10 June 2008

Fight club

London Shidokan GB member Ben Vignola travelled to Japan in March for a year long stay in the east. Here, he sends his first report...

So, in brief, this is how my first tournament went down. Ito is a couple of hours south of Tokyo proper and, as I am nearly an hour north of Tokyo (in the suburbs), I went to stay in Kancho's Dojo in Izuogen on Saturday night - I was to stay there and then Yussef Shihan would pick me up the next morning and take me to the fight. So, after a sleepless night (not excitement - caffeine; long story and I don't want to tell it because then you'll know how stupid I really am), Shihan Yussef turned up and we were off to Ito's sportshall.

I was pretty nervous and despite being quite calm about the fight for the last few weeks, on the day of it my nerves had come to the surface... Everyone in my weight category looked like a world champ and I felt like a minnow. A squat guy with a big smile came up to say hi and Yussef translated that he would be my first opponent - we wished each other luck (Gambaté - I like the word), shook hands and went off to stretch. Yussef told me not to worry as he knew the guy and that he was pretty weak, it didn't help. Even though, my opponent looked about as worried as I was, I still couldn't calm the steady thump of my heart - I don't think it was his first tournament but he wasn't that experienced - he too was a yellow belt (even if I was wearing a white Obi; I had forgotten mine in Honbu!!!).

The waiting was agonisingly long and it was with a small feeling of relief that my name was called to the mat. I stepped up, osu to Kancho and the Shihans, osu to the ref (Sato-san) and a final OSU to my opponent, then we began. I went straight for him and landed a tobi-hizageri on his chin - he was moving backwards and I didn't manage to grab his head so it didn't knock him out but he was thrown off the mat and he was dazed. Makoto had told me to start with a powerful attack and his advice was so right - from then the guy was on the back foot ; whenever I attacked, he backed off until he was off the matting and I don't think he managed to land anything on me - nothing that I felt then or now anyway. I saw that I had hurt him with some low kicks to the thigh - confirmed by Tamura-san shouting at me to maiwashi-gedan - so I went for his leg some more. He blocked a couple and then I nearly got another ippon with a decent maiwashi-geri jodan on his chin again and he was all over the place - the round was only two minutes and at the end the judges both scored it to me. Round one over.

It really felt very quick and I didn't even break a sweat - in fact, it felt like a warm up to be honest. We left the matting and I gave the guy a man hug, shook his hand and then spoke to my Shihan (Ueno-san). He told me to hold the head when I use hizageri and showed me how - he told me to concentrate on this for my next fight and then my name was called again - round two, for me, was immediately. This was actually still round one - we had to have the extra fight so that there was an even number for the next round. I was a little surprised that my name was called immediately but the first fight was so smooth, I didn't really mind.

The next opponent was Oyabu-san, Shihan and ex world karate champion, put it this way, he was a little bit better than the first guy. The round started well enough, I hit him with a few maegeris to the stomach - they hit well as he was coming forward but I really wanted him to grab the foot - Andreis showed me a very powerful move for when someone tries this and I really wanted to hit Oyabu-san with it - no dice, he didn't go for the foot and we closed in. I grabbed his head an hiza'd a few times - I landed then to his body but he was too close to hit his head - we went down and then separated. we closed again and exchanged punches and kicks - again, closing to hiza the body and again, we went down to the matting. Up again and this time, as we closed, he hit me with a wicked hook to the ribs - I didn't see it and wasn't tense - I was badly winded and went down. I got straight back up and toed the line - Immediately, he came in again and, as I had not recovered my breath, I was completely defensive and he hit me again in the ribs - it hurt like hell and I covered up, he hit me a couple more times and landed a hiza on the side of my head; I felt fine - not dazed at all, I had part parried it and took much of the power away. However, the ref saw me just covering up and he scored the wazari to Oyabu-san. Two wazaris means an ippon (TKO) so it was over. Fight two finished. We shook hands and I couldn't suppress a grin - Oyabu-san always has a smile on his face and it is infectious - amplified by endorphins maybe, who cares.

So, that was that. I was disappointed to discover that I didn't even have a bruise from his strikes - I was just winded. A good lesson (for those of you going to fight in Sri-Lanka), if you go down and are winded, the wazari is already scored against you so you should take your time getting up. The judges wont be impressed but, if you don't make sure that you have your breath, the fight will be over very shortly afterwards - believe me - Given that, by the time I OSU to Kancho at the end of the round I could breathe fine and felt no pain, if I had waited when I was down, I may have been able to salvage the round. So, for me, lesson learned and all in all, it was a great experience - loads of fun and not at all the monster that you dream it will be. We spar all the time and this is just a more focused version of that.

Now, Oyabu went on to win the weight class - convincingly, I might add. He was the only experienced fighter in our class and, watching the other guys fight after my TKO, I felt much more confident about facing any of them. In fact, I am entering a true novice tournament in July - the Saitama Freshman Cup - in which many of the guys from Ito will be competing. So, I will get a chance to fight at my level and maybe do a little better than round 1a.

So, it was loads of fun; I tasted a little bit of victory a little defeat and walked away with a fat grin on my face.... and a free teeshirt (about fifteen sizes too big - I must look fat because you could fit two people in the one they gave me). Now, I am off to Thailand for a couple of weeks and then, it's back to the Dojo.

Next time I'll get him.

Osu

Ben