So this weekend was tournament weekend. I didn't train on Saturday, I taught instead - just to keep myself active without wearing myself out. It seemed to keep the nerves at bay until I stopped moving and had time to think. Fortunately there was a lot of cleaning up to do and a few students may have accidentally got the brunt of my nerves and had an over perfectionist session with me.

sorry guys.

Sunday was a long day, inside the tournament venue was well into 40*C with very little air flow. And of course with everyone competing, warming up, stretching and practicing it probably increased the temp just enough to make it completely unbareable. they had only 3 rings instead of 4 so that made the running time go longer too. It also pushed all my events back further. The general run of a tournament is: get all the kids out of the way first and the adults can hang out for most of the day waiting - it never really goes that way though.

My first event was Weapons, but I was so nervous about fighting later that I fluffed it up. I still got 3rd out of 8 but..it was 3rd. There was more interest in Weapons this year but I think gumdo will always have an edge. Other then the fact that swords are just cool, Gumdo is all sword all the time and it makes it highly competative against clubs who have one pattern for the same weapon. Also the Gumdo people have upped the standard for ourselves this year. It makes it hard to beat us.

Unless you fuck it up. haha.

Onto my open hand stuff. I did forms first (took it out), Then Points sparring which I hate (2nd).

then a long wait till we got to Continuous Sparring.

Now, I'm a pretty aggressive person. I've spent a lot of time trying to simmer myself down, but at the end of the day my aggressiveness is just apart of me. Granted, I am a lot better then I used to be. I have a lot more control then I used to. I still see red when I get hit and..well..I hit back.

The first round I was in I got disqualified. I didn't get a chance to fight again. I hit her about 5 times HARD in the face, and almost took her out with a right hook. And it was a beautiful right hook. It really was. But I got a DQ. I didnt even get a warning, it was pretty much instant. Jim Casey (who runs the whole show) kept it going though. Everyone thinks he was enjoying it.

I try to learn control. And I will keep learning control. But its going to be harder the more I train in contact Karate/Kickboxing.

Ah well, I had fun. XD