It Continues ...

yesterday was the tournament in Kanata, held by Master Kou, Sir's instructor. the day started with me rushing to get my suit on, and i ended up judging in it without a navy tie. protocol is navy suit with ITF pin, white shirt and navy tie, but they excused it. lol so many junior black belts judged in uniform :I

but before that, we had Mac's for breakfast, and the lady serving us thought Sir and i were going to a meeting, all suited up. i joked that we were the Marshall kids' bodyguards.

when we reached the gymnasium, i gathered the kids from our club that were competing, and had a heck of a time making sure Kate and Elliot were not stuffing their face with my coffee. too late, they were hyper X) so i had to let them out of my sight while i judged.

Ellen's division was in the ring i judged at, and i sure can say im proud of her. well, im partly responsible when its regards to training her, because i teach some of the classes she's at :) her patterns were the only ones that had proper technique and some power. in sparring her hits always touched. even if i tried to be biased against her she'd 4-1 that opponent. i realised i was judging beside Master Kou's daughter, and she looked so stern i got scared of joking with her.

finally lunch came, and i used the appreciation ticket for a pizza, fruit and pop combo. i dont usually eat much before a fight, so i gave it all to Kate. seeing that Woodbridge TKD had a cute girl in the trio they sent, i asked Sir where they were from. Their instructor was a master too, and because i said that woodbridge in my country means mental instituition, he told on me XP their master was sitting at the same table and joked that they were from an instituition and i could have a go at their weakest fighter for 30 seconds. i instantly shut up, and Sir explained that i am guillible. i am so not, nowadays, at least i think...

blah blah, finally the black belt division came ;)

in patterns, i was getting fickle on which pattern i was to do. either i risk busting my ankle without ankle braces and do a Ju-Che, or i can stick confidently to Eui-Am. Brandon came, and i knew it would be so much harder a category. to us, he's the undefeatable in patterns. well, i wont consider much of my 4-1 in the last tournament against him, because Sir was the only one who voted for him, and that vote means the most to me. watching them all go up one by one, adrenaline started pumping, with the weariness and lactic acid still not removed. they were scoring by point system, and so far the average was 7.5. soon enough, it was my turn.

i picked - Ju-Che.

its called a parallel stance with twin side elbow, but it looks just like how superman stands with his hands by his waist. when the centre judge told me to start, i started walking forward, and plant my feet right before them. i stared into blank space, and started my pattern.

8s, 8.5s, 9s. i had started to set the benchmark. no one scored 9 in our division til i came along.

Brandon got one more 9 than i did when his turn came along though, but only i dared to do Ju-Che. its one of the toughest patterns, and one would definitely win if he/she pulled it off well enough.

next, it was sparring. when we divided the weight class, i got shifted to middleweight, with guys like 10-15 pounds heavier, and 6 foot tall. holy shit. it was a guy from Master Kou's, Graham and a guy from Master Bryan's. well, tough luck.

a judge commented on the pattern division while i was resting outside the ring, and all i heard Sir say was 'wait til you see them fight'.

my first fight was David from Kou's, and though he looked mean, i didnt feel that he gave me much to worry about. when i shouted loud and clear like i did the first time i competed in Canada, i knew this time - it was different. i wasnt the kid that would run from a head shot. the spectators laughed a little too early.

yeah, a few fast kicks but being a head shorter im surprised David couldnt land anything hard. i ran him out of the ring several times, and was taunting him half the time. i wish i remembered more of what i did, but all i know is he didnt like short guys jumping and punching him hard in his face :)

my second fight was for gold, and i faced a son of Master Bryan's, a 6 foot tall african kid. when i shouted this time, no one tried to giggle. this was a much harder fight, and i acknowledge that i took good hits to the face. im wondering what he thinks when he hits me right smack across my face, and i start smiling. Martin was coaching me, and he was like 'you crazy guy, smiling when he hits you. put your hands up!' all i could hear from Sir is 'do what we do for warm-up'. i switched from taunt, hit and run to tank mode. soon enough even loaded-up punches to my face didnt stop him from getting clobbered and finding himself out of the ring. i even sent him into the corner judge, who had to hold my opponent back from falling onto him. we even had a matrix moment where both of us did jumping reverse kicks, but his landed harder than mine.

the last round seemed to last the longest, but i was giving in. i started dodging his punches and gave him a few of mine in mid-air, and all he could do was stumble from them. the centre referee kept pulling us back from excessive contact, but to us it was just like we do in normal training. i ran him out again and again with the Polish tactic, and his size was no advantage. Sir mentioned when i open my eyes wide i look crazy, and thats exactly the look i had when i taunt him as he gets called back in for getting out of the ring.

the round finally ended, and we both were quite happy it ended. we hugged, knowing that no matter what the decision was, it was going to be tough. in a close count, sorry folks, i won.

in the car going to Master Kou's for a party later, Brandon told me that all of Kou's asked if it was that Clement guy they saw in the ring. they could not believe what i had become, and i cant complain.

as it is, the gold streak continues :)