ITF Goodwill Championships

I went to the ITF Goodwill Championship a few days ago. I got bronze in patterns and bronze in sparring- me and one other person both got bronze each time- instead of having the two people who lost battle for third, they both got bronze instead.

But, I learned a lot. I was placed in the women's division because there weren't any 15-17-year-olds for my usual division. They gave me the by to make it more fair for me- I wish I hadn't have gotten the silly by- that means I get to skip the first match and automatically advance to the middle group- I would have gotten to spar and do patterns more. Anyway- I learned that my pattern Juche was too fast! I got Ms. Ginny, 4th dan black belt and World Champion, to watch me do my pattern. She thought I did good, and just needed my hand up higher when I did my side kick. In competition I went up against Ms. Stephanie Suarez, who's also been a World Champion quite a few times and is the daughter of the ITF-USA past president and current vice prestident, Master Suarez! She was a great person to go up against- her pattern was nearly perfect- the only thing was that her hooking kicks could have been a little better, besides that I saw no fault in her pattern. Well, I lost against her- I finished my pattern when she had only done half! I was way too fast! But now I know to slow down, and watching Stephanie's pattern when she performed again against her next opponent was really helpful- I learned what I should be doing!

Then, in sparring I went up a 3rd dan lady who was probably about thirty or so. She did a good job- everytime I kicked her, she would just do a sort of step thing that absorbed the kick and so that I didn't blast her backwards with my kicks! I did okay, though I didn't win and ended up in third place again. I made sure to always act brave, though- I didn't project that I had no idea what to do accept stand up against her punches! But it turned out that Ms. Maria was shouting to me that I should do a downward kick against my opponent- she was right- that would have worked great, but I couldn't hear her- I was only focused on my sparring match! But again, I learned a lot!

Total, Kick Connection consisted of exactly 50 people. Total, Kick Connection won 80 metals! AND they won the Most Supportive School award for bringing the most people!

I had a great time and learned a lot! And I'm so glad that Abu and Aby took me there- it took a long time, and it was so nice of them!

I'll see about putting pictures later!