Vegas USA Open

Photo curtesy of www.teamusa.org

USA Open is the largest tournament in the entire United States, people from all over the world come to compete in it. Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Ukraine, Japan, Russia, Venezuela, and tons of other teams came.

Day one was all kata I was competing in the Elite 15 year old girls division. I went up against a girl who was a former Pan Am Champion, I lost 2-3, then I waited to see if she would win again and she did. But in her third round she lost so I was out. My kata experience was short lived in US Open but then again there's always next year.

The next day was kumite, I won my first fight against a girl from New York. Then I lost my next round against a girl with trees for arms and legs. She has twice the reach I had. But she went onto the finals and I had to fight Venezuela. She was also tall and had a smooth cream porcelain doll face, and long light brown hair. I lost again. 

My last event of the weekend was team Kumite. For those of you who have no idea what team Kumite is don't worry I will explain. So Kumite is fighting so team Kumite is fighting with a team. But its not like a whole bunch of people fighting at the same time, I know that would be fun to watch. The teams are made up of 3-4 people. Each person from your team fights a person from another team. The two teams have three matches and whichever team wins two out of three of the fights wins. But if there's a tie, say team one won the first round and team two won the second then the third round tied, then it would come down to which team scored the most points. It's a little confusing but really fun to watch. I was fighting for team USA. Up first was Team Venezuela vs. Team Canada. Canada won because they're all six foot tall beasts with beautiful hair put in a ponytail braid. Then it was Team USA vs. Team Japan. Up first from my team was Rachel, she has a great reverse punch put she pulls her head which causes her to get hit a lot. She's the only person I know that has had six concussions from Karate. Anyways she wins her fight then it's my turn. I go out feeling confident and win 5-3. Since we already won two fights we go onto the finals against another USA team from California. Lexi goes first and wins her match. I'm second and I go against a girl I remember (specifically for her bad sportsmanship) from a tournament in Colorado. I start off and get two points then another one. She scores a punch so the score is 3-1. Then I score a head kick and that really made her mad. After that she started coming after me and knocked me down. Then as I'm on the ground she kicks me in the side. Who does that? So as you can probably see I was pretty mad and my ribs hurt, I get up and make a move towards her but restrain myself from punching her in the nose. She flinched pretty hard so I grinned as I walked over to my line. Thank god time ran out because I probably would of lost it. I go over to shake her hand but she turns her back and walks out of the ring. I shrug and walk out, my teammates stare wide eyed they say they've never seen such a disrespectful fighter. After a few deep breaths I start to relax. Our last match Rose, she is ahead the entire match until the last 10 seconds when the other girl scored a kick and won. Which mean the team from California wins gold and we win the silver. Even though we lost it was still the most fun event of the weekend. It's something about winning for your team, and having them cheer for you that it so powerful and fun.

Vegas Junior International Cup

Photo curtesy of www.teamusa.org

Recently I went to vegas for the 4th year in a row. In Vegas there is two tournaments going on in the time span of five days. First, was the Junior International Cup a fairly large tournament but mostly American competitors. That tournament lasts two days with kata on the first day and kumite on the second. So on the first day I woke up at 8:30 and walked over to the Paris where the venue was. Which was very convenient that we were only staying seven minutes away. Yeah but not in the fancy, bright casino, put a small mint on your pillow type Vegas hotel. No, we stay at the Jockey Club. Never heard of it? Don't worry no one else has either. The Jockey Club was built in 1974 one of the oldest hotels built on the strip. It's main customers are old people from the south that come to Vegas to gamble and smoke all day long. I'm not saying the Jockey Club is a horrible place, I mean the beds are comfortable, there's a full kitchen, and enough room for my family of seven so really it's the perfect place for us when we come for the tournament. But for your weekend getaway I wouldn't recommend it. 

So anyway first day we walk over to the Paris. First up is my brother, he's in the 10-11 year old boys division and it is stacked. There is about 30 kids in his division and they all look fierce. A couple hours later my sister goes up in the 12-13 year old girls division. Then shortly after I get called to staging (where you go to wait to be assignment a mat) for the 14-15 year old girls division. Surprisingly I only have to wait for about 15 minutes to go out. A lot of the girls I recognize from regional tournaments or Vegas last year. So I start warming up and getting my mind ready. Then it's time, we walk out in a single file line, bags stuffed with equipment, snacks, water, headphones slung over our shoulders. We sit next to a mat and wait for a boys division to end. Then we bow to the United States flag bow to the referees and start. I go third against a girl that I've never seen before. I win the match 4-1, next match against a girl I remember from last year, I win again 3-2, next match the semi-finals I go up and stumble slightly and scream to myself on the inside but I go on and finish strong, praying that the judges happen to be blinking. I walk back out and wait for the flags I win again and now I'm put into the finals.

But I'm going against my good friend from Florida, she doesn't favor kata but is still naturally good at it. So her dad makes her do it. She goes first and does an amazing kushanku then it's my turn I decided to do my newest kata that hasn't been out on the mat very often it has a 360 jump that is very difficult to land perfectly. I stuck the jump and won the vote. Now with the first day out of the way the stress levels go way down. Now it was time for more pasta, showers, and bed time.

Now onto day two, kumite. I started off good and won my first two matches and got to the semi-final round but then lost. Then I lost again going for 3rd place. The girls were all really great fighters and I feel lucky to meet and compete with them. 

Training Karate in Japan

Training in a traditional Japanese Dojo was a crazy experience. For one they didn't speak any english so trying to understand what they were saying was fun. Also, they are much more strict and formal. The first class we attended was full of 7-10 year olds. We bowed in, then warmed up. After we were warm we were told to get in groups of three, so I went with Daniel and Ari. They handed us three different sized pipes, a large, medium, and small. Then we put the pipes down and attempted to balance on them. After about 30 seconds we would switch. At first it seemed easy but after about three rotations our feet were aching. After we worked on balance, we started doing kata. It was amazing how accurate and sharp the young kids were. Unlike american kids that do karate that are sloppy and uncoordinated and can barley remember the moves (no offense american kids). I can just imagine how good they will be once they're adults. The next class we went to was for older kids ages 11-14. In that class I grouped with two girls they were both 12. As we did the drills they giggled at me because I couldn't understand what the teacher was saying. Some of the other kids spoke a little english but were too shy to talk to us. The third class we went to was for teenagers and adults. At the beginning everyone ran over and grabbed a helmet. In our dojo we don't wear helmets and my parents never made me wear one so wearing it for the first time was awful. It was hot and sweaty and itchy. I felt like I could barely breathe. Also the helmet threw my depth perception off majorly. I would try and kick and miss by two feet. So it took me awhile to adjust. After three classes in a row we were tired and starving. I'm grateful for the experience and that the Japanese people put up with us dumb americans. 

Training with Akira Fukuda

Photo curtosy of JAPAN MARTIAL ARTS CENTER

It's been a day since the seminar with Sensei Fukuda and I can barely walk. After five hours of training on Saturday and four hours on Sunday I am ready to go crawl into a ball under about 40 blankets and never come out. You would feel the same if you had to hold the same stance for 10 minutes then move as fast as you can. We did this one drill where you squat down then jump up over someone and land squat down that move up into a stance. At the time it didn't feel that hard, but trust me I felt that drill the next day. Overall the Seminar was really good. I learned a lot of different concepts and new perspectives on Kata. 

So a little background on Akira Fukuda. At first, he wanted to be a professional surfer but soon realized that surfing had no chance of being in the Olympics. So he started Karate. Now he's the USA National Team Coach, he has 9 US National titles, he's a Pan American Games gold medalist, he was ranked top 4 in the World, and was awarded the Olympic Athlete of the year award. Originally he is from a Shotokan Dojo but throughout his life he has come to master  all five styles of Karate. Which is very rare these days, mostly people stay in one style or two max. But his unique knowledge of all the styles and other styles of Martial Arts (judo, wrestling, Taekwondo, etc.) made him the perfect candidate for the US Kata coach. 

So I'm very thankful for the opportunity to meet and train with such an inspirational person. Hopefully I will be able to train with him again.

Outlier

Sometimes in my own dojo I feel like an outlier. My dojo is Wado style, the man who started the style was never really into Kata so he basically threw a few random Katas in his style and focused mainly on Kumite. When Karate people think of Wado they know, 'Oh those are fighters.' But I have always been drawn to Kata, the flow, the strength, the fancy jumps, all of it. The only problem is that Katas from my style don't exactly do well in competition. They're too boxy, and honestly kind of boring. 

Shito on the other hand has tons of Katas, so many I can't even count them all. The man who started Shito really liked Kata, he put a lot of effort into creating them. The first time I ever saw a Shito Kata was at a tournament in Colorado. A girl performed her Kata and it caught my eye instantly. I watched her move through it, she looked almost as if she was water and stone at the same time. She would flow like a river into the move then freeze like stone. Mesmerized I asked my Sensei what she was doing. because I had never seen anything like that before. He said, "Oh, that's Shito." 

I wanted so bad to learn Shito Katas and compete with them. The only problem was that no one knew them or was willing to teach them to me. All until one day Hector came to our dojo. Hector is a US Military Officer, and has a black belt in Shito. Of course I asked him to teach me and he did. I picked up Shito quickly and soon started to do them in tournaments. But that only created conflict. My Senseis did not approve of me learning Shito Katas because we are Wado. But I've rarely seen Wado Katas win, and I felt awkward doing them. Shito had finesse and the majority of the best Kata Champions in the World do Shito. Eventually, me doing Shito grew on them. They even bring Shito people in to do seminars. But still sometimes I can't help but feel different for wanting to be successful in Kata.


        Wado Symbol                                                              Shito Symbol

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. 

Kata and Kumite

In Karate there are two main events. They are called Kata and Kumite (koo-me-te). There's also weapon events but we won't get into that. Kumite is probably what you think of first when Karate comes to mind its the fighting. 

Kumite is one on one, you can punch, kick, sweep, and do takedowns. The matches range from 1-3 minutes depending on your age and division. You receive points from the judges. There are 5 judges per ring, 4 sit around the corners and the fifth is the head judge who stands. The four judges that sit around the ring have a red and blue flag that match the red and blue belts of the competitors. The maximum amount of points you can score in a math is 8. Once you have 8 points the match is over. Aside from points in Kumite there are also penalties. Class 1 penalties are physical penalties (hitting too hard, faking an injury etc). A Class 2 penalty is everything else (running away, disrespecting the referees, stepping out of bounds). If you receive 3 of either type of penalty you are disqualified from the match and automatically lose. 

Kata is a little harder to explain, it is a series of movements to demonstrate techniques. So like a dance? No, rule number one Kata is not a dance. I like to think of Kata like ghost fighting, it uses the exact same skills as Kumite except that no one is there. When you compete in Kata you go against one person, you both walk out onto the mat and perform your Kata the judges then decide which was better based on your speed, technique, focus, and power. If you win the match you go on and compete with the other people in your division. 

I hope this was helpful to anyone confused about the events in Karate and the rules. 

This is what a karate mat looks like. Picture curtsy of http://www.kenzensportskarate.com/ap