October 2006 Competition Looming

I knew about the Karate competition that is being held on this coming Saturday even before I started Karate as it was posted on the calendar of my club's website. I looked at it and vaguely thought 'ooh' then didn't think much more of it after that. Over the last few weeks as the competition date has drawn closer our focus in class has been towards kata and sparring, especially for those competing.

On Monday night we were told to form groups and practice kata together so I opted to work on Pinan Shodan as I had only just managed to find my way around that one the week before so I wanted to get some practice in. Then Garry said that we'd each have to perform our kata in front of the class - eep! That was scary, and I was convinced that I had gone wrong but I hadn't. We did it facing the opposite way to the norm and it confused me as I thought that I ended up facing the wrong way. We were all scored with the scores being between 6 and 8. My score was 6.6 which I thought was pretty naff but not bad for these early weeks.

I was very surprised to get an email from Garry the next day asking if I would like to compete in the competition in one of the kata categories! I agreed though decided it would be best to stick to Pinan Nidan.

I wish I had known a few weeks earlier that I would be competing because I only actually realised last night just how bad my Pinan Nidan is! Often in class, we are told to just follow along and when you do that you don't usually observe all the intricacies of the stances, foot positioning etc. Plus, following somebody who is only a grade or two higher than you isn't necessarily a good thing as they may not know it properly either! Last night I was given some individual tuition from some high grades and found that there is one move in particular that I am doing wrong and I'm really struggling with it. The best I can do now is try to practice it in my living room over the next couple of evenings!

I'm not expecting to do particularly well in the competition. I will be the lowest grade in the category and most probably the least experienced. If I don't come last I'll be happy. Even if I do come last I'll have tried my best and when you think about having to do something in front of a group of strangers it really makes you want to do it well so its an incentive to do better if nothing else. Plus, the act of performing under stress in that way is great practice for gradings when nerves can get the better of you. My grading is not due until November so hopefully I'll be that much better equipped for it having competed.

Another reason I want to compete is because its just another aspect of the whole karate 'thing' that I can enjoy and I remember always being too scared to do it as a teenager. I would imagine that as the grades get higher, so do the standards of the competitors and to that end I'm sure its much better to start out with competitions from the earliest grade to get used to it. Deciding to start competing at black belt could be a scary prospect indeed!