EMTF British Championships 2011 Review

(I’ve cross-posted this from my training log at our club’s website here)

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Another weekend down, and another tournament under our belts. Our club once again sent a sizable squad to Bedford and Northampton for the EMTF British Championships, hosted under the watchful eyes of Master Kumar Sr and Grandmaster Salm. It’s always nice to see Grandmaster at these events, and even moreso when I didn’t even realise he’d be there this year. After an arduous trip up, thanks to traffic, accidents and a wayward satnav, we checked-in to our home from home at the Premier Inn in Bedford and managed to get a meal before the next day’s early start.

To be fair we probably should have been up earlier, we’d underestimated how long it takes to get across to Northampton, but we were still there in plenty of time to get changed, feel some butterflies and line up with scores of our Tang Soo Do family. Once I’d been told what was expected from me for the day (Dan grade and above don’t get much of a chance to sit around doing nothing) the competition began quickly and it wasn’t long before our girls were the first to take the mat. They did a great job as the forms categories starting rattling through, and at times it was difficult to know where to look, you couldn’t turn round without seeing one of our guys on the mats!

As the day wore on it was fantastic to see our gup grades walking away with trophy after trophy, the high standards we strive to keep and the effort put in by everyone really shone through. It wasn’t too long before the Dan grades – me included – got called to the mats to stand in front of three or four masters at a time and try to show them why we deserve to win anything. I couldn’t believe how big our first category was, the names over the tannoy just kept coming. In the end I think we had fourteen people in our traditional forms section, and eleven for chil sung, I’ve never been in a group that size before. Despite not coming away with anything myself our guys did great and placed in both categories, and for once I really enjoyed performing, rather than just feeling incredibly nervous the entire time. It doesn’t mean my performance was any better, but at least this time I can still remember some of it!

I didn’t spar again this year, which meant I spent the afternoon on a ring helping to score and judge those who were fighting, but I quite enjoy it to be honest and it makes the day go a lot quicker. Again, our guys did a good job of taking trophies at all levels from 8th gup upward, and the standard of sparring was very high across all schools. Watching the Masters compete in forms and sparring is always one of the highlights of the day, and this year was no exception. The standard of sparring and forms was very high, right across the board, but still the best bit is watching your own instructor training. It sounds silly but it’s so unusual to actually see your own instructor performing a form, especially one of the ones needed at their level. Normally you only ever see them breaking down a form applicable to your own grade, so it’s a treat to see them performing.

When the day finally ended at just after 7 in the evening we lined up, bowed off and until the next time (which seems to be sooner and sooner every time,) said goodbye to our extended family. I guess everyone took away their own particular highlights for the weekend, but for me they were watching our students looking stronger and more confident in sparring than any time I’ve seen them, running a ring with the very nice Master Christensen from Denmark again, and watching a particular bout in the sparring. The more I go to these events, and the more time I spend with the practitioners – both at home and away – the more grateful I am for having been lucky enough to have found this art and club.

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