Bill Mattocks
06-26-2011, 08:45 AM
IWKA 2011 Tournament in Indianapolis.
Men's advanced underbelt ages 45+. I came third out of five competitors. It was hard-fought and I am somewhat damaged. My left hand is completely jammed (lesson: do not block low kicks with an open hand), I was punched so hard in the upper right chest near my right shoulder that I think I may have a cracked rib (hurts to breathe, laugh, cough, sneeze, etc), and I fell painfully onto one knee and that's all bruised up. It was awesome.
Let me tell you, I've sparred before in competitions, but these guys are some rock-a-rollers. The real deal. They hit, they hit hard. This ain't no game of tag like the other competitions I was in. It's supposed to be, though...as I found out when I dishonored karate.
Let me just start by saying that for the first time sparring, I felt that I had accomplished something. I actually lost my first match, but I felt I was winning. I was using a new stance, with my trailing arm held low over my abdomen, to block the kicks to the midsection that had been destroying me in previous competitions. It worked. I was blocking kicks very well. I was told by others that my biggest problem now is failure to immediately capitalize on the block by following up with an attack - good info. But I was frustrated my first bout. My opponent and I were pretty evenly-matched, I thought. Both stocky guys who like to fight inside. He threw more kicks, but as I blocked them all (I think), he abandoned them and we started going toe-to-toe punching. But I was landing shots left and right - they were not being called. Four corner judges and no one was seeing these shots I was getting in! And believe me, I'm no prima donna; in every previous competition, I lost fair and square, no whining. I was just elated that I was doing things right, but no calls were coming my way! I noticed that my opponent was ki-ing after every punch, maybe that was it.
Anyway, after a bit, his punches on me were not being called either. We'd just break apart, both knowing a point had been scored, and the center judge would say "Well? What are you waiting for? Fight!" So we'd shrug and go again. I heard 'time' called, but I think the center judge didn't hear it; we kept going. And since no one was calling our hits, we started to hit harder. He kicked me in the slats (I was protected, no damage) and I punched him in the face (a no-no, lack of control on my part). We slammed body blows into each other like rock-em-sock-em robots. Nothing. I mean, four corner judges, we are hitting each other so hard that the sound was attacking people from all over the room, and nothing was being called! Not mine, not his, nothing! So we went at each other hammer and tongs. Our time was even up (I think) and nothing...so we kept on hammering at each other.
Then we heard the command to 'yame!' and were told to kneel facing apart. I did not know what was going on.
Turns out that Kichiro Shimabuku Sensei was watching our bout. He chewed out the judges for letting us get so physical. We had dishonored karate. We were stood up and ordered to stop driving our punches home with every shot. I wanted to say "But sensei, you seem not to see our light punches," but one does not argue with the ref, so I simply said "Yes, sir." He said "We all see you know how to fight, but this is supposed to be light-touch sparring!"
So the head of the entire IWKA thought my opponent and I were a disgrace for hitting so hard, and the judges were all dressed down good and proper, and Sensei ordered that the entire division fight all over again from the beginning. Oops.
So we fought again. Once again, I was happy with my performance. I missed with a kick and slipped on the carpeted floor of the hotel we were in, and fell on my knee awkwardly, so that's kind of bruised up. I advanced and eventually had to fight for third place.
In my last bout, I fought an opponent who was tall and lanky, so I figured he would try to keep me outside and use kicks on me. I was right. Unfortunately, I think he got frustrated with me blocking all his kicks and moving in on him, and he threw a real strong snap kick straight up at me, and I tried to pat-block it down with an open hand. My fingers were extended, and his kick just devastated them. My glove actually flew off and I fell to the ground in pain.
They stopped the match for a minute or so for me to get my composure and see if my fingers were broken or not. They seemed to be just jammed badly. They asked if I could continue and of course I said yes. I would have wanted to continue if I had to staple my head back on, you know? So one of the corner judges strapped my glove back on for me and I went back in. This time, I backed my opponent up with blocking his kicks and punching him until he was nearly out of the ring. I could see how frustrated he was getting (and by the way, my body blows were getting counted about half the time). I wanted that win very badly now. He did land one very nice kick on me that I utterly failed to see, right on the point of my hip - no damage, but it was like the old days when I missed blocking every kick. Anyway, I had him backed up to the edge of the ring, and he shot a strong straight left into my upper right chest, near the shoulder. He must have had some smoke on it, because the pain that shot through me was incredible, and it knocked me back - I'm not easy to knock back when I'm moving forward. Everybody gasped. I came back up into a fighting position, but the judge stopped the match and we had to kneel down facing away again.
The judges had a short confab and my opponent was disqualified for excessive use of force. I felt badly - I know I was hit hard, but I wanted to continue. I did not want to win like that. I went over and told my opponent that in my opinion, he had with with that shot and we both knew it. He seemed like a really nice guy; I sure felt bad over it and I know he wasn't happy either.
So that was it. I collected my trophy, got a team photo taken with my dojomates (they all did great, and congrats to them) and threw on my jeans and drove back to Detroit.
I'm hurting a bunch. The ribs are bad, I may go to the ER later today to get an x-ray. That was one hell of a punch. The fingers are my fault. I hope they heal up by the end of July, when I'm sparring at the Isshin-Ryu Hall of Fame Tournament in Chattanooga, TN.
So that's the story. First competition I've felt good about in terms of my own performance. I knew I was improving, but having kick after kick slammed into my midsection while I stood there and took it was driving me nuts. A dojomate showed me a different way of holding my guard, and I tried it and it worked really well. Turns out I have a good low block against kicks, as long as I can get there in time (and keep my bloody fingers in a fist, duh). So win or lose, I felt I did really well. Top of the world. And I have all respect for my opponents. Great guys, good fighters, and I was privileged to be allowed to fight them.
Men's advanced underbelt ages 45+. I came third out of five competitors. It was hard-fought and I am somewhat damaged. My left hand is completely jammed (lesson: do not block low kicks with an open hand), I was punched so hard in the upper right chest near my right shoulder that I think I may have a cracked rib (hurts to breathe, laugh, cough, sneeze, etc), and I fell painfully onto one knee and that's all bruised up. It was awesome.
Let me tell you, I've sparred before in competitions, but these guys are some rock-a-rollers. The real deal. They hit, they hit hard. This ain't no game of tag like the other competitions I was in. It's supposed to be, though...as I found out when I dishonored karate.
Let me just start by saying that for the first time sparring, I felt that I had accomplished something. I actually lost my first match, but I felt I was winning. I was using a new stance, with my trailing arm held low over my abdomen, to block the kicks to the midsection that had been destroying me in previous competitions. It worked. I was blocking kicks very well. I was told by others that my biggest problem now is failure to immediately capitalize on the block by following up with an attack - good info. But I was frustrated my first bout. My opponent and I were pretty evenly-matched, I thought. Both stocky guys who like to fight inside. He threw more kicks, but as I blocked them all (I think), he abandoned them and we started going toe-to-toe punching. But I was landing shots left and right - they were not being called. Four corner judges and no one was seeing these shots I was getting in! And believe me, I'm no prima donna; in every previous competition, I lost fair and square, no whining. I was just elated that I was doing things right, but no calls were coming my way! I noticed that my opponent was ki-ing after every punch, maybe that was it.
Anyway, after a bit, his punches on me were not being called either. We'd just break apart, both knowing a point had been scored, and the center judge would say "Well? What are you waiting for? Fight!" So we'd shrug and go again. I heard 'time' called, but I think the center judge didn't hear it; we kept going. And since no one was calling our hits, we started to hit harder. He kicked me in the slats (I was protected, no damage) and I punched him in the face (a no-no, lack of control on my part). We slammed body blows into each other like rock-em-sock-em robots. Nothing. I mean, four corner judges, we are hitting each other so hard that the sound was attacking people from all over the room, and nothing was being called! Not mine, not his, nothing! So we went at each other hammer and tongs. Our time was even up (I think) and nothing...so we kept on hammering at each other.
Then we heard the command to 'yame!' and were told to kneel facing apart. I did not know what was going on.
Turns out that Kichiro Shimabuku Sensei was watching our bout. He chewed out the judges for letting us get so physical. We had dishonored karate. We were stood up and ordered to stop driving our punches home with every shot. I wanted to say "But sensei, you seem not to see our light punches," but one does not argue with the ref, so I simply said "Yes, sir." He said "We all see you know how to fight, but this is supposed to be light-touch sparring!"
So the head of the entire IWKA thought my opponent and I were a disgrace for hitting so hard, and the judges were all dressed down good and proper, and Sensei ordered that the entire division fight all over again from the beginning. Oops.
So we fought again. Once again, I was happy with my performance. I missed with a kick and slipped on the carpeted floor of the hotel we were in, and fell on my knee awkwardly, so that's kind of bruised up. I advanced and eventually had to fight for third place.
In my last bout, I fought an opponent who was tall and lanky, so I figured he would try to keep me outside and use kicks on me. I was right. Unfortunately, I think he got frustrated with me blocking all his kicks and moving in on him, and he threw a real strong snap kick straight up at me, and I tried to pat-block it down with an open hand. My fingers were extended, and his kick just devastated them. My glove actually flew off and I fell to the ground in pain.
They stopped the match for a minute or so for me to get my composure and see if my fingers were broken or not. They seemed to be just jammed badly. They asked if I could continue and of course I said yes. I would have wanted to continue if I had to staple my head back on, you know? So one of the corner judges strapped my glove back on for me and I went back in. This time, I backed my opponent up with blocking his kicks and punching him until he was nearly out of the ring. I could see how frustrated he was getting (and by the way, my body blows were getting counted about half the time). I wanted that win very badly now. He did land one very nice kick on me that I utterly failed to see, right on the point of my hip - no damage, but it was like the old days when I missed blocking every kick. Anyway, I had him backed up to the edge of the ring, and he shot a strong straight left into my upper right chest, near the shoulder. He must have had some smoke on it, because the pain that shot through me was incredible, and it knocked me back - I'm not easy to knock back when I'm moving forward. Everybody gasped. I came back up into a fighting position, but the judge stopped the match and we had to kneel down facing away again.
The judges had a short confab and my opponent was disqualified for excessive use of force. I felt badly - I know I was hit hard, but I wanted to continue. I did not want to win like that. I went over and told my opponent that in my opinion, he had with with that shot and we both knew it. He seemed like a really nice guy; I sure felt bad over it and I know he wasn't happy either.
So that was it. I collected my trophy, got a team photo taken with my dojomates (they all did great, and congrats to them) and threw on my jeans and drove back to Detroit.
I'm hurting a bunch. The ribs are bad, I may go to the ER later today to get an x-ray. That was one hell of a punch. The fingers are my fault. I hope they heal up by the end of July, when I'm sparring at the Isshin-Ryu Hall of Fame Tournament in Chattanooga, TN.
So that's the story. First competition I've felt good about in terms of my own performance. I knew I was improving, but having kick after kick slammed into my midsection while I stood there and took it was driving me nuts. A dojomate showed me a different way of holding my guard, and I tried it and it worked really well. Turns out I have a good low block against kicks, as long as I can get there in time (and keep my bloody fingers in a fist, duh). So win or lose, I felt I did really well. Top of the world. And I have all respect for my opponents. Great guys, good fighters, and I was privileged to be allowed to fight them.