Bluegrass Nationals 2007

(check out the video of my form below)
Louisville is a beautiful city. The hotel that the tournament was at is set right on the Ohio river. I got into Kentucky around 1230 pm est, and since I didn't have to compete I hung out with some competitors from the Minneapolis area that I've gotten to know over the years. Ms. Facchinello also made the trip out to tournament this year, too.

Meeting with the Trans

My Friday surprise was running into the Tran family at the tournament. The Tran's is a family that had their kids in our program and then moved to Lexington, KY last June. There two oldest earned their Black Belts and the other earned her senior blue belt. I knew that the Tran's were coming to the tournament, but I thought that they were coming later Friday night. Anyways, I got the call that they were there, and I meet them. We spoke for a few hours catching up on how things are going. The kids--Danh, Thien-Huong, and Kim--are really maturing both in size and personality. It was also really cool seeing their newest baby daughter, Thien-Lan, who smiles and trys to get her way with people. They've finally gotten the kids back into Martial Arts, and not to brag (but kinda-heehee), Mrs. Tran said that she couldn't find a school as good as what she found in LaX (yessss!). The found a pretty good school now. Unfortunately, I didn't compete until Saturday, they weren't able to come and watch, but they'll be more trips to Kentucky to compete and see them.

Competition

Competition started bright and early. First up was my traditional weapons division. I lost my Top 4 ranking because I didn't compete in Traditional Weapons at the last tournament, so I was 2nd up in the order to compete in this division out of 11 which is a hard position to win from because the Top 4 get to last in the order, and the judges expect them to do well which means that they hold the top scores for them. Ah well. I ended up with 6th.

Creative weapons was next where I'm the number 2 ranked competitor in the nation, so I got to perform second to last which is really nice. It's funny to say, but I use this division as a warm up for my Tradtional Form division. I got a 2nd place in this division, so I almost beat the top guy.

Next up, Traditional Form. I've trained so hard for this, going to Chicago to train the two previous weekends, staying up late after hours practicing my form, running at 10 or 11 pm--HARD. Also, I've got my head straight. Some good advice I've gotten from John Sharkey, Jr was that I shouldn't be worried about competing or chasing the #1 guy as much as doing my best for me. This took the tension off my brain so much. I didn't say "oh my god, there he is, I have to beat him" when I ran into him on Friday night, so I was relaxed. I went out and did the best form that I've done in a while. I wasn't tired at all because of my hard training, and I got some good scores -- 9.99, 9.98, 9.99. The #1 guy was up after me, so I knew that he'd have to do really well to beat that. Turned out he only beat me by .01 getting straight 9.99 which is frustrating to see, but I'm just gonna push HARDER, physically and , more importantly, mentally to get the results that I desire.

"Every man is what he is because of the dominating thoughts
which he permits to occupy his mind"

Best Regards,

P.S. MISS YOU TRANS!!! Until next year - maybe sooner ;)

Bluegrass Nationals 2007 - Traditional Japanese/Okinawan Form

Sensei Says...

When your Instructor (Sensei) asks you to do something, you do it.

I went to Chicago this past weekend to train with John Sharkey, Jr who's reveared as one of the top instructors in the country. People from all over come to his school to train for tournaments. I went there because he's Suzann Wancket-Yue's Sensei. During my time there, he asked me to practice my traditional form by running the form over and over and over without trying to put any pauses in there -- just run the form in the fastest, most mechanical way. He said do that for 3 or so days, and then add the timing back in. In theory, it will help fix any problems with my timing that I've had.

So far, day 1, I ran my form 20 times just absolutely running myself into the ground, but after every form I take a one minute break, close my eyes, and think why I'm doing this -- I want to get better. After the minute, I open up my eyes, walk backwards, say aloud, "this is what champions do," and then start another form.

When your Instructor asks you to do something, you do it.

(fist raised in the air),




Next Tournament: Bluegrass Nationals -- Lexington, KY -- June 15-16