Satisfaction at last

Until today, I had been less than thrilled with my past experiences in karate tournaments. Most of them left me feeling like I was just mediocre. No matter how hard I worked, it was unknown if the hard work would be paid off. My chances of victory all depended on the opinion of three judges, regardless of if they actually knew what they were talking about or not.

That comment may seem bitter or unsportsmanlike, but I can't help but look at it that way. Everyone would tell me "Well, as long as you did your best, that's all that matters". I know this. But do I have to shell out 20 to 50 bucks per tournament to go and get beat in order to be sportsmanlike? I do my best every day in karate class itself. One of the biggest reasons I started karate was because I saw it as an oppurtunity to grow stronger and embark on my own journey of self-improvement. Finding yet another area in life where you have to try to be better than someone else wasn't on my agenda.

The whole purpose of the tournaments is to practice healthy competition, so with that in mind I would try to make the best of the situation. Whenever I lost to someone in competition who clearly did a better job than I did, I was the first to acknowledge it. But when someone who has a careless and indifferent attitude toward the martial arts scores higher than me, I get mad.

Her name is Hilary. Numerous times in past tournaments she would be in the same division as I was in kata or weapons forms. I would always try my hardest in kata and weapons demonstrations, being loud and precise in my battle with an imaginary opponent that we all perform back at the karate studio to practice our form and knowledge of the art.

Hilary, on the other hand, seemed to do the bare minimum every time. Her stances in each move were almost non-existent, she went through the moves too quickly, and she put almost no strength in her punches and kicks. Her basic presentation of herself implied that she didn't care how hard her competition was, because she was just going to have the trophy regardless of her work ethic and that the whole competition was one big joke.

The result?

"First place: Hilary Davis!"

"....You've got to be s---ing me" I would think to myself.

After a few tournaments I decided that I just wasn't going to do them anymore. I gave tournaments a chance, but I'd rather keep my money and use it on something else. That's what I thought, anyway.

I, along with several other boys my age, got called in after class to speak with Renshi, our teacher, after class. He told us that he was inviting us to participate in the sparring team challenge at the end of the tournament, and if we decided to go, we would have to pay the full fifty dollars to compete in all divisions.

When he asked who was interested, all the other boys immediately said "I'm interested sir!". This meant that I was going too, because I couldn't be the only one in the room saying no to the offer. This teacher is a guy who made a woman continue to spar during black belt testing after she cracked her sternum unless she wished to fail the test and he had the ability to make any of my classes a living hell. I wasn't about to flat out refuse him, especially not alone.

So I went to the tournament today. Eventually, it was time for us to perform our kata for the judges. There were six of us, including Hilary. I went up and performed passai sho, the latest kata that I have learned by heart. I did my best, and I got a decent score. Soon after, Hilary went up and performed the same kata.

Or that was her idea anyway.

Halfway through her kata she stopped. "Um.....um.....ugh.....may I start over?" She didn't remember the kata. The judges allowed her to start again, as every student has an oppurtunity to try once more in tournaments.

Punch, outside block, twist outside block, turn inside block, twist outside block..................................."umm...uh...ehhh! Can I start over?"

For some reason, they allow it, even though it's unprecedented as far as I know to let someone start over twice. But I didn't care, I was too happy to see this day: she sunk to a new level of bad technique when she couldn't even recall what the technique was. She owned herself so badly that not even the judges could pretend she was doing a good job anymore.

In the end of this division, I received third place and Hilary got dead last and a little ribbon that said "sixth".

As for myself, I'm happy that I got as far as I did. Placement wise I didn't do that well, but I noticed personal improvements that I made since my last few tournaments. That alone made me happy because it relates back to my original purpose of self-improvement. Having said that, I'm starting to think that these tournaments aren't as unrelated to my goal as I originally thought.