Kita Katsushita-Gun Open Tournament, 30th January 2010

Pictures Courtesy of Arakawa Sensei's Blog

Peter Here;

The year's competition calendar literally kicked off with the Kita-Katsushita Area Taikai on Sunday 30th January. Technically, I was still told to not compete by the doctor because of my toe recovery, but a combination of my foot feeling great (no pain at all for a while), and itchiness to get back into training and competing meant that I was lining up with the other competitors at the opening ceremony.

As this was an open tournament, the major styles had come to participate; Goju, Shito, Shotokan and Wado were all present, and it was great to see some old faces from previous tournaments again. I even surprise them with some (allegedly) improved Japanese!

Kata was first, and it wasn't so good for the Wado entrants, as could be predicted. Personally I love Wado kata, but the other styles had fielded a strong set of competitors, including in my category. I felt happy that I had given my best shot with seishan (even Arakawa Sensei said it was my best attempt yet, despite the weird kicks and shiko dachi), so I was satisfied with how I did even though I went out at the first hurdle.

Pictures Courtesy of Arakawa Sensei's Blog

Kumite was a bit better, as I was drawn against a relatively easy opponent in the first round, winning 5-0. What I was even happier with is that I was scoring with punches and not relying on my feet (although I must say my healing foot forced me into it somewhat). The next round however saw me compete against Toyama Sensei, one of Arakawa Sensei's many friends. He was BIG and, to be honest, the fear stopped me from performing. I seized up, and ended up losing 3-0. The problem was that I could see scoring opportunities, but didn't think I was fast enough to get them. I will work on this.

As usual for the tournaments, many kids from the Shiramizu English classes were there, and I spent a lot of time with Sae, Kaho and Saho from the Monday class drilling them on distance and gyakuzuki. Whenever I get the chance to do this it reminds me of how much I love coaching the kids, both in English and Karate, and it's really something I'd love to do back home now.

Shiramizu ended with medals and many best 8's, and overall it was a good haul for them. Considering that I had been injured and unable to train for the past five weeks, I felt my performance wasn't disappointing, though for the next tournament I must improve if I am to reach my goals of at least two silver medals this year. Back to the Dojo!

Sen-no-sen arimasen

Peter Here,

This week we have been working on 'Sen-no-Sen', which is essentially the interrupting of your opponent's intention to attack just before he starts it.

Not wanting to sugar coat it or anything, but I don't think anyone in Shiramizu could be worse at this than I am. It's just something that doesn't happen at the moment as I think too much about fighting options, what I could or couldn't do. 'hmm, maybe I could.. Oh dang, too late- he's just scored.'

So because of that I was really trying to focus in on the training routines this week.

One of the most basic (and most often used) techniques is the gyakuzuki counter punch. Especially in the typically more linear style of Japanese karate fighting, the punch is launched just before the opponent begins his technique so it lands first, but with the opponent's aggressive momentum helping your cause. In Japan, I've also learned that dropping the body level can also help with the speed of the hip rotation with the added bonus of getting your head out of danger. This works as long as you keep your posture upright, as if you lean forward 'into' your counter you run a high risk of being hit harder by the opponent. What I need to focus on however is that I keep my posture upright in the counter and that the distancing between myself and the opponent is correct.



A drill is set with both attacker and counter-attacker in an uncomfortably close mawai (distance), with the attacker trying to launch a front jab without 'telegraphing' movement (telegraphing is preparing the shot in a way that gives away your intention to attack, such as pulling back the punching arm or excessive bending of the knees). The counter attacker must 'sense' when this is about to happen, then launch and land the counter punch.

As I said before, this is very difficult for me, so I ended up falling over a couple of times being overly twitchy or not registering the attack enough. It will take me a while to get this, but I am hoping I will have improved enough for the next tournament in January.

Arakawa Sensei also says this is good practice for me as I kick too much. Not only that, but it's a good sign that I have run out of an attack plan so I try and earn the larger points. Because of this, it's been really good to try and use my hands more to improve my armory. My reach is ok, so it is the timing and confidence that I need to work on.

Practise, practise, practise.

Men's Team Kumite Final Highlights at the JKF Wadokai Worlds

Here is the men's team kumite final, highlights only.

(I thought I had the women's final too, but it must be on another tape, so I will look again).

Richard

Nervous? I am...

(A recent picture of a class at the dojo from Arakawa Sensei's blog.)

It's Lawrence and it's just past midnight. I'm doing some laundry rather late because tonight, we had a visitor from Chiba visit the dojo and I went to dinner with him, Arakawa Sensei, and Kikuchi Sensei. It dawned on me that I haven't written here in a while so I thought I'd throw something out there.

Arakawa Sensei just referred to him as "Y" Sensei.

Our visitor, a 29 year old father of two who looks much younger than his age, runs a sports store in Chiba as well as teaches at his own dojo. He was visiting Shiramizu tonight to get a feel for how the classes are run and how Arakawa Sensei deals with the business aspect of running a full-time dojo.

Over dinner, of course, was much discussion about karate and one topic that came up was competing. Arakawa Sensei said that although he's grown rather comfortable in the kumite ring, he still gets nervous when it comes to kata.

Nerves being such a huge factor in competition performance, I thought about what Arakawa Sensei said and, despite having little competition experience and having competed only a handful of times in Japan, I find I agree with it.

I suppose what it comes down to is that in a kumite match, there are endless number of ways a match can be played out. The entire match is about reacting and adapting to the situation and so there isn't much time to really ponder the small details, let alone ponder anything at all, which reduces the nerves. Thinking back, I do think that the nerves have come down more quickly in terms of kumite than in kata.

With kata, I would practice over and over and be reaching for a specific image of how I want it to look. Any deviation from it in the ring runs the risk of throwing my concentration because it can't be redone. This "point of no return" feeling is what I think keeps my nerves up for kata competition- that I only have one chance at it.

I suppose the solution to both is to practice it all. Which ties very nicely back to what Arakawa Sensei said at the end of tonight's practice.

He was telling the students that it's no good focussing on only one side of karate. Those who excel in kata should strive to improve their kumite and vice versa. However, he said that what one chooses to compete in is a different story. There's no harm in wanting to be a kata champion so long as, during practice, one trains equally hard at both.

Arakawa Sensei said that choosing kata competition over kumite competition because one is afraid of kumite is not a valid reason to be just a kata-only player. But, choosing kata over kumite because you aspire to be an excellent kata player is a fine reason.

We'll see how my nerves play out in my next match I guess... til then.