Coquille tournament - Congrats!

[eugene_shaolin]

Guys. I wanted to let you know that I thought you all did spectacularly well at the Coquille tournament. To go into your very first competition and walk away with any hardware at all is an achievement. But for you guys to dominate in the point sparring the way that you did is really amazing. Patrick from the Kung Fu club down in Brookings was a skillful (and more than a little intimidating) competitor who gave Justin a real run for his money, pushing the match into sudden death overtime and Justin came through with a brilliant stop-kick (just the way we trained) to clinch the match. That's about the most reaction I've ever seen from a crowd at a tournament over a match that wasn't black-belt level or a championship match. So.. major kudos go to Justin for not letting his opponent's size and skill get to him. Ric and Doug also fought very well, racking up the points against each other in some highly-entertaining and good-natured battles for first in their sparring division. Their final match against each other was also extremely close as they traded points off each other just as fast as they could launch off the line.

That said, we know what we have to work on, yeah? You all did well in forms too, bringing home some silver is nothing to sneeze at. But it seems there were memory issues all around and it's quite simply impossible to focus on the nuances of the demonstration when you're just trying to make sure you remember all the moves. It's clear we need to spend some more time hammering those forms into memory. And speaking of forms, let's get some weapons forms together for next time, yeah? Those weapons divisions would be more interesting with a little variety in them and we can certainly oblige.

All issues of performance and whatnot aside, I'd like to say that I was particularly proud to see my students immediately come into the tournament and start making connections with their fellow competitors. In past events I've been to students have been suspicious of other competitors, trying to scope them out and expecting the same. This time there was none of that garbage. You guys rolled up in there, found the only other Kung Fu guys in the place, and started shaking hands and talking shop. In the sparring where emotions can run a bit high, I saw nothing but courtesy and respect between competitors, including some genuine concern for the guy from Coquille TKD who chose to compete in sparring with injured ribs. This is exactly the sort of thing I'd like our group to be known for; good attitude and good Kung Fu..
Well Done..

-Brian

[Invader Matt]

I can't believe I missed it.  I really suck.

I need to know the date for the next tournament as soon as possible so I can get the time off work.......I am NOT missing the next one.

[FuyuRou]

Thank you Brian, its nice to know that even though we get lots of flak we are doing fairly well too. I am excited to prepair more for the next competition, I really want to build some blocking technique into my sparring game so that we can keep some of those points off, despite how entertaining 12 to 13 is.

And yeah, that guy with the broken ribs? Uh? He could have told us before hand so we'd kick the other side, I know I landed a solid point on that exact spot, but I guess he was being tough, and he didn't let it slow him down so that's totally cool. Hopefully we didn't slow down his healing;)

Weapons forms = good.

[eugene_shaolin]

I'll have upcoming dates we can take a look at tomorrow night if you guys are hot to go again.

[Justin L]

He also could have worn a body shield or simply not competed.  

[ric_miller]

i would like to start with ash comming in tommrow drilling the movements over and over of the first 2 of the star form and get them to where i can do them in my sleep. i will be doing this outside of class on my days off