Karate Tournament Results
View Photos - I hope to have the video of our team kata and my individual kata posted this weekend.
We took 1st place in the Women's Team Kata. It was really close, as the second place team did a fantastic job of Jion perfectly synch'ed. We did Gojushiho Sho, which is a more difficult kata, so it gave us a slight edge. i haven't seen the video yet. i can't wait to see the video.
I took 2nd place in the women's black belt (age 28-35 category) individual kata. I did my kata more "martial" and the first place kata winner did hers more "art", but she had a lower stance and was more technically accurate than i was, and she trains at the main FSKA dojo (with Shihan), so I felt honored to tell her congratulations.
The best moment for me the entire trip was doing the Yame (finishing move back to the ready position), feeling the tape under my feet (you are supposed to start and end on the tape), and hearing everyone from my dojo start cheering very loudly for me. A close second best moment was having Shihan (the title for the top ranking instructor in the FSKA style of karate) take a picture of me during my individual kata (as my karate team told me afterwards). Now that is worth any gold medal. =)
Seriously though, it was an honor to be able to compete. It had been 12 years since i had competed in a tourament. And to train for 9 months straight, to be able to make a commitment to your team, to be able to follow thourgh injury-free, and to do compete among people from all over the world is why i love karate.
I cannot wait to see the video.
