired up with a young player from kenshikan. One thing to note for future reference is that you NEED to keep warm, and warm up properly before the matches. Going into the match I felt a bit underdone, and could have done with a couple of kirikaeshi to really warm up. But yeah, anyway, as I walked on the shiaijo, I was kinda nervous and almost lost balance in sonkyo, hehe, hope no one noticed. Can't say I remember much of the match, except for the ippon that I scored. Yay! my first ever point in a comp. Can't remember exactly what happened, but my opponent went for a cut (or something) and left his men gaping open, which I went for and it scored. No more points were scored after that, though I did feel that a couple of my cuts were kinda good, but obviously not really good enough to score.
The second match for our team ended in a draw. From what I saw, 'A' was more aggressive in the match, and if it lasted a little bit longer I think he would have scored, but oh well, thats kendo.
The third match, well not much to say, it all ended in like 20 seconds! hehe. 'S' went against a jodan player (the only one there that day). From sonkyo, both went up to kamae, opponent goes up to jodan... BANG! men-ari. Back to kamae... hajime... jodan... BANG! kote-ari, hehe. Was fun to watch, even though my team ended up losing. I should have won by 2 points in my match dammit. What made it more amusing is that 'S' was trying to rush me before our match, saying that I should put on men because the match before ours could all be over in a few seconds! ooh the irony.
All in all it was a good experience. 'S' shouldn't feel too bad because that jodan player won his second match even quicker! hehe. Bloody jodan players. The last match of the day was especially memorable. For the finals, after the 3 matches, the teams were tied, so there was a sudden death playoff between the two high grades. The match went on for like 15mins! which is quite long considering that each of the normal matches is only 3 mins long. It was really good to see two kendoka fighting it out especially when the match went on and both got tired, you really see 'spirit' coming through.
One thing I didn't like about the competition was the amount of 'pushing' going on. There were two players in particular that were most 'ugly' from my point of view. I remember in the very first match, one of the shimpans actually waved his flag out for hansoku (foul) against the player pushing but the other two shimpans allowed it. I'm glad I didn't have to fight that guy, but VKC is coming up, so I'll have to get some advice about pushing players, in case I ever run into him. Such ugly kendo. It was like... clobber, clobber, push opponent back to correct distant, then clobber, clobber... bleh..
Anyway, the basics of it are, you register to compete, all those competed a separated into 3 groups, low, middle and high rank. Teams of three are then picked with 1 player from each group. The matches are then fought first by the low rank, then middle rank, then high rank, so that you only fight someone of similar level.
I was in the low group, and was teamed up with another member from UMKC ('A')in the middle, and a senior player from kenshikan ('S') who is only 2nd kyu. From this line up, we figured we wouldn't do too well so we just set out to have some fun. 'A' was still nursing and injury and 'S' felt he would be outplayed against the other high grades.
For our first round match, I was paired up with a young player from kenshikan. One thing to note for future reference is that you NEED to keep warm, and warm up properly before the matches. Going into the match I felt a bit underdone, and could have done with a couple of kirikaeshi to really warm up. But yeah, anyway, as I walked on the shiaijo, I was kinda nervous and almost lost balance in sonkyo, hehe, hope no one noticed. Can't say I remember much of the match, except for the ippon that I scored. Yay! my first ever point in a comp. Can't remember exactly what happened, but my opponent went for a cut (or something) and left his men gaping open, which I went for and it scored. No more points were scored after that, though I did feel that a couple of my cuts were kinda good, but obviously not really good enough to score.
The second match for our team ended in a draw. From what I saw, 'A' was more aggressive in the match, and if it lasted a little bit longer I think he would have scored, but oh well, thats kendo.
The third match, well not much to say, it all ended in like 20 seconds! hehe. 'S' went against a jodan player (the only one there that day). From sonkyo, both went up to kamae, opponent goes up to jodan... BANG! men-ari. Back to kamae... hajime... jodan... BANG! kote-ari, hehe. Was fun to watch, even though my team ended up losing. I should have won by 2 points in my match dammit. What made it more amusing is that 'S' was trying to rush me before our match, saying that I should put on men because the match before ours could all be over in a few seconds! ooh the irony.
All in all it was a good experience. 'S' shouldn't feel too bad because that jodan player won his second match even quicker! hehe. Bloody jodan players. The last match of the day was especially memorable. For the finals, after the 3 matches, the teams were tied, so there was a sudden death playoff between the two high grades. The match went on for like 15mins! which is quite long considering that each of the normal matches is only 3 mins long. It was really good to see two kendoka fighting it out especially when the match went on and both got tired, you really see 'spirit' coming through.
One thing I didn't like about the competition was the amount of 'pushing' going on. There were two players in particular that were most 'ugly' from my point of view. I remember in the very first match, one of the shimpans actually waved his flag out for hansoku (foul) against the player pushing but the other two shimpans allowed it. I'm glad I didn't have to fight that guy, but VKC is coming up, so I'll have to get some advice about pushing players, in case I ever run into him. Such ugly kendo. It was like... clobber, clobber, push opponent back to correct distant, then clobber, clobber... bleh..
posted by Son at 12:01 pm
2 Comments:
How about my rhino waza? In my defence, that was to counter the pushiness of my opponenets. My flimsy and lanky body has trouble staying up and balanced, so I have to resort to animal tactics. Plus it's great for the audience to watch, I'm told.
Nah, your rhino waza was nothing compared to that other guy. I noticed that some people who went against him did push back. I can't remember his name though. Do you know who I'm talking about?
And I'm sure I would have just fallen over had I gone against him. I should also note that he got a taste of his own medicine near the end. He pushed and pushed until his opponent was almost out, then somehow they switched sides and his opponent managed to push him out, hehe... karma
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