Children's Open Competition 14th March 2015

Written by Roving Reporter Ian Massey

The Competition

This year’s JKS Children’s Competition had moved to the organisation’s now favoured venue of Nottingham’s Djanogly City Academy which, with the large car park opposite, meant that parking wasn’t as difficult as before.  An early start was still required for the HSKC team bus (in reality Sensei Jim’s car), however. Jim and Cathy were attending as officials, Elizabeth as, once again, Haxby’s sole competing representative and Debbie and I as her small cheering section. I’m sure that Jim and Cathy were cheering her on as well. They just had to do it silently.

The larger venue also meant more seating for spectators and, more importantly, the space for two tatami during the kata events, speeding things along considerably. There had been an indication a few weeks ago that the event might have been cancelled due to a lack of numbers. I don’t know whether that threat led to a sudden rush of further entrants, but there were certainly enough to make it another long day (if, like us, you stayed to the very end), but a very entertaining and well run  one as well.

  

 As ever, Sensei Alan opened proceeding by explaining the aim of the event, which is to give the younger JKS members a chance to see what competition is all about, to give them a chance to compete and, perhaps more importantly, a chance to win and lose with the correct attitude. For the most part, throughout the day, the competitors showed that they could be good winners and losers. Yes, there was a few who walked away not just smiling at their win but fist-pumping as well and there was also, inevitably, a few whose defeat led to tears but it was nice to see that very few had to be reminded to shake hands after a bout and those handshakes were usually accompanied by a pat on the shoulder as well.

This event is certainly a lot less noisy and a lot less busy than the Nationals and, as Sensei Alan explained, the referees apply the rules but apply them with discretion. Contact is frowned upon and, no matter how young the competitor, they still get warned for it. The officials, though, take time to explain their decisions, the rules and the etiquette of the event to the children, many of whom would be competing for the first time.

As well as those few tears in defeat, and despite the no contact rule, there were still occasional tears when enthusiasm and exuberance got the better of ability. In most cases these were more from the shock of taking a stinging punch to the ear or a kick to somewhere that shouldn’t be a target, rather than any actual injury and most were soon resolved by soothing words from the first aider on hand. In fact, throughout the kumite events of the afternoon, the most first aid given consisted of an ice pack held against one competitor’s leg for a few seconds. Again, it is to their credit that every single competitor who at some point held a part of their body in pain, got up and carried on.

There were also the inevitable moments of unintentional humour, both from the children and the referees. These ranged from one young boy who, each time the referee started his bout, seemed to think that running on the spot while in stance might frighten his opponent to an older black belt who, when the referee blew his whistle for the chair judges’ result after a drawn bout, launched himself at his rather startled opponent. “Awww” moments as tiny, young competitors danced around each other were also in evidence but my favourite moment of the day was when the crowd came together to support an underdog during a bout which saw two brown belts, one almost twice the height of the other, go against each other. Perhaps buoyed by the support, the smaller boy went on to win the bout two points to one.

Haxby Round-up

As to Elizabeth, well the good news is that she came away with a bronze medal…

First up for her was the Kata competition. The 3rd kyu to shodan, 10 – 15yrs female category saw her competing against ten other girls, including three other shodans, one of which was Charlotte Haxby. A bye in the first round meant that Elizabeth’s first opponent was Tegan, a 2nd kyu from York. They were given Heian Godan and, while I thought I saw Elizabeth stumble after the jump in the middle, mistakes from Tegan saw Elizabeth win the round with a unanimous score from the referees and that put her into the final four, along with her friend, Natalia, from the Seibukan dojo. Up first, Elizabeth chose Empi and produced what I thought was a very good performance, scoring 26.6. Unfortunately the other competitors, some of whom chose kata that I didn’t even recognise, scored higher and Elizabeth finished in a credible fourth place. While it was relatively close between the other three finalists the winner, who had previously beaten Charlotte, (and whom I had picked out as a potential winner then) was more than a full point ahead of Elizabeth. Final scores were:

Elizabeth                              26.6

Amy (York)                         27.0

Natalia (Seibukan)           27.1

Sophie (unknown)          27.7                       

In the kumite event, Elizabeth was in a category of nine. This time she was one of five shodans, again including Charlotte and again there was potential for her to be competing against Natalia. When Elizabeth got up for her first bout there was a moment of hope as her opponent seemed to be a 1^st kyu and, more importantly, the only person in the category smaller than her. The hope turned out to be false, though, as a case of mistaken identity meant that she was actually up against a much taller 2^nd kyu. The blink-and-you-missed-it bout saw Elizabeth take two quick hits and her opponent went through, eventually winning a bronze medal while Charlotte took gold.

So, with a four place and a first round defeat, how did Elizabeth win a medal?

The Children’s competition finishes with a team kumite event. Unlike team kata, this isn’t dependant on your dojo actually entering a team and teams are put together on the day, mixing abilities and competitors from different dojos. Higher grades are designated as “captains” and the rest of the entrants are split between them. With a very small amount of encouragement six teams of five were put together and given a few minutes to come up with a team name. Elizabeth, heading a team which comprised of brown and white, brown, purple and yellow belts, resurrected hers from two years ago and Team Stealth was reborn. Each competitor fights their equivalent in the other team and the team with most wins takes the match.

 By luck of the draw Team Stealth’s first match, against Team Geeks, was a semi-final. Elizabeth, up against a male shodan (taller again) put up more of a fight than she did in the individual event but still lost 2:0. She showed genuine excitement and pride as she supported the rest of her team and a clenched fist was evident as she saw Stealth’s brown and white belt, up against the same grade, take his bout 2:0. Two brown belts were up next and Team Stealth’s won the bout 2:1. (This was the “underdog” fight I mentioned above.) Stealth’s purple belt was a point behind to her purple and white opponent when her bout finished and the referees awarded the win to the Geeks. Again, Stealth’s yellow belt was a point behind to Geeks’ red. Not only had it come down to the last bout but to a referees’ decision and they awarded the win to the Geeks, leaving Team Stealth with a bronze medal.

So, yes, Elizabeth came away with a medal after, ironically, not only not winning a fight but her team not winning a bout, showing that it really is about competing and not necessarily about winning.

Well done to her for being there in the first place, well done to all the other competitors and medal winners for keeping us entertained throughout the day and well done to the referees and officials for a well-run event.

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