pegkerr | The Diamond Nationals (Reply)

One of the first people we spotted when we arrived back at the hotel last night was the unfortunate young woman who took that severe blow in Fiona's sparring division. To both of our immense relief, she was there again, apparently discharged from the hospital, up and walking around, although she had on a huge neck brace. The blow had been under her chin, right under her helmet. I guess it's being treated as a whiplash-type injury.

Here's Fiona performing Sho Shin, the first degree black belt form for kamas.

The thing is, the Diamonds are, of course, local for us, but it is really a big-deal national tournament. She had really hoped to perform Me Young (sp?), which is a bo form that's ordinarily done by fourth degree black belts, and she'd spent a month working on learning it. However, she got sick two weeks before the tournament, and so missed a week and a half of classes and so wasn't able to finish learning the form. She decided, reluctantly, to go back to doing Sho Shin--which she loved when she first learned it, but she learned it awhile ago, and she felt rusty at it. And the black belt competition at the Diamonds is especially fierce. The other schools often use more technically challenging forms (which is why Fiona was trying to master a fourth degree form). Because she was rusty, she performed it more slowly than she should have, and in the end, she felt, the form she was forced to use was simply outclassed by the other, more complicated forms. The people who come to compete at the Diamonds travel so far because they are the best of the best.

So that was a disappointment. She hopes she'll have Me Young mastered by tournament time next year. She said she also wants to try some of the smaller regional tournaments, where she wouldn't necessarily be facing national champions who live and breathe nothing but karate.

Here she is demonstrating gun self defense with a partner. In this video, Fiona (closest to the camera) first is the attacker, and then the defender.

We went back to watch the finals last night, which were amazing as always. The people up on the stage perform truly astonishing physical feats. There is quite a bit of gymnastics incorporated in the more extreme forms. Some of the kids, with their leaps, kicks, and blindingly fast weapons work, seem almost superhuman. The synchronized teams were wonderful to watch, too.

"The thing is," Fiona said, "I'd like to be able to do karate like that, but still have a real life. But I don't think that's possible."

I enjoyed the judging much much more the second day. It was particularly fascinating to judge forms done by people from entirely different disciplines--a little intimidating, too, because I honestly didn't know what their criteria for excellence was. But I guess I knew enough to have a feel for it, because my scores were pretty much right in the very same ballpark as the other, more experienced judges. One of the women, in the weapons division, was wielding a fan--an enormous Japanese (I guess) fan. I had never seen anything like it, but it was great fun to watch.

I had been particularly intimidated by judging sparring. The first day, my center (the head judge of the division) was my own senior instructor at our dojo. I asked him privately how I did after the night was over, and he told me I had to be faster and more decisive when making calls. I felt like I really had gotten the hang of it by the end of the second day, and was actually enjoying the process in the end. I would be willing to judge next year. But (an even bigger deal) I also realized I feel I would like to compete myself next year--if, that is, I'm healed well enough to be in fighting shape.