# Tournament Results!!! Yippee!



## Lynne (Oct 6, 2007)

My daughter, Bonnie,  and I both placed well in the Central NY Classic.  

Bonnie won first place in forms and first place in sparring; she won second place in board-breaking (she forgot to introduce herself to the judges for board-breaking - oops!).  She did Chil-Sung E Ro-Hyung and did very well with the form.  She had some tough competition in sparring and should be very proud of herself. She sparred three rounds.

I won first place in board-breaking!  I didn't try to break as many boards as I'd originally planned as I couldn't even break one at home (who knows why?).  I broke two boards with an elbow strike, one with a hammer strike, and one with an inside/outside kick.  I never aimed, just went for it   Oh, we didn't use cinderblocks.  We had gentlemen holding the boards for us.

Sparring was a blast. I won my first match, so I got to spar twice.  The first place went to one of our school's white belts.  She coaches women's basketball at the University of Binghamton and has studied Shotokan Karate.  She's a fierce competitor and definitely deserved that first place.  I was thrilled to get second.

Also, not too bad considering I'm more than twice the age of one of my competitors, and older than all of them!!!

I really liked our main judge, Master Tullier from Louisiana.  What a fine person and very encouraging.  He knew it was our first tournament and took the time to try and calm us a bit.  He gave us lots of advice and tips for the future.

I believe we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 450 competitors.  Next year, we have to find a larger arena.  It was very well organized and a lot of fun.


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## Lynne (Oct 6, 2007)

I forgot to mention my form, Chil-Sung E Ro-Hyung.  I goofed up on the chundan soo do makees and I'm sure my stances weren't the best - I was way too nervous.  But I'm glad I gave it a go.  

To tell you the truth, knowing I didn't do very well with the form makes me want to try harder.


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## FieldDiscipline (Oct 6, 2007)

Congratulations.  You're efforts paid off!

Just a thought, if your daughter is under 16 you should be very wary of her doing destruction.


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## Lynne (Oct 6, 2007)

FieldDiscipline said:


> Congratulations. You're efforts paid off!
> 
> Just a thought, if your daughter is under 16 you should be very wary of her doing destruction.


Thank you, Field.  I have been working hard at sparring - the classes are killers.  

My daughter is 17.  Actually, I don't like sparring her too much - she is fast and she hits HARD.  She bruises everyone up pretty good   She makes us better when we spar with her.


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## FieldDiscipline (Oct 6, 2007)

Thats cool.  Please forgive my being presumptuous.

Congratulations again.


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## Lynne (Oct 6, 2007)

FieldDiscipline said:


> Thats cool. Please forgive my being presumptuous.
> 
> Congratulations again.


No problem, and thanks again.


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## grydth (Oct 6, 2007)

What I enjoy about reading Lynne's topics is the determined and positive outlook. Other people have bad things happen to them, or get the willies over new challenges.... and it's poor me, life's unfair, blah blah..... but this person is always looking for (and often finding) ways to succeed. 

She finds the courage, wins - and still displays humility. Who couldn't learn from that?

Congrats on the win, wish both of you many more!


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## terryl965 (Oct 6, 2007)

Congrats Lynne to you and your daughter.


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## stickarts (Oct 6, 2007)

Congrats!!


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## MBuzzy (Oct 6, 2007)

GREAT JOB!!!  Congratulations to you and your daughter!!!

I'm glad to hear that everything paid off, hopefully we have helped at least a little!


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## agemechanic03 (Oct 6, 2007)

CONGRATS to you and your daughter both!!!! Now you know what to expect next time you do a copmetition and you can blow em out of the water!


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## JT_the_Ninja (Oct 7, 2007)

Congratulations to the both of you! Tang Soo!


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## crushing (Oct 7, 2007)

Congratulations!  That sounds great.


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## CoryKS (Oct 7, 2007)

Congratulations, Lynne!


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## Brian R. VanCise (Oct 7, 2007)

Congratulations!


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## Tames D (Oct 7, 2007)

Congrats.


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## MasterPistella (Oct 7, 2007)

Congratulations! I'm glad you had a good experience. One of my friends was there, but I could not make it this year. Maybe next time.


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## exile (Oct 7, 2007)

You rock, Lynne. I'm glad this first tournament was such a smash hit (as it were :lol Excellent beginning to your tournament career!


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## claireg31 (Oct 8, 2007)

hi lynne
sorry, i just logged back on, i'm so happy for both you and your daughter and glad it was a good experience for both of you, i could do with some of your positivity to rub off on some of our students!!
corgratulations once more!
claire


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## cdunn (Oct 8, 2007)

I, on the other hand, got my butt whooped at this one. It was an educational experience, though, and I'll have my next shot at him soon enough. :jediduel:

My form (Bassai So) felt clean, but 6 of us had to lose out entirely, and some were flat out obviously better than me. Such is life. Would have liked to see more traditional forms, though. Since we mostly don't learn them till after 1st dan, I can't really tell very well what's a good Chil Sung form and what's a bad one, but that was pretty much all I saw going on, and I can't really compare my performance to theirs to shore up the weaknesses.


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## Lynne (Oct 8, 2007)

grydth said:


> What I enjoy about reading Lynne's topics is the determined and positive outlook. Other people have bad things happen to them, or get the willies over new challenges.... and it's poor me, life's unfair, blah blah..... but this person is always looking for (and often finding) ways to succeed.
> 
> She finds the courage, wins - and still displays humility. Who couldn't learn from that?
> 
> Congrats on the win, wish both of you many more!


Thank you, grydth.  Your words made my day.  *blushes*


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## Lynne (Oct 8, 2007)

MBuzzy said:


> GREAT JOB!!! Congratulations to you and your daughter!!!
> 
> I'm glad to hear that everything paid off, hopefully we have helped at least a little!


 
Absolutely, you all have been very helpful.  I really appreciate everyone here taking the time to answer my questions, explaining applications of techniques, and for positive encouragement.

Thank you.


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## Lynne (Oct 8, 2007)

MasterPistella said:


> Congratulations! I'm glad you had a good experience. One of my friends was there, but I could not make it this year. Maybe next time.


I hope you can make it next time, Master Pistella.  And please bring some of your women students.  Master Rexer combined the women's and women's senior division.  We were 8 total and all from Rexer's.  It would be nice to compete with women from another school.  We had over 450 participants, so I'm a little surprised there weren't more female competitors.

I'm sure you would enjoy it and we would love to have you.


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## Lynne (Oct 8, 2007)

exile said:


> You rock, Lynne. I'm glad this first tournament was such a smash hit (as it were :lol Excellent beginning to your tournament career!


Smash hit - ha ha.  I had read all the advice given to me in the General Martial Arts thread regarding board-breaking.  I took that advice with me when I went to the board-breaking clinic.  I have never aimed - well, not exactly.  For the hammer and elbow strikes, I touched the boards with the part of my elbow/hand I wanted to strike the board with.  I don't know if that would be considered "aiming."  Don't think so.  I think not aiming and just driving through those boards as hard as I could impressed the judges.

Now, I want to keep adding boards


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## Lynne (Oct 8, 2007)

claireg31 said:


> hi lynne
> sorry, i just logged back on, i'm so happy for both you and your daughter and glad it was a good experience for both of you, i could do with some of your positivity to rub off on some of our students!!
> corgratulations once more!
> claire


Thank you, Claire.  I'm glad I come off as positive


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## Lynne (Oct 8, 2007)

cdunn said:


> I, on the other hand, got my butt whooped at this one. It was an educational experience, though, and I'll have my next shot at him soon enough. :jediduel:
> 
> My form (Bassai So) felt clean, but 6 of us had to lose out entirely, and some were flat out obviously better than me. Such is life. Would have liked to see more traditional forms, though. Since we mostly don't learn them till after 1st dan, I can't really tell very well what's a good Chil Sung form and what's a bad one, but that was pretty much all I saw going on, and I can't really compare my performance to theirs to shore up the weaknesses.


Hey Christopher,

I was wondering how you did. I wish I'd gotten a chance to meet you.  That would have been nearly impossible.  I couldn't believe the crowd.  I did see a red belt guy with a brown ponytail and glasses and wondered if that might be you.  If it was you, I did smile and nod!

I'm glad you are looking forward to your next sparring (?) match.  I think it's great you got to compete with someone from another school.  That must be a real learning experience.

I stunk with my Chil-Sung form.  My 17 year old daughter won first place with Chil-Sung E Ro-Hyung.  She's been doing that form for 10 months, though, knows the breathing, etc.  Everyone else in her group did a traditional form.  With those Chil-Sung forms there is so much to concentrate on - there's a contrast between slow and quick moves that's really important.  I'm going to keep working on it and I should learn a lot about the five elements, and how to breathe.

In the colored belts, I believe most of the forms were traditional forms (green belt and lower).

Did you go Friday night?  I loved the team sparring.  Also, I really enjoyed watching the weapons forms.  I saw the masters/black belts competing for grand champion on Saturday morning and that was fun.  Master (?) Omar was excellent.

I hope you had fun and maybe next year we will have a cooler and larger arena.

Lynne


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## cdunn (Oct 8, 2007)

Lynne said:


> Hey Christopher,
> 
> I was wondering how you did. I wish I'd gotten a chance to meet you. That would have been nearly impossible. I couldn't believe the crowd. I did see a red belt guy with a brown ponytail and glasses and wondered if that might be you. If it was you, I did smile and nod!
> 
> ...


 
I didn't get to go in on Friday night, as I didn't get to New York till almost midnight. Makes me kind of sad, but I didn't have anything near ready for a sword form, and it's gonna be tough to have one ready for our tourneyand get ready for upcoming testing. I'll have to find spare hours to sneak into the dojang and use the floor. 

For us, it was a nine man division, three from our dojang, 4 of Master Rexer's students, one of the guys from Louisiana, and one of the English guys, and nearly everyone that wasn't in my school did Chil Sung of some sort, including one instance of Chil Sung O Ro, which was kind of unexpected in a red belt division. I almost laughed when they called up two of the competitors again and made them do Pyung Ahn E Dan as a tie breaker. It was just such a beautiful choice.  

You'll probably see more variety in your opponents as you go on, though - junior color belts generally don't do much travelling to tournaments as a rule of thumb, it's the red belts and the low black belts that generally really want to prove something, and go out to compete. I know I went pretty much because I wanted to play with some of those guys again. You might even get lucky, and draw someone who practices something else entirely at some of the invitationals. At the Pittsburgh tournament this spring, I got into a moderately brutal sparring match with a guy that practiced Eagle Claw Kung Fu. About the only thing that kept us from painting the floor with each other was the frequent intervention of the O Dan judging the match. Most fun I've ever had in a sparring match.


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## Lynne (Oct 8, 2007)

cdunn said:


> I didn't get to go in on Friday night, as I didn't get to New York till almost midnight. Makes me kind of sad, but I didn't have anything near ready for a sword form, and it's gonna be tough to have one ready for our tourneyand get ready for upcoming testing. I'll have to find spare hours to sneak into the dojang and use the floor.
> 
> For us, it was a nine man division, three from our dojang, 4 of Master Rexer's students, one of the guys from Louisiana, and one of the English guys, and nearly everyone that wasn't in my school did Chil Sung of some sort, including one instance of Chil Sung O Ro, which was kind of unexpected in a red belt division. I almost laughed when they called up two of the competitors again and made them do Pyung Ahn E Dan as a tie breaker. It was just such a beautiful choice.
> 
> You'll probably see more variety in your opponents as you go on, though - junior color belts generally don't do much travelling to tournaments as a rule of thumb, it's the red belts and the low black belts that generally really want to prove something, and go out to compete. I know I went pretty much because I wanted to play with some of those guys again. You might even get lucky, and draw someone who practices something else entirely at some of the invitationals. At the Pittsburgh tournament this spring, I got into a moderately brutal sparring match with a guy that practiced Eagle Claw Kung Fu. About the only thing that kept us from painting the floor with each other was the frequent intervention of the O Dan judging the match. Most fun I've ever had in a sparring match.


Pyung Ahn E Dan as a tie breaker?  A 7th gup form.  That is kind of funny. (It also shows you better know your lower forms very well.)

How interesting about the Kung Fu guy.  I know the Central NY Classic is open to all martial artists, but I don't know if we had any participants outside of Tang Soo Do or Tae Kwon Do. At some point, maybe I'll get to spar with someone from another discipline.


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## cdunn (Oct 8, 2007)

Lynne said:


> Pyung Ahn E Dan as a tie breaker? A 7th gup form. That is kind of funny. (It also shows you better know your lower forms very well.)
> 
> How interesting about the Kung Fu guy. I know the Central NY Classic is open to all martial artists, but I don't know if we had any participants outside of Tang Soo Do or Tae Kwon Do. At some point, maybe I'll get to spar with someone from another discipline.


 
I did see a guy in a chinese type uniform with a gold sash in the dressing room, but he kind of disappeared during the tourney. I don't know if he had students competing or not. 

And, actually, they tend to use the Pyung Ahn as tie breakers for some pretty good reasons - They are universally taught within our art, and focus on and display both very basic priniciples of motion and a number of very effective techniques. There is no excuse not to know them as a practitioner of TSD. Because of that, they provide an excellent platform for direct comparison. They tie broke one of the dan divisions with Pyung Ahn Sa Dan.

And, it can go even further down. At the Pittsburgh tournament, they tiebroke the black belt sword divison with Ssang Soo Gumbup E Bon - a yellow belt form. It was... intense to watch.


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## Lynne (Oct 8, 2007)

cdunn said:


> I did see a guy in a chinese type uniform with a gold sash in the dressing room, but he kind of disappeared during the tourney. I don't know if he had students competing or not.
> 
> And, actually, they tend to use the Pyung Ahn as tie breakers for some pretty good reasons - They are universally taught within our art, and focus on and display both very basic priniciples of motion and a number of very effective techniques. There is no excuse not to know them as a practitioner of TSD. Because of that, they provide an excellent platform for direct comparison. They tie broke one of the dan divisions with Pyung Ahn Sa Dan.
> 
> And, it can go even further down. At the Pittsburgh tournament, they tiebroke the black belt sword divison with Ssang Soo Gumbup E Bon - a yellow belt form. It was... intense to watch.


I just learned Pyung Ahn Cho Dan a few weeks ago.  All I know at this point is that Pyung Ahn means balance and control.  Unfortunately, I'm not knowledgeable yet about the application of the Pyung Ahn forms to our art.  I hope to be more knowledgeable soon.  From what everyone here has to say, the Pyung Ahn forms are integral to Tang Soo Do.  I'll do some research at this site and on the net.

The woman who placed first in forms in my division was a white belt (the same one who won first place in sparring) and she peformed Gi Cho Hyung E Bu.  The white belt had incredibly strong, deep stances and her transitions were, well, like water.  All of us "higher" ranking ladies have something to learn from her.


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## claireg31 (Oct 9, 2007)

Lynne said:


> The woman who placed first in forms in my division was a white belt (the same one who won first place in sparring) and she peformed Gi Cho Hyung E Bu. The white belt had incredibly strong, deep stances and her transitions were, well, like water. All of us "higher" ranking ladies have something to learn from her.


 
thats really funny! last night after training i was speaking to my instructor and we were going through our forms and he was pointing out snagging!! and he said to us the best way to learn how to do a form is to ask someone how thry do a particular move, he also said that it didn't matter what colour of belt they were, he said that they may do a forn spectacularly well or a particular move really well, you can learn from any student no matter what belt they happen to be!
i just need to learn balance and to learn my forms inside out!! i have a nasty habit of doing then really well 3 or 4 times and then blanking completely!
as the other half keeps saying practise, practise, practise!
tang soo!


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## Lynne (Oct 9, 2007)

claireg31 said:


> thats really funny! last night after training i was speaking to my instructor and we were going through our forms and he was pointing out snagging!! and he said to us the best way to learn how to do a form is to ask someone how thry do a particular move, he also said that it didn't matter what colour of belt they were, he said that they may do a forn spectacularly well or a particular move really well, you can learn from any student no matter what belt they happen to be!
> i just need to learn balance and to learn my forms inside out!! i have a nasty habit of doing then really well 3 or 4 times and then blanking completely!
> as the other half keeps saying practise, practise, practise!
> tang soo!


 
Hi Claire,

I blank, too, or sometimes do the wrong moves.  It's like I zone out or something.  One thing I don't want to do is to blank out in a competition, but I know it happens to a lot of people.

It is amazing to see how good some people are at forms. They seem to have a gift or maybe they have a deeper understanding.  I am going to work much harder at forms, not that I haven't worked hard as it is.  But there is lots of room for improvement.


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## benj13bowlin (Oct 9, 2007)

Congratulations Lynne!!


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