On Sunday the 26th February 11 Te-Ashi-Do juniors took part in a junior kumite competition ran by Mark Adams of the Yamaguchi Gojukai Karate Association. Only three of them have done any competition fighting before so they were a little nervous but as I explained to them that it was not a bad thing - its always healthy to have a few nerves rushing around inside you as this will keep you on your toes.
The standard of the young fighters was very high with some excellent kicks and punches being thrown with good control, as this was a Kumite only competition only those who liked fighting were there so this alone made a very good competitive arena.
The fighters were arranged in height and grade as good as they could have been which suited most of them but you do get the one or two that are tall for their age and this was the problem faced by Jamie Fitzgerald and Rishi Patel, as they were matched against older and more experienced fighters. They both tried very hard and fought as best as they could. In the small section we had Kane Wild who was entering his first competition , again he was just beaten and was unlucky with one or two decisions.
In the taller sections (under 4.9") we had Frankie Wild, Harvey Horn, Billy Roche and Jamie Fitzgerald. After a very strong fast few rounds we had Harvey against Billy in the semi finals - these two are club mates and know each other well and Harvey eventually beat Billy. In the second semi final Frankie was fighting a young good experienced fighter who knew what he was up to who narrowly beat him by one point. So it was Harvey up against the enemy so to speak. This was a good one with both boys alternately taking the lead. I kept telling Harvey to keep his front hand up but he had ear muffs on as he didn't listen, then bang ! - Mawashigeri Jodan and he was behind again. This time I turned up the volume and told him to switch stance which he did and bam! - Harvey scored with Mawashigeri Jodan with thirty seconds to go. Next he pushed on keeping right stance and scored with a punching combination to win. Well done Harvey, and we had two bronzes as well.
In the brown belt group we had Harry O'Brien who hasn't done a lot of competition but fought very well and again was narrowly beaten in the second round but held his own and gained a bronze. Other fighters were Johnathon Hart, James Garzke , Joe Morris ,Marcus Vissers who all did their best and seemed to enjoy themselves. They all behaved brilliantly and didn't disgrace themselves with the tantrums you do see sometimes at competitions.
I must thank Mark Adams who invited my group to what was a very well run competition with a very good standard and we look forward to the next one.
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