A completely unexpected gold medal in the beginner sparring tournament!
On November 9, I competed in a small Karate tournament put on by the Family Martial Arts Academy as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
Competition isn’t a huge focus of my Karate training, but this was a great chance to sign up and see what I could do. I signed up for both the Kata (form) competition and sparring. And that day, I was pretty nervous about both.
It turns out, although I knew my orange belt kata, I didn’t know it as well under pressure.
The end of my kata demonstration.
I know as soon as I finished I had made mistakes, but was proud of myself for just participating in front of an audience. I cheered on others and although I placed pretty low, it was still fun.
But I had also signed up for sparring, and when I saw the other people in my bracket, I was pretty nervous. Although we were all roughly the same belt level, some people were quite a bit bigger than me. I’ve been going to sparring classes though, and just like during a race, as soon as the matches actually started, I was calm. It’s just like a game of tag….
Getting a point (I’m the one with the long braid) in the gold medal match. Not sure it’s my best point of the competition, but a point is a point, I guess.
However, I am also reminded how limited my thinking gets under pressure. I’m not a big sports person and although I understand a bracket, I don’t necessarily understand a bracket when filled with adrenaline in the middle of competing in a bracket. So I didn’t really realize the significance of making it to the gold medal match until after I won the gold medal match…. or possibly only when they called my name to receive the medal. I like to think it’s because I’m focused on the job I’m there to do, but it’s possibly just the karate equivalent of runner brain.
My final match was actually easier because I had gotten over my intimidation a bit. Needless to say, I was pretty honored to suddenly realize I had won the match! Of course, I’m a little annoyed that I forgot some of the techniques I was trying to learn, but this was a great way to practice while under pressure and I even got rewarded for my efforts!
What I had fun with: Since my final match was against someone from a different dojo, it was fun suddenly realizing people were cheering for me to win.
What I need to work on: If I’m being charged in a sparring match, I can move sideways to get out of the way, not back up or just stand there (sounds obvious, but it’s like being a deer in the headlights). Also, practice a bit more poise in kata so I don’t panic on test day.
Kallen in Motion 