Banzai Cup (September 2012)

This tournament was date on Saturday the 15th of September 2012 and was located in Berlin in Germany. In this tournament I also participated only in Kata.

Preparation:
I woke up with sore throat. I already got this about couple days before traveling to Berlin. Under the breakfast I drank a warm cup of tea with honey and got better after a while. Anyway I was determined that nothing would influence my focus in a negative direction. However the registration was a mess on Friday, we had to wait couple of hours before we could make the registration. Even though the tournament started two hours later than planned, I was good prepared, both mentally and physical.

Kata:
In my class there were original 37 registered competitors, but not everyone did showed up. Anyway we were split into two pools. I was in the first pool and we were 12 competitors. The level of the competitors were very high. There were only two that I think I could win easily.

The first match was against Anders Ortiz (Germany) and the chosen Kata was Passai. I felt that the performance was good, also the pauses were good in the beginning. However I did lost the balance after the two “Mahamni Shuto Uke”, right after the Kiai. I did stress a lot in this sequence and it lead to unsteady balance. The match ended with a lost 3-0. He lost in the semi final and therefore there was no repechage for me.

Kassi and Jonny thought it was a good performance of Passai, and said that was the best performance I had done so far. Jonny said that my techniques were clear. Kim said that the rhythm was like a “graduation” rhythm, I just flow through the Kata. She also thought that I was blank in the face, no focus or power.

Summary:
Even though I did had a good preparation it wasn’t good enough. I had to improve my performance of the Kata. The most disappointment was when I managed to lost the balance. This shouldn’t count, but I felt that the tatami felt different. I didn’t checked the tatami earlier and was unprepared of the differences. Though it shouldn’t influence the performance.

What to do for the next tournament:

  • Have good pauses.
  • Get focus and power in the techniques.