... successful. And I was competitive in weapons for the first time ever. That was a significant goal, since D has been kicking my butt all over the mats in weapons from day one. I took second on a modified version of our staff form. Both D and I have done some revision for sake of flair and, at least in my case, comfort. The revisions, though, are mainly reasonable: we've borrowed a bit of Japanese and Chinese techniques—not the ridiculousness that comes with super-light and super-shiny bos and baton moves. This has a somewhat more universal appeal and slightly more traditional feel, even though it's not from the Korean tradition. D and I are doing different weapons forms, which also helps us: judges are finally able to decide which they like based on the differences in the forms, now that our execution is relatively similar.
Budget cuts forced KSG to move, and the turnout this year was markedly smaller. When I judged, most of the routines were not that good either. The quality went down a fair amount. I saw a couple good staff routines, a good sword form, and a good fight in the divisions I judged (not including our guys, who were generally pretty decent).
One of the small benefits of the cuts was that we weren't stacked against in our judging this year. Typically we get the same set of judges: for the previous two years I had the same panel. They generally fix fighting, and I've felt like the weapons and forms judging are somewhat irregular, too, despite winning last year. D, for example, didn't place in his weapons form last year, and the other D told me that after my open-hand form, the head judge shrugged his shoulders at one of his students as though to say, "What can I do about that?"
In any case, we only had a panel of three for weapons and open-hand kata, and two of the judges were new. The third was an older fellow that centered a ring I judged in, and he's fairly nice. Not always with it, but nice. The center of my ring told me after the fact that he thought it was one of the best routines he'd ever seen. It's nice to have the compliments. I've been given a great many gifts in my life, and this skill is one of them—and God has been gracious in doing so. The curse will ruin this body, and what successes I've had are of the temporary sort designed to accrue glory to another.
The fighting was lame. I took a third by DQ because D (not the weapons D) kicked me in the head twice. The first was a non-contact but they called against him anyway. The second one I walked into. Lame. I gave the medal back.
Kidyork was there and we chatted again. A cool dude.
Teamwise, I think we performed fairly well. The folks who haven't been consistent didn't do as well. Shocking but true facts. I think we took home 34 medals for 24 participants—not a bad ratio. I heard one of our students say something to the effect that he added something into his form, and I'm going to have to have a chat about this. Another student said he was approached about having his form recorded, and properly declined.
We got high marks in general for our etiquette and forms. One guy told us that he told his students last year to watch our guys for form.
Post competition was a trip to Joisey for a belated Father's Day with L's dad. We saw Captain America, which was an okay movie. I've seen better, but I've also seen much much worse. After lunch and the movie, L, her sister, and I went to H-Mart and picked up some groceries.
All in all, it was a thoroughly exhausting weekend, although a mostly good one.
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