um...HELLS YES...!!!

 

This is me on the left in a TKD sparring match in Chicago this past Saturday. Earlier in the match, we both threw reverse kicks, and the other guy took my standing leg out from under me--so I landed hard on my back on the floor. Ticks me off when these tourneys don't have mats! Shook it off and finished strong, but definitely had a sore back for a couple of days.

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That was the semi-final match. I lost in the final, was pretty sore in the back, a little dizzy and never really caught my breath back completely from the fall, and the other guy just picked me apart w/sidekicks. I beat him 5-1 at spring natl’s 2 weeks ago, and he said he’s been training specifically to spar me since then—and he’s now working full-time at his school as an instructor too. Great!

5 weeks left of the regular season, then a break thru May and World’s comes up 3rd week in June. I have lots of work to do to get ready.

 

Tuesday last week, while I was in Austin for SXSW, I went for a run along the river/lake and followed it with a leg workout. Then spent the day on my feet at SXSW. When I got back to my hotel room, this is what my ankle and foot looked like, on the right leg where the shin bone bruise is from spring natl's a week and a half prior. All the swelling, blood and fluid from my shin trickled down into my ankle and foot.

(Keep in mind this is a wide-angle lens on my cell phone, so everything looks much wider than in reality. My lower leg is thin, but still, that ankle and foot was very swolen.)

I iced and elevated at night, didn't do any exercise but walking (didn't want to make it worse) but the swelling didn't go down 'til Friday. Just in time for me to get on the plane for Chicago to head to the tournament. Phew!

 

Pittsburgh tourney report from this weekend:

Several state champs I'd never seen showed up from the North East. 12 guys in the ring. I haven't been traveling back East at all this season, so had no idea what to expect. Generally tall, athletic-looking guys for the most part.

A small handful of guys I know were there as well. A couple from Fall Natl's, and the state champ from AZ was there too. One of the guys recognized me from Fall Natl's and came over to say hello. He's a f/t instructor at his school, looks like a jock, was pretty much expecting him to kick some major ass.

The tourney was in a basketball gymnasium on the wood floor, no mats. I freakin' hate that. These org's make plenty of money, 1200 people paid to compete, they could've rented mats. They must have great insurance and not give a shit who gets hurt. Last wknd in Chicago they were calling for medics in multiple rings several times during the day. A hospital visit deductible costs hundreds--or more; I'd have been fine if the events up-charged us a few bucks and made a little profit to cover their rentals and trouble--if it made it so when we get laid out on the floor there'd be a mat to absorb some of the impact. We've gotta work on Monday--to pay for more tournament entries! We're the customers who pay the bills, you know?! Okay, rant over.

Forms:

I won forms, didn't break an ankle on the hard floor, yay. Probably my best form to date this season, but I'm still not training regularly due to injury, so I have a bunch of fine-tuning to do and a few fairly major things to work on if I want to have any chance at beating the number 1 guy (who wasn't there). I'm in second place in the standings solidly. But that top guy is...well...he's the 2010 world champ, so he's pretty damned good! And he probably should've moved up a rank! And I'm thinkin' if I was him, I'd feel a little dumb staying down with the 1st Degrees, when he's already the top dog and all the other guys in the top few, who he beat last year, moved up together. Okay, I'll shut up. Everyone has their reasons. *Cough* (sand-bagging) *Cough*

Sparring:

First sparring match was against a NE guy I didn't know, went pretty quick. I got dinged in my hurt shin a few times, but other than that, went pretty smoothly. I'd come down with a bug a couple days ago and wasn't feeling great, so I felt kind of sluggish and grumpy. He kept charging me, and I was getting a little tired of it, so in the final scoring exchange, I charged him, jammed him up when he was trying to attack, got off a good combo and got the match overwith. I kicked him in the head a time or two earlier in the match as he was mostly blocking his body. I think the final score was 5-1. I wanted to get done, and get the hell out of Pittsburgh. No offense to you Pitts guys, place just was too gray and depressing for me.

Second sparring match was against a really quick guy, super fast on his feet. Was wondering what was going to happen; after watching his early matches, I figured he'd be in the finals for sure. We got called up for my second match. This guy was running all over the place, kept running outside the ring. At one point, he was running around, trying to go out one side edge, run around the back edge and then come back in, but I was tracking him. The center ring judge backed up, outside the ring, so the guy would stay in-bounds, but mister track star actually ran around the judge on the outside, and as I came around to meet him to attack, he ducked back behind the judge and went back the other way! At that point, I just put my hands down, and stepped back with a "uhh...what the hell are we doing here" look on my face. The judge warned him 3 times for going outside the ring, and the rules state that if you go out, you have to fight your way back in (outside guy can't score from outside, but inside guy can score on the outside guy), but the center judge would break us and let him come back to center. What a putz. Both of them.

During one clash, I was punching this guy, and he somehow punched me in the throat. I'm taller than him, so I can understand him angling upward a little, but in the throat? I had to take about 30 sec's then, wanted to make sure my airway wasn't swelling before continuing. He kicked me in the groin during the match as well, don't remember if it was before or after the foul to the throat. In any case, with the 2 striking fouls and the freakin' running outside the ring, he should've been DQ'd. I won the match, time ran out and I was up on points.

Next was the finals against the AZ state champ guy who I clashed with in Vegas at Spring Natl's and got the big shin bruise from. We had a shitty match. I had some decent points, but also got points scored against me that were clearly blocked (as in, not even close to any confusion, and the guys watching told me the same). Match ended with him fouling me with a hard punch in the face and got a point awarded (my face showed the impact). What the f... I just was feeling like crap from being sick, neck/throat was hurting from the match a couple minutes beforehand, lower back was still radiating pain from falling on the hard floor in Chicago last weekend, and I just didn't have the presence of mind to overcome all of this bullshit and do what I needed to do. It was my job to control the situation, and I did not.

I was thinking on the flight out there, I shouldn't even spar until I get my back calmed down, I couldn't train at all since Chicago, and although I'm glad I did compete in Pitts and got second so I get some more points and experience, I really didn't enjoy it. Not a waste of time, but it was a sucky experience. I like to enjoy it, win or lose. I felt like a shit sandwich the whole time, and it was hard for me to be my usual chipper self. And on top of it, I really didn't like getting fouled badly. If I was on my game, I'd probably have been better with footwork and avoided the foulings, dominated and not left it up to the inept judges, so it was all wrapped up in one nice package of feeling like crap and performing like it, so I did myself in.

Let's write this one off and move on, shall we?

 

Quickie update:

Since Pitt, I've been having a hard time getting consistent training time in, and my back is still bothering me from the fall in Chicago. Cardio's suffering, not good.

Competed in Temecula two wknds ago, did great in Forms but was wiped afterward and felt like lead in Sparring. Lost my first match by a point. Crappy judging, but the fact is, if I'd dominated I would've advanced. I was not in shape to compete and it went down the way it should've.

Got a few workouts in over the last two weeks, then went to Indianapolis yesterday for an A tourney. Won Forms again, won Sparring easily--but the top guys weren't there, so it was more of a workout than anything else. One guy is a brown belt in Chun Kuk Do (Chuck Norris' system), and he got taken out pretty quickly by one of the guys from my ring in Chicago. Then I met that guy in the final, and he was on the defense the whole time. He let me control the match and wasn't countering effectively.

Flew home late last night, got up this morning and did a killer running, lunge, sprint, stairs circuit--with plyo push-ups and offset push-ups mixed into each rep of the circuit as well. Time to get serious about training again. Even if I'm busy, I have to make time, if even for an hour 5 days/wk very early in the morning.

Next wknd, headed to NJ for the final A-rated tourney of the season, then we're done and World's comes in late June. I'll report back after the NJ event.

I've worked myself into the top 2 in Forms and Sparring, and I think a big determinant of what happens in June will be my conditioning developed over the next 2 months. Additionally, I need to get some serious sparring practice with good guys to build some consistency and automatic reactions. I've skated along pretty well through the season with injuries and inconsistent training, pulling out W's by being strategic to make up for lack of physicality and experience...but World's will have the best guys, well-prepared and regardless of points and rankings, it's going to be anybody's opportunity to take it. And, we don't know who's showing up from South America, South Africa, Europe, Asia, etc so that brings additional variables. The South Americans are always very tough. They come to the US to win a title and then go home and open a school with that credibility to show.

All in all, being a rookie in the BB ring, I'm happy to have advanced to this point, but now the hard work begins.

 

New Jersey report:


Turns out the guy who was running around the ring in Pittsburgh, same one who punched me in the throat AND kicked me in the groin that tourney, is a NJ police officer. I motored through to the final pretty smoothly and met him once again. He's really quick, hands, feet, but he runs all over the place. I think he should actually wear running shoes while sparring. In any case, we had a few decent exchanges, got tied up 2-2, time ran out, I side-kicked him in the side of his ribs and won it in OT. But...right as I scored, yep, you guessed it, mister speedy out-of-control guy kicked me in the balls, again!

So that's it, season's over. Final points will be tallied in a couple of weeks, and I'm either in 1st or 2nd in my division going into world's.

Looking forward to training and getting ready. Will try to post some training vid's over the next few weeks.

Btw, both of my kids made it into the top 10 in their divisions too, so we're going to world's as a family, pretty fun!

 

Training update:

Waaaaay behind. Haven't been training more than 2x/wk. Been too busy w/work. And since I'm not training enough, I'm more susceptible to injury. Injured hip last week, cracked a bone in my foot this week. Going to be a serious challeng getting ready for world's in one month. Nothing like a little challenge, right?

 

Been getting acupuncture treatments for my ankle, hip and back. Getting some really great training sessions in. 3 weeks to go 'til worlds.

Final season-end rankings got posted yesterday, and I just squeaked into the #1 spot in my division in Sparring, and my #1 spot in Forms held. So now I've got position in forms, going last. The #2 guy is undefeated in Forms and is the defending 2010 world champ. I've got a shot, long shot. But it's a shot.

Sparring is going to be exciting. There are some really aggressive guys in the top 10. I'm going to have to save some energy for the final, but can't risk taking it easy in early matches, don't want to lose by not taking initiative. If my ankle heals up quickly, I'm going to be working on footwork and cardio for the next two weeks. Crossing my fingers I heal fast.

 

Check out little D's sidekick, holy shnikees, I'd need a surgeon if I tried that!

In addition to weapons and all the other stuff he competes in, he's moved up in his sparring rankings from 9th to 4th in top 10. Before he really didn't have a shot at this for world's, he was good but inconsistent and not confident against the bigger kids, some of whom foul and are pretty rough. If he keeps a cool head and good basic strategy, he's got a legit chance in sparring. Super proud of the little guy.

 

Been doing some circuits I made up with rope jumping, plyo jumps, kettlebell swings, calf raises, lunges and kettle bell squats (I know, I know, small kettle bells..I go light, I'm takin' it easy coming back from injuries). Then some ab work and also back extensions (roman situps) on the ball, alternating sets w/straight and then twisting upward. My son took a few pics at the gym, somehow they were nearly all out of focus, and it's an autofocus camera!