Judo Tournament

I had my judo tournament on April 18. The tournament was taken place at Alameda High School in the new gym. This was my first judo tournament I have been to and I could of went to the earlier tournaments but I did not want to. Instead I waited near the end of the school year for my judo tournament and we were required to go to at least one tournament. Usually I am nervous on my martial arts tournament. On my other Vietnamese tournament I got owned from sparing and this one I try to stay com and confident.

A few days before on a Friday after school both classes helped set up the tournament for Sunday and we got community service for. It became really tiring became we had to bring judo mats from the dojo to the table area where the back entrance to kofemen was. Each mat was probably about 15 pounds. In the dojo we took some of the mats out and it was so dusty underneath the mats. I had a lot of dust attracted to me while I was loading the truck. This process took about two hours including 5th and 6th period to transport the mats to the new gym. It took awhile to unload the mats off the truck. Then we set up the gym with four running mats while took awhile. After we were setting up the new gym the worse part was bringing out the 4 wheel dollys and back to the dojo. It took four people to bring out the 600 pound dolly out the door and down the stairs to the dojo.

The day of the tournament came. We had to come early at 7:30am to help. We paid for our entry and weight-in. Some people helped label the medals saying "PROF. JAY ALOHA INVITATIONAL JUDO TOURNAMENT". Our matches was going to take awhile and the tournament starts at 10:30am. We had to help the judges keep track of scores and pooling which is pairing up people in the same weight division in groups of 5. The beginning of the tournament was the little kids, teens, and the black belt division. I helped keep score for a few hours and chill with my sister.

Finally our tournament started to come at around 1pm. I waited with my friend Amir and we found out we were in the same pool. Which means i get to go against my friend. We were lucky to be in a pool with four people because it is faster and a better chance of wining a medal. I went against everyone in my pool and my first match was against Amir. I tried my best and stay com. The match started and I waited for him to grab me and as soon as he grabbed me I went for a throw but he tried to counter me. he almost got me and i fell on my butt but it didn't count. The opponet has to get the play on their back to win. The reff stopped us and start back in the middle. I grabbed him and tried to do a left sided throw to get him off guard but I did half of it and still got him on the ground. As he was on the ground I tried to choke him but the reff stopped us again. The third time I tried my throw again and I got him on his back and I won. My second match was against a yellow belt that i just found out after our match. I lost fast to this guy because he had more experience than me. So I did the first move with a foward throw but he countered me. My third match was really quick and it took about 10 seconds to win this one. I was against a talls person and before my matches I was examing his moves when he went up. I notice his legs were weak and off balance most of the time. When I went against this guy I tested out a small sweep and I got him off balance already so I went for a back sweep and got him down. I won 2/3 matches and got 2nd place. When the tournament ended we repeat what we did on Friday but backwards taking the mats back to the dojo.

Vovinam Tournament 2009

Vovinam is a type of Vietnamese Martial Arts that I have taken for a few years. July 2009, I competed in the 9th World Championship Tournament in San Jose against LA, Oakland, San Jose, 4 people from Hayward including me and I think that's about it. I don't remember. I was competing with a Vietnamese form and a sparing match.

In the morning I went to my Uncle's house and left with his family to the tournament. We were maybe about an hour late because of traffic and the schedule said it starts at 10 o'clock but it was 9 o'clock but we didn't miss any of our performances. We only missed the first part of the partner performance where they have a mini fighting skit (one of the performance here).I like watching those skits but to bad I wasn't there in person to see it and I had to watch it on you tube. We we came it was already break time and I had some food. After, Vicky (teacher assistant) and I practice outside with some attacking combos when I compete.

Break time was over and it's was time for Vietnamese form performances. There were two performances going on at the same time, one side with the older kids and the other with the younger kids. I'm not sure how many forms there are but people were performing their third form and up. I was supposed to perform my second form but I couldn't perform it because it was yesterday. The day before the tournament is a seminar I think, and my teacher said I didn't need to go. On that day was my second form performance and I didn't know. My teacher knows the judge well and he told them if I could perform the next day and the judge was okay with it. He said that Vicky will remind them. She remembered to tell the judge if I get perform but they didn't let me and there was no re-takes.

The sparing match was about to begin. The high ranked teachers (also judges) started to weight everyone who were competing and this match is a free fight tournament. The judges announced the order of the fighters and I was last. The rules were no using knees, elbows, and no kicking below the belt line. I was observing some of the sparing matches and I did not see any people using techniques. Most were just kicking and punching continuously and jumping on each other. I know it's a free fight but they should do some techniques. Later, it was my turn and I was nervous because my opponent looked about a year or two older than me and some people said he was good and really strong. I put on my sparing gear and step into the ring. Round 1 started and I get hit within the first 5 seconds and I started punching him in the face. It looked like I pissed him off and he started to corner me while punching me. I tried to dodge some of them but it was a bad idea because I have some open spots for him to get me and when he cornered me he got me down. The ref stopped the match and brought us to the middle to start again. As he came closer I did a spinning back heel to him and pushed him a few feet back and that gave me a chance to combo him. I came up to him and did a upper cut, double punch, and a front snap kick but he dodged it. He some how cornered me again while he was walking up to me and punching. I started punching got some good hits but I fell on the crowed of people. The ref stopped it again and put us in the middle of the mat. The judges ringed the gong and I end up losing.When the tournament was over everyone lined up and sat down for medals. I heard my name for third place and I was surprised that I got a bronze. I'm not sure not how the judging goes but I think I got more points from other players. I was happy that I got a bronze and I would have probably gotten a silver medal if I done my form.