IMA North Fork Championships

Okay, today is Saturday October 24th it's 9:32 am and I am currently sitting in staging waiting for opening ceremony to start. This is the first competition of the season so it's time to get the gears moving. I honestly abhor opening ceremony, they force you to stand in line and not move or talk while they go through all the names of the officials and such. I get that they want to thank everyone and all that but honestly it's boring, also they do the color guard and someone sings the national anthem which is pretty cool.

Now it is 10:56 and I'm watching the tournament waiting for my staging call. Since this is a small tournament there might only be one or two other girls in my division. I've already seen a girl from last year who is currently on the USA National Team. She will be going to Indonesia to compete in the World Junior Championships later in November. The first year I competed against her she destroyed me, literally. But... The second year I went against her I beat her in Kata but lost 1-0 in Kumite. This will be my third year going against her. The pressure is on. 

The tournament is over and I finished with two silver medals. I'm not totally thrilled with the results but I know I did my best. In Kata I lost, the vote was 3-2 a split decision that could have gone either way. In Kumite though I lost 3-1, in the last ten seconds she had three type two penalities. She went out of bounds again which meant she should have been disqualified but the judges apparently didn't notice... My coaches and spectators looked like they were going to start a rebellion. They know and I know she was out of bounds but I'm not going to dwell on it and let it bother me. Even though I was pissed I took a deep breath and went up to her after our match and congratulated her and wished her good luck in Indonesia. After all, good competitors like her can only make me better, she just better look out for our next match. 

Now all that's left to do is take a shower get some food and head back to Utah. I'm glad the first tournament is out of the way and now I can train harder for the rest of the season.