U.S. Open

The U.S. Open is quite possibly the largest tournament in North America. The hotel resort was located in Disney World which makes this tournament the best family vacation tournament in the country because it always held around the July 4th and its location lets you really make a vacation of the tournament. I started the tournament on a rushed note. My plan arrived at 100 pm and then I waited for an hour to get my luggage. As I took the shuttle to the tournament I looked at my watch to find that it was 300 pm -- my scheduled competition time. Luckily the tournament hardly runs on time. I took my luggage right into the Grand Ballroom competition area of the hotel and got situated by my competition ring. I didn't compete until about 6 pm.

It was kind of cool to compete with all my weapons divisions on Friday. I don't focus my training on my weapons competition as much as my traditional form competition anymore, but competing Friday was a good warm-up for traditional form on Saturday. It's nice to get in front of the judges and crowd and just do it. I fared well with a 3rd place finish in my Creative Weapons Division (fancy, more contemporary style) and 4th in my Traditional Weapons Division (which earned my top ranking back -- I'm now the 4th ranked competitor in the country with that placing).

The next day was like an endurance wait-a-thon. I was scheduled to compete at 900 am, but I knew full well that I would be competing at that time. Nevertheless, I wanted to be prepared. The Korean Style Forms division went first then the Japanese style form (my division).

SIDENOTE: It's funny that I'm competing in a Japanese Style form when I'm Korean, and my competition buddy is competing in the Korean forms when he's actually Japanese. Well, I thought it was funny.

BACK TO THE ACTION. The Korean division had 31 people in it!!! I don't know how I would judge 31 people in a division. It's pretty hard to win if you're not nationally ranked. That division took 2 hours to finish. So my division started at 11 am. There were 40 PEOPLE in my division. I'm ranked 2nd in the country, so I get to go 2nd to last (pretty awesome privilege). I competed after 1 pm. Phew! I feel bad for the judges. They're volunteer. Many of the judges run their own tournaments, so part of the deal is they come to judge the other tournaments, and then the other promoters return the favor. I ended up in 3rd place. I think I've been putting to much pressure on myself, and I'm trying NOT to make a mistake instead of really cutting loose. I've talked to Mr. Nicklaus and Suzann Wancket, and I figuring out a game plan to get mentally ready. I'm training harder than ever, so it's just a matter of getting my head right.

SIDENOTE: No video this time. Ask Ms. Facchinello about it :)

SIDENOTE2: Also, I had a great time hanging out down there. I've befriended some guys from Chicago who train with John Sharkey (Suzann Wancket's instructor), and we ended up playing volleyball late at night and swimming. If you go to Disney, check out Coranado Springs Resort. Pretty cool area. Unfortunately, I had a 6 am flight back, so I had no sleep that night, but I slept on the plane ride back. I got that down to a science -- SIT DOWN & SLEEP. I usually wake up when people are deboarding (yeah, i know i made up a word, leave me alone). :)

Battle of Atlanta - July 27-28