I feel, soo… unsyetisfied

Had the UMKC championships on Saturday.

Wasn’t really expecting much out of it. Maybe a good draw where I can win a couple of matches.

I drew Viet for the first round. Rematch from our last shiai before the AUG where we drew 1-1. Made sure I got a good warmup this time. Good stretches, and a few suburi, then a couple sets of hayasuburi. I was nice and puffed out, and I broke a sweat. My match was the third match so I put on my men and kote before the any matches got underway. Managed to get 1 set of kirikaeshi with Tom too. Before my match I just tried to relax, and keep my body warm. By the time it started, it was just all automatic. Last thing I remember was my kiai to start. Can’t remember how I scored my first men cut on him. Early on his men himo was loose, so the fight had to be stopped. I had to go back and squat down holding my shinai in front of me. I did it without thinking, because I’d seen it done before. However, while Viet was doing his himo, I realised that my kensen was pointing down, and I thought to myself, hmm, I think the kensen should be pointing up. Sure enough, Pai Mei, who was shimpaning, had a quick word to me, telling me that it’s the other way around. I saw Masato (said with a really aussie accent) taking pics with Russels camera, and I was really hoping that he’d taken one of me in that pose, but alas, he didn’t know how to use Russ’ camera. Anyway, the fighting got back underway. A few ai-men cuts, I attempted a nuki dou in there too, but it didn’t land nicely, damn. Then at one point, he had his shinai in a katsugi kinda position (probably after going back from a hiki cut), but I saw his men was gaping open, so I went for it, but I was too slow, he got my kote which scored, even though my cut landed on his men. I don’t think that’s fair really, yeah, sure, he cut my hand off, but he’d be dead once I sliced his head in half! Ah well. 1-1 again eh… lets play. Now this is the first time, or the closest, I’ve ever felt being in ‘shiai’ mode. I just felt really focussed and had that constant feeling of wanting to cut. For the last cut, I just remember seeing the opening and I went for it. His shinai went slightly to my right, so I went for kote and BAM! All in all, it was a really enjoyable fight, I wish all my jigeiko’s are like that, cos kendo would just be heaps more fun. So yeah, now I’m out to perhaps ‘manufacture’ that feeling, though I have tried it before, mainly during ippon shobu, but well… it just feels ‘manufactured’. And yeah, I swear at one point, Viet took his left hand off the tsuka and held the blade with his left hand when trying to block one of my hiki men cuts. That was dodgy as, and I even paused to wait for the hansoku, but no one saw it.

Then my next fight was with Tom. Dang! What a shitty draw. He’s AUG champion, and selected in the green and gold team, ahead of dan grades! But yeah, this is the attitude that lost me the match. 2 quick cuts and it was all over. After the match, I was pondering what went wrong, and the biggest thing that went wrong in that match was my spirit was killed by Tom’s reputation before I even stepped into the shiaijo. I was all over the place. Even when we bowed before we step out, I said arigato. Bleh, not focussed at all. I wish I had my time again though. Hmm, perhaps this can help me ‘manufacturer’ that spirit, ie, for my sparring from now on, I can reflect upon this fight and play like I know I should have played, rather than the way I actually did. So yeah, this is the lesson in how NOT to do it. Tom went on to win the championship, so I didn’t feel that bad, but still feel bad for the way I performed.

He beit me, sturayght up… pay him.. pay that man his shinai… (in the voice of Teddy KGB, Rounders)