Tiger Challenge Count Down

 Somehow I'm managing to write this re-cap even later than my Canada day demo blog but I'll blame it on the fact that I had to recount the events 3 or 4 times since it's happened so I needed a bit of a break from thinking about it until now.

24 hours before the first event: I was feeling excited and I was feeling an odd brand of nervousness, because I knew the day was going to be fun, and I wanted to go into it with the mindset of learning from and experiencing live tournaments again, especially at this point in my martial arts journey, but I was nervous at the idea of getting nervous once our division began. 

13 hours before the first event: For some reason, either self-sabotage, or just plain stupidity I decided at around 10:30 pm I needed to add something to my weapons form. I've know for a while that it wasn't quite done, but since I knew I would have to perform it in it's entirety in a few hours that it was now or never. I had to practice it indoors and I didn't have a ton of time anyway since it was so late, and this lack of practice definitely added to my nervousness.

4 hours before the first event: I thought coming early and helping the younger students with their events would have gotten me into the swing of things, and used to the tournament environment so that when it came time for our division most of my jitters would be resolved, however, going over the rules and responsibilities for the judges and score keepers quickly shot my blood pressure through the roof. That and being thrown immediately into keeping score for the tiny tigers, trying to re-arrange the brackets due to missing students, and trying to keep everyone's names straight, all added to the feeling of swimming in deeper and deeper water, with every new thing threatening to drown me in a sea of nerves. Although looking back my mind was so busy I didn't have time to try to worry about my own events for the day, and I learned a lot while I did it, so I'm definitely glad I volunteered to do it. 

1 minute before the first event: The morning flew by and suddenly I was standing at the edge of the ring getting ready for the hand forms event. This is the part I wanted to pay the closest attention to since I figured this would be the highest point of nervousness in the whole day. I have done this form countless time, but the second I have to do it in front of people it's like the ratchet straps holding things onto my wagon get loosened, and the road I'm driving along gets incredibly bumpy (i.e. things fall off the wagon more easily and more often) -> thinking about thins now I want to say this is because although I have practiced this form a great many times, I'm not practicing it under these conditions as often so I can only rely on those few number of reps that match these conditions rather than every single time I've done this form. I was extra nervous because through the whole day I hadn't seen anyone do a certain part of a form rather than the whole thing so I was beginning to think that it wouldn't be allowed, and I even considered switching last minute and doing all of Lau Gar instead of just III, but I steeled my determination and thought I would announce it how I planned and if there was an issue, then I would switch it and do the whole thing, but it ended up being more pointless worrying on my part because there was no problem. My hands didn't shake like the usually do when performing in front of people so I've made some progress, but I definitely need to work on my intensity and engaging my eyes.

I thought most of the nerves would dissolve after we got through the first event, but they came back in full force for the weapons bracket due to the aforementioned last minute changes to my form. The one thing I had to combat the nerves was that I was also very excited for this event; I was eager to showcase my broadsword form since this is my fist time making a form and I'm quite proud of  how it turned out, and I was excited to perform it in it's entirety since I only got to do a small portion during the demo.

Since the tournament got delayed I had ample time to work with miss Lee on our team form and I was very excited to show off our hard earned synchrony. I was a bit apprehensive since Sifu Brinker had mentioned that slower forms typically don't do as well in a tournament setting so I was absolutely shocked when we got the gold, but I want to attribute it to my absolutely wonderful partner who practiced a ton with me, and who also gave me a ton of insight into Lung I, and the rest of my forms too.

Most of the sparring rounds got pretty jumbled up in my memory so I'll just write the points that stick out in my mind. I don't think I've ever won a point sparring match, practice or not, so that fact that I was able to win at least one this time around made me very proud of myself. I still like continuous more than point sparring, but I was shocked at how much fun I was having during the latter, it's starting to grow on me (much like my giant bruise on my shin I earned during all the matches continues to grow on me). Every one of my matches was very fun, and everyone I sparred with presented unique challenges that will help me with sparring in the future, and never once did I feel angry or scarred during my matches so shout out to everyone I sparred with for being great opponents! 

I was sad that I didn't enter the obstacle course since I though I might only be for the kids division, but I definitely want to enter for next year, and I had a ton of fun watching everyone get stuck in the tubes, and I'm also sad I didn't make it further in the pool noodle sword fight, but I already have a bunch of ideas for tactics I want to try next year. 

365 days until the next event: As soon as it ended I started to get excited for the next tiger challenge. I want to enter more events next year, and take everything I learned this time around and apply it to next years tournament. I had such a blast and I am extremely grateful that despite the initial postponement, we were able to have a safe inter school tournament.

(I can't believe it's taken me this long to post, but this ended up being way longer that I thought it would be, so I had to write it in multiple parts and I only just finished writing the last bit.)