Dan Anderson
Master of Arts
Hi All, 26 Nov 2002
I wrote this mass letter so that I wouldn't have to repeat myself.
I have won a world championship.
I just got back from the 4th Funakoshi Shotokan Karate Association World Championship held in Las Vegas this last weekend. There were contestants from the USA, England, Portugal, Mexico, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and these are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. (Note: Kenneth Funakoshi broke from the JKA in 1988 because of politics and formed his own international organization.)
A student of mine, Tom Levak, let me know about the tournament about a month ago and the two selling key points were 1) it was in Las Vegas and 2) it is the only international organization that has masters divisions. This tournament is run by Japanese rules and is stricter, in terms of scoring criteria, than any AAU or WUKO event I have fought in. Your positioning, posture, focus, timing and distancing had to be just so or it was disregarded. I've fought in these kinds of events before, had done well in them so I knew just what to work on (outlined above) and disregarded any kind of cardio training. And attitude. Any of you who know me, you know that I have resisted many requests from friends to compete again but this one I couldn't not compete in. The chance for a legitimate world championship at my age was too tempting.
I fought in and won the Black Belt 50-54 year old division. I was the kid in the division as I just turned 50 on the 18th. I trained for about a month, mostly on timing, distancing and positioning and found that my tournament mind was coming back. Then, about two weeks ago, I tweaked my right hip. Off and on over the years my right hip has acted up and locks up. The usual thing for me to do is disregard it since I don't train much anyway and it settles down as a matter of course. Well, this time I was in training and it never settled down. In fact, it really kicked in on the day of the event and I spent much of the day attempting to stretch it out but to no avail. You ever sit in a tournament most of the day in pain? Fun, isn't it. Anyway, when it finally came time for my division it hadn't gone away but I was nervous, a very good sign for me.
The scoring was done in old Japanese style. A perfect point was called ippon (1 point) and anything less was called wazari (1/2 point). Two wazaris equaled an ippon and the match was over. In good old American style it was a two-point match so you couldn't go to sleep or it was over, fast. I never saw an ippon called the entire day. That's how strict the judging was and I saw some very good uncontested techniques land.
I felt fine once I got in the ring and I actually ended up not being scored on. The judging throughout the tournament was very fair and the same criteria was applied to all. In fact, my first opponent was one of the judges for earlier events so if there was going to be any bias, it would have shown up there. An old Super Dan trick I pulled was to get my opponents under estimating me as I showed in a newly purchased white karate gi and a brand new black belt. You know the kind. You tie it in a square knot and it darn near sticks out like the Flying Nun headpiece. My intention was to look like a rube. I figured that'd earn me at least one point and I'd have to work for the rest. And I did. One of the cool things is that Marie got it on videotape. One of the uncool things is I am also limping as I twisted my knee in the gold medal match. Ouch!
So, that's all the news that's fit to print and I am now finally done with competition. Obviously I am pleased about it and I wanted to let you know.
Yours,
Dan Anderson
I wrote this mass letter so that I wouldn't have to repeat myself.
I have won a world championship.
I just got back from the 4th Funakoshi Shotokan Karate Association World Championship held in Las Vegas this last weekend. There were contestants from the USA, England, Portugal, Mexico, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and these are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. (Note: Kenneth Funakoshi broke from the JKA in 1988 because of politics and formed his own international organization.)
A student of mine, Tom Levak, let me know about the tournament about a month ago and the two selling key points were 1) it was in Las Vegas and 2) it is the only international organization that has masters divisions. This tournament is run by Japanese rules and is stricter, in terms of scoring criteria, than any AAU or WUKO event I have fought in. Your positioning, posture, focus, timing and distancing had to be just so or it was disregarded. I've fought in these kinds of events before, had done well in them so I knew just what to work on (outlined above) and disregarded any kind of cardio training. And attitude. Any of you who know me, you know that I have resisted many requests from friends to compete again but this one I couldn't not compete in. The chance for a legitimate world championship at my age was too tempting.
I fought in and won the Black Belt 50-54 year old division. I was the kid in the division as I just turned 50 on the 18th. I trained for about a month, mostly on timing, distancing and positioning and found that my tournament mind was coming back. Then, about two weeks ago, I tweaked my right hip. Off and on over the years my right hip has acted up and locks up. The usual thing for me to do is disregard it since I don't train much anyway and it settles down as a matter of course. Well, this time I was in training and it never settled down. In fact, it really kicked in on the day of the event and I spent much of the day attempting to stretch it out but to no avail. You ever sit in a tournament most of the day in pain? Fun, isn't it. Anyway, when it finally came time for my division it hadn't gone away but I was nervous, a very good sign for me.
The scoring was done in old Japanese style. A perfect point was called ippon (1 point) and anything less was called wazari (1/2 point). Two wazaris equaled an ippon and the match was over. In good old American style it was a two-point match so you couldn't go to sleep or it was over, fast. I never saw an ippon called the entire day. That's how strict the judging was and I saw some very good uncontested techniques land.
I felt fine once I got in the ring and I actually ended up not being scored on. The judging throughout the tournament was very fair and the same criteria was applied to all. In fact, my first opponent was one of the judges for earlier events so if there was going to be any bias, it would have shown up there. An old Super Dan trick I pulled was to get my opponents under estimating me as I showed in a newly purchased white karate gi and a brand new black belt. You know the kind. You tie it in a square knot and it darn near sticks out like the Flying Nun headpiece. My intention was to look like a rube. I figured that'd earn me at least one point and I'd have to work for the rest. And I did. One of the cool things is that Marie got it on videotape. One of the uncool things is I am also limping as I twisted my knee in the gold medal match. Ouch!
So, that's all the news that's fit to print and I am now finally done with competition. Obviously I am pleased about it and I wanted to let you know.
Yours,
Dan Anderson
