24 December, 2008

The Hammamatsu Junior World Cup, 2 November 2008

Ben Vignola

Sato-shihan and I had to pick up the swiss Shihan and his friend from Narita before we made our way down to Hammamatsu. So, I met Sato-san at 7am in Niza, north Tokyo and we set off... after a somewhat less than enjoyable experience on the Tokyo freeway system, we arrived at Narita three hours after setting off and an hour late to meet Alberto. Alberto was in good spirits though, so, he and Dino jumped in the car and we got on the road to Hammamtsu. We had been hoping that we would have no more traffic worries but the roads Kami had other ideas.... we arrived seven hours later - it should have been two. Enough said.

After yet another interminable delay, somewhat less annoying than earlier in the day - we had got used to waiting around by then - and much confusion with mobile phone shops, Sato-san and I finally got to our hotel. It was still fairly early, around 7pm so, considering that we only had to be up at 7 the following morning, we had all the time in the world to relax. So, I had a coffee.

Yes, I am a fool. I knew it would be trouble. I sat there, in the tiny hotel room, looking at the plastic container. It's colourful label telling me how much I would love to drink it right now (Well, I assume it did - it was in Japanese though and I can barely recognise the Kanji for Tokyo, let alone a bloody takeaway iced latté label). I waited, I put it aside, I told myself I wouldn't be able to sleep - I told myself I'd been here before and didn't like it the first time; I even gave myself examples of past misfortunes, blame for which had been laid at the door of a missed nights sleep (given the lack of external conversation in my life, the internal dialogues have, at times, developed to the level of structured debate). But I didn't listen, I never bloody do, so I drank the lot in about a minute before bashing out several lengthy emails and an entry in my diary (I love to write after drinking coffee... actually, I rarely write without it). Well, anyway, as I feared, that coffee was the nicest tasting way way to say goodbye to a decent nights sleep.... I eventually dropped off at about four am and woke at 7 wondering if I would ever arrive at a fight feeling fresh.

The fight festival was to be held in a large domed sportshall, about half an hour out of the centre of Hammamatsu and was really a kids event. Well, the main event was the Junior Shidokan World Cup competition. The adults competition was far less of a big event and, as such, it attracted fewer fighters. There were to be three rounds for the lightweights and middleweights but only two rounds for the heavyweights - there were only four of us. I had a look at the opposition in the festival brochure and was happy to see that I knew all the heavyweights. One of whom was the green belt that I had thrashed in my first fight back in June - I had barely broken a sweat against him and I felt confident that I could handle him again. The second was a young fighter from Kodama Dojo, he was also a green belt but is a great fighter and has a huge spirit. The last was a big guy from Murakami Juku, Ishoi. I've trained with him a couple of times and I like him very much; he is always smiling and joking around - most un-Japanese, I know. Anyway, he is a big bloke and I looked forward to fighting him - that might sound strange but I was more concerned with fighting the smaller guy than Ishoi. Smaller guys always fight harder.

I was nervous again. It may have been that lack of sleep but I could feel my heart thumping, the anxiety in my gut telling me to fight or get the hell out of there.. It's funny but there is nothing you can do about it; the reflex is to run but when you have to wait around for your turn, it seems to worry the animal inside. Makoto called all the fighters over and we all lined up before trooping out to kneel on the mat. The opening ceremony was incredibly long; we had to listen to a, seemingly endless, procession of Japanese and Brazilian dignitaries deliver painfully verbose speeches (the tournament was also promoting Japanese/Brazilian relations in the area and Kodama-shihan had flown the minister for sport in Brazil to attend), that we had the pleasure of hearing in triplicate - Japanese, Brazilian and finally the English translation (which was usually paraphrased, for which one can hardly blame the interpreter, on the contrary, I felt like thanking him). I'm sure you can imagine how much fun listening to all that while in seiza was, yeah, I loved it. Finally, the speeches ended and Kodama-shihan performed a couple of very complicated Kata to end the opening ceremony. The Kata were performed to the beat of a huge Taiko drum; The combination of perfectly executed kata, the grace and power of the dance-like, almost hypnotic moves, coupled with the ever-increasing pace of the deafening Taiko drum resonating through the hall left my heart pounding in my chest. The atmosphere was palpable and I found all the nervous tension had been transformed into an exhilarating feeling of readiness. Which, unfortunately, dissipated over the following two and a half hours that I had to wait until my fight.. once again, the heavyweights fight last. 

My first fight was against young guy from the Kodama dojo. He was a good fifteen kilos lighter than I but he always makes a go of his fights - I saw him get put out in the first round of the All Japan but he fought so hard I thought it a shame that the decision went against him. Also, I've seen him fight Oyabu-san and, again, he fought till the last bell. This fight was no exception - when the buzzer sounded, we went straight for each other and he landed an almighty punch on my chest. I was surprised and thought that he had no right hitting that hard at his weight; it must have been because he was moving forward. Anyway, we started trading body shots and it became clear that his first hit was out of the ordinary because I could have taken the rest of his punches all day long. We went at it though and I hit him with a couple of good hizas and a couple of decent maiwashi-gedans. He really put his back into it though and we tore at each other. Unfortunately, I do not remember much of this fight because I was so involved - as was he. All I remember is the two of us hammering at each other with gusto - I do remember hitting his ribs hard with a maiwashi-chudan though, and he felt it, so I went for the same spot time and again and it started to show - towards the end of the round, he was much more interested in blocking my strikes than dishing out his own. Ah, also, I caught him in the face - right on the chin actually and he dropped like a stone. Bit of a mistake; it glanced off his shoulder - he made a song and dance of it too - I mean, I had caught an elbow of his in the eye when we went down at some point, I have the black eye to prove it, but I didn't mention it to the ref. Anyway, whatever, he had to carry on; I was warned and that was that... maybe he just wanted a bit of a lie down - he did look a little tired. So, at the end of it, our first round was a draw and we went to a hikewake. This being only a minute, we both upped the ante; to the extent that my entire Do-gi got ripped down one side.... gutted; they are seventy odd quid... oh well, I could always repair it I suppose. It was an example of how hard we were going at it though - those Do-gi are tough. Anyway, at the end of a grueling hikewake, I was declared the winner. I think it was close but I had hurt him a lot more than he, I. Although, if we were being scored on effort, I think he took it - he just couldn't hurt me though, I was too heavy for him - quite glad I ate all those pies now. 

As I left the ring, I gave Ishoi, the Murakami-Juku heavyweight, a slap on the back and wished him luck; he looked a little nervous but I knew he would win - his opponent was not strong enough. I was very nearly wrong. It seems that, in the last four months, the Kodama guy had trained hard - he was vastly improved from when we fought in June. He gave Ishoi a really hard time and their fight also went to a hikewake. I was happy the Ishoi won and even happier that he had had to work for it; we would be equally tired in the final... even stevens.

The final fight was not as epic as the first round but it was tough. Makoto-san gave me a little advice before the start; he said that Ishoi was slow to move forward so I should go at him. Also, he had a tough body, so I shouldn't trade body hits with him; back off and strike the legs, or close quickly, hiza and back off again. Sagacious advice that went out the window the second that the buzzer sounded. Having trained with him, I knew that Ishoi had a good low kick and I had seen Murakami-shihan giving him advice before the fight to use it. So, I guessed that he would come at me with a strong low kick and I planned to be ready for it. It worked; the first second we went for each other, I saw him shape up and throw the kick - so I hit him with a fast and high front kick - very straight to the chest and, as his leg was already in the air, my kick knocked him on his arse. The look of surprise on his face was almost comical - I didn't smile though, I like him too much for that. Then, when he got up, I hammered him with a low kick, then again - I figured to beat him at his own game. He blocked the second so I hit him with a fast maiwashi-jodan - he was expecting the low kick so I got through and hit him clean on the side of the head. It wasn't too strong though - it landed with the end of the foot - so he stood up to it and we went in for body shots. He had a bloody strong punch and, as we traded, one got through to my left side and it felt like I'd broken a rib. I knew it was trouble so I clinched him and kept my left arm close to my side as I threw a hiza to his body. I could hear the guys in his corner shouting 'hit his left, hit his left' but he couldn't get past my guard and the second or two as the ref separated us was enough for me to suck it up and go for him again. I hit him with more hizas and then we started trading body shots again - this time though, I was more careful and he didn't take me unawares again. The fight was rough but I was moving him back, especially with the hizas to the body; he didn't know how to block them and I think it was too manic for him to think of anything except punching my body. The buzzer eventually sounded and Sato-san pulled us apart - he had to actually because neither of us had heard the buzzer and were carrying on... we probably would have continued until we fell over; it was a good round and I thought we were pretty even. I was disappointed when the judges gave it to me actually - I felt that we were even, or, if anything, he had won it and I wanted to go another round to knock him out or make the fight convincingly mine. It wasn't to be though, three of the five judges found it in my favour, the other two calling it a draw, so it was over, I had won. Ishoi was gutted, so was I, but that's the way it goes.

All in all, I loved the day - the fighting was right up my street with very little floorwork; just toe to toe stuff - great fun. So, with a few bruises to mark the occasion and after a brief slice of cake (actually, it was a sickly sponge cake with an Shidokan badge icing), I piled in the car with Hashimoto-shihan and his student for the trek back to Honbu.. this time it was much faster - only six hours instead... mmmm, gotta love Japan motorways...

That's it for the scraps for a couple of weeks - I have a kickboxing match on the 23rd, my first, so it's back to the gym in the morning.... love it.