FrogMan
03-14-2006, 09:38 PM
I've been practicing kenpo karate for almost three years now and practicing with a bo staff for about six months now. I started practicing both karate and the bo because of my son. First karate because I wanted to be able to understand what he was doing then the bo because he picked that weapon among the few weapons classes he could take and I was able to tag along in his class (in the middle of a bunch of 8 to 12 year olds ;)).
About a month ago, I entered my first competition ever, whereas my son has been doing karate competitions for almost three years now. Even though he's been doing them for a while now, he'd never presented a weapon kata and I thought I'd show the example and enter both of us with our bo kata, that we learned together.
Some of you may even remember me mentionning my first competition in the "what do you look like" thread. Turned out that I was kind of nervous and I ended up dropping the bo midway through the kata, thus being disqualified.
Well, we entered another competition this past weekend and we both presented the same bo kata with me adding a tiny bit into it. Well, I didn't drop it this time, as implies the subject, and yep it paid off. 1st PLACE in the 30-39 category!!! :)
http://static.flickr.com/50/111587516_dd88c88c48.jpg
That's the trophy I brough back home for that first place. I'm quite proud of it (first place not really the shiny trophy) and I'm hoping it will motivate my son to keep on practicing with me so he can get better and maybe bring one himsel. He finished about midway through 9 or so competitors but he's really come a long way since he's started practicing in last September.
Anyway, I don't really practice with the bo to compete. Only winging it around makes me forget about every little problem I might have.
If you want to see the kata, I've uploaded it to youtube and it's available at this address:
hxxp://youtube.com/watch?v=UwDyV9N7rQ8
It's far from perfect as you can see some hesitation, especially in the part where I roll it over my hand before throwing it, but that's where I dropped it the last time and I didn't want to drop it again, so I did a double take instead of going and feeling like I wasn't doing it right.
This was the last regional competition for the season. The next one is a big one in Quebec City and it's of international caliber, at least for black belts. I don't know for underbelts (what they call the "color" belts, I'm a brown belt, a couple tests before black) but it is a big competition. It's coming around the end of April and I'm still thinking about if I want to enter it. Thing is, I'm not sure my son is of the caliber of that competition. Was cool to have him do his thing in regional ones, but I wouldn't want him to get depressed about looking like a fool in a competition against other kids from at least all over the province. I don't mean "fool" in a hard way, but he still needs to practice and some other 9yo kids have been practicing with a bo since they were 5. He started last September, when he was 8 and will have turned 9 only a month prior to the competition... Maybe he could have him come to watch daddy and learn what it takes to make it. Heck I'm not even sure if my kata would be good enough not to make a fool of myself :D I'll have to talk with my teacher...
Your comments are welcome, either here or on the youtube page of the video...
FM
About a month ago, I entered my first competition ever, whereas my son has been doing karate competitions for almost three years now. Even though he's been doing them for a while now, he'd never presented a weapon kata and I thought I'd show the example and enter both of us with our bo kata, that we learned together.
Some of you may even remember me mentionning my first competition in the "what do you look like" thread. Turned out that I was kind of nervous and I ended up dropping the bo midway through the kata, thus being disqualified.
Well, we entered another competition this past weekend and we both presented the same bo kata with me adding a tiny bit into it. Well, I didn't drop it this time, as implies the subject, and yep it paid off. 1st PLACE in the 30-39 category!!! :)
http://static.flickr.com/50/111587516_dd88c88c48.jpg
That's the trophy I brough back home for that first place. I'm quite proud of it (first place not really the shiny trophy) and I'm hoping it will motivate my son to keep on practicing with me so he can get better and maybe bring one himsel. He finished about midway through 9 or so competitors but he's really come a long way since he's started practicing in last September.
Anyway, I don't really practice with the bo to compete. Only winging it around makes me forget about every little problem I might have.
If you want to see the kata, I've uploaded it to youtube and it's available at this address:
hxxp://youtube.com/watch?v=UwDyV9N7rQ8
It's far from perfect as you can see some hesitation, especially in the part where I roll it over my hand before throwing it, but that's where I dropped it the last time and I didn't want to drop it again, so I did a double take instead of going and feeling like I wasn't doing it right.
This was the last regional competition for the season. The next one is a big one in Quebec City and it's of international caliber, at least for black belts. I don't know for underbelts (what they call the "color" belts, I'm a brown belt, a couple tests before black) but it is a big competition. It's coming around the end of April and I'm still thinking about if I want to enter it. Thing is, I'm not sure my son is of the caliber of that competition. Was cool to have him do his thing in regional ones, but I wouldn't want him to get depressed about looking like a fool in a competition against other kids from at least all over the province. I don't mean "fool" in a hard way, but he still needs to practice and some other 9yo kids have been practicing with a bo since they were 5. He started last September, when he was 8 and will have turned 9 only a month prior to the competition... Maybe he could have him come to watch daddy and learn what it takes to make it. Heck I'm not even sure if my kata would be good enough not to make a fool of myself :D I'll have to talk with my teacher...
Your comments are welcome, either here or on the youtube page of the video...
FM