8th Annual United States Kyokushin Open Part 2 First Fight

All the fighters were summond to the warm up room where we were lined up for our divisions. The women were line up last. First called was Amy, then a woman from Canada, with a yellow belt. Woodrena would be up next, and then I. The yellow belt jumped out of line. She said she was to fight semi-contact, not full. They quickly found a partner for her to fight.

My first match was against Woodrina. She was a big woman, a very nice woman, but scary all the same. I had spoke to her earlier when the kids were sparring. She was a down to business kind of person. A lawyer with two kids. Her kids were good kids too. They were well behaved and respectful. She was very nice and seemed to have her life put together well. When I grow up I would like to be as confident and as well put together as that lady. I'd like to be as scary too!

8th Annual United States Kyokushin Open Part 1

Friday night when I was supoosed to be sleeping, i was online writting for this blog. I couldn't sleep. I wasn't tired. Then about 11:30 I was done writting and checked all my usual pages for the latest news. I decided to get on facebook. I was checking status updates and was about to play poker when Sensei got online and starts yelling at me, ALL CAPS. Go to bed, she screams. 'Osu Sensei!', I reply.

I slept rather well for what I was going to do. Fighting in the US Open as a first full contact fight. Someone remind me, what was I thinking?

I had looked up Amy's fights in the Ligo Dojo website. She is crazy scary. She made it three rounds in the world's tournament. I didn't know for sure who else I was fighting so I couldn't research that.

Leading up to the fight

Last Friday strike to the solar plexus from Matt H has really shook me. I never felt so much pain from a hit and I have been hit pretty hard. If i get hit like that today I am going down. My husband and others are saying that it is not likely that I get hit like that from a girl, but the fact of the matter is, I can hit that hard, so can other women. If I  can remember a strategy today it is to strike hard at the solar plexus.

It is funny how that particular strike has been what I have been training  for this last month. It was the same hit that brought sensei down in Canada. So when she came home, the fighters did conditioning really hard. She certainly loved hitting me there, really hard.  She would pound that spot till my eyes watered, then she would keep going. Every once in a while I would ask her to hit somewhere else and she would, but always her fists would seek out the middle of my torso.

Last 2 hour training before the fight

Friday was the most beautiful day we have had in a long time. I did my P90X legs and back workout and felt great, so great that I decided to take the kids for a hike. I picked up Shihan's son and off we went for a leisurely 2 mile hike in Grafton notch. Leisurely really wasn't the word for it. It was a very difficult hike, but it was fun. Eyebrow Loop trail started innocently enough, then it went up and up and up. Some places were so steep that there was a cable to help pull yourself up the mountain. Later we walked across rungs embedded into the granite and then more rungs that were ladder-like. It was gorgeous. The way down sported all kinds of waterfall from spring run offs and they were pretty.

10 days till the Tournament

I am getting so nervous. I keep feeling like I am going to do something stupid and get whooped at the fights. I go over in my head what has happened at sparring and critic myself like crazy.

We did 2 miniute sparring last Monday. I started with Sempai Ben. He started to do block against me in kihon style. I hate when he does that. So I would see it coming, stop with that swing and rabbit punch him again. He is very strong.

Then I fought Michelle. I have a hard time not hurting that girl. She will come flying at me with her fist raised to strike and i do a front snap kick. Problem is, she come at me so fast that no matter how weak I throw that kick, she runs into it hard.

A visit with Shihan Fugiwara

Shihan Fugiwara came to visit our dojo last Saturday for a fight training class. It was a three hour class, but time flew by. We started with warm ups, which were different than the warm up exercises that we usually do. It was good thouhg. We did ballistic and static stretches for each body part that we were going to be moving. Got the sonovial fluid going into each joint.

Then for kihon. The four black belts stood at the fromt of the room, facing the rest of the class. Shihan F would come around the ranks fixing people. If there were many of us doing something wrong, he would stop the count and use a black belt as an example.