Well, the tournament went well.  I could not do a weapons form, as this tournament’s rules pretty much ruled out all of our traditional forms.  No spinning, no behind-the-back passes, no over-the-head passes, no release moves, no acrobatics, no splits…

     Rules everything in our style out.

     Open hand form, I did not place.   One of the other contestants out-and-out told me that my problem was Kung Fu.  They just have a bias against Kung Fu.  But everyone I talk to at the tournaments thinks that Kung Fu is “cool” … so I think that the bias is one of misunderstanding rather than malice.  Like any bias, it is best eroded by knowledge and exposure.

     Also, a spectator walked through my form.  I almost hit him accidentally, and had to pull a technique, which threw me off….oh well, shit happens.  One of the girls said “Just hit the spectators.  Serves them right for walking through a ring.“  We laughed.  I felt better.

     Sparring went well, for the most part.  I had to wear a face cage, and I had never before worn one.  It freaked me out pretty bad, and gave me that panicked tunnel vision thing.  I hate the feeling of having my head trapped or immobilized.  It took me a while to get used to just head gear…but the face cage was…ugh.

     Unlike when I had my MRI, though, I couldn’t just go away inside my head and go skiing, because I had to fight.

     I won my first fight in less than a minute.  I did well against this lady with hook kicks to the body, as well as punches.

      My second fight I lost.  Here is where I get my pay back for the excessive contact in Diamonds that bloodied my opponent’s nose…this lady started off with a hard side kick that impacted the side of my right leg enough that I had no feeling but deep, bone numbing pain and muscle cramping.  I could barley tolerate standing on it, so I thought “crap, I have to fight left legged…then, she got me on the left leg, same spot, same sensation.  I had to take a minute of time-out.

     It’s hard to say if she was targeting my legs, but frankly, it’s hard to believe that she got me right in that spot on both legs in less than a minute.  I’ve been accidentally kicked too hard by guys much bigger than me, and she was kicking HARD.  I would say she was giving it all she had.  I got one good kick in on her…a reverse hook kick to the neck.  It was a beautiful kick, executed with perfect control, and surgical precision and strategy.

     I don’t feel bad about that fight at all, though here it is nearly fifteen hours later and my legs are still dead and aching.  I’m sitting here in the middle of the night with hot-packs on my legs.  It’s all part of the game, though, and I got in one nice kick in the match I lost, a commanding win in the match I won, and walked away with a second place trophy in a field of six…OK, hobbled away with a second place trophy in a field of six.