I
was eight months removed from the DNBK tournament at Queen’s University. I was
set to participate in Crispin’s annual Super Shiai in Georgetown, Ontario in
May. Unfortunately, the week before that event, tragedy had hit my family, my
mother passed away and I withdrew from competing in that event. I sacrificed
time from private weekend training to spend her last days in the hospital with
her. Even after her death, I took time off from the dojo, but I still found
some time to train myself. I know deep down inside of me that my mom never
wanted me to give up Karate, it is something I love, but at the same time, I
know that family comes first. I will never forget that over 10 years ago, my
mom and my older brother enrolled me in Karate as a Christmas gift. My mom
supported me, showed up to a few of my gradings, and tournaments. In November
2009, I will never forget that my mom and the rest of my family were there to
see me receive my black belt after performing a four hour grading. Many
memories I had with my mom was at times she sewed up the dojo’s crest on my gi,
and ironing my gi when it appeared to be wrinkly. Now my mom will be with me in
spirit, always. I had the will to come back to the dojo as I promised everybody
instead of leaving it all behind.
The
year had been a dark cloud hanging over me, but it was a test from above to
persevere through thick and thin. Going into this tournament as always, I knew
I was the underdog loved and looked up to by many people. I was viewed as the
man who would never give up and the man who is willing take on challenges. I
didn’t want to think for one second to say to myself that I am going to win
this tournament for my mother because I would put myself in that position to
put all the pressure on myself and my mother don’t want that, she prefers more
of me thinking of having fun and performing the best katas I can do in this
tournament for her.
Later
in the day, the black belt division began. My rival, Michael Toms was getting
warmed up to compete, I was getting warmed up too, practicing my kata. In my
mind I was saying “This man is going down.” When it is the 30-39 division’s
time to compete, my only disappointment was that the audience has lessened,
only a few of Michael Toms’ students and a couple other students and
instructors, especially two hockey boys that walked in after hockey practice
next door to check out the black belt division were left. It would’ve been nice
that some more young kids that me and Michael judged recently that day would
hang around and watch how we can steal the show, especially that little girl
who came and asked me for advice on how to improve her skills after judging her
weapons kata. However, most of the kids are tired after a long day and that it
was on a Sunday and they needed to go home early and into bed for school the
next day. Despite the regularly low crowd numbers in the latter part of the
competitions, there is room for one fan in the heavens looking down on me
performing at my very best.
The
weapons division was only me and two other competitors, one of them was Michael
Toms, he was doing an XMA style double Nunchaku kata, the other was doing a
traditional Bo kata and I was doing a traditional Tonfa kata Matsu Higa no
Tonfa. The judges was an elderly lady who is a Kung Fu practitioner, my Sensei
as the center judge, and the tournament promoter Debbie Crispin. I was up
second to perform before Michael. I did an intense weapons kata. Then Michael
Toms did his kata performance which is not bad for a man in his late 30’s.
While watching him perform I was hoping that he would drop his weapon (the
small humourous part of it), but he didn’t. The scores for that was close, but
Michael got 1st place and I got 2nd place. Several
minutes later was the kata division. I was competing against 5 other black
belts in the 30-39 division. I knew I had no sort of competition rust after a 9
month hiatus from competition, since training was always in my mind.
Originally, I was planning to do Heiku, a kata that this territory hardly sees.
However, within a few weeks prior to the tournament I decided to do a Goju-ryu
kata Shisochin, 27 hands because I was working on that kata mostly with a
fellow classmate. I performed a very nice kata with such intensity, with a
determination to win or go out in a blaze of glory, if this was going to be my
defeat…so be it. Michael Toms did Seiyunchin, Attack, Conquer, and Suppress,
and in nearly midway through the kata I noticed that he bobbled a bit. The
result was that me and Michael tied for 1st, and Debbie decided not
to have a sudden death tie breaker to determine an undisputed 1st
place winner maybe because she sees us as the biggest competitors in her
division.
There
is no doubt that Toms’ students were in awe of our performance, we tore the
roof off. We told a story of a mere underdog Senior Student representing Durham
Martial Arts vs. a regular competitor, dojo owner, and promoter from
Orangeville. I am a well-liked guy by Toms’ and his students, they like seeing
my traditional katas and the power I put into it. There is one thing in my
heart that I do know, my mom who is in heaven would be proud of me for
continuing his journey in the Martial Arts, and bring home some trophies this
that night and bringing inspiration to my up and coming Martial Artist.