The Frog Report

[Frogman]

Forward,
The Frog Report is something I did for my own reflection and am sharing it here with you in hopes that we can all look back and appreciate the weekend. No matter your opinion of this or any other tournament, you have to appreciate the experience.

RibHit
fm
:D

[Frogman]

Opening Ceremonies
The competitors walked in single file, entering the room, and were lined up in rows, while Sifu Harry Lo’s school performed a killer drum set. The guy standing next to me asked, “Who is in charge of security at a kung fu tournament?” I replied, “The guy with the two baseball bats.” I must give it up for the drum set, Sifu Harry’s school has done some awesome shows but that has to be the best I’ve seen. Give it up again for Josh the guy on the big base drum, you could tell he was working. The lion dance was great, those guys put on a really good show all the way around. Some of the national anthems I think were cut short, except the last one of course. You gotta give it up for the Italians as they were the only group I heard singing to their anthem.

It Begins.
Being one of the few from my school there, that has competed before, everyone was asking all these questions. It was fun, I did my best to answer and what I didn’t know we all learned together. (This part I hope everyone can relate with, I talk about my school because that’s what I know.) The first half hour was like being at a bingo contest. Listen for your number. They had me going a few times, A074, A075, A076, I042… I was waiting for A077. There was a lot to do while waiting, hanging out with my friends, looking at all the stuff going on. When someone’s number was called or we saw one of our friends entering a ring on the other side of the floor, we would all scurry over to watch them do their form. It was great to watch everyone and I really paid close attention to how my fellow students did. In all, eleven students from my school competed and we took home six or seven medals. We had neither the most students nor the most advanced but we hung out together and had a good time. Rooting and cheering each other on helps build bonds and fellowship.
At the same time there were many other things going on, lots of stuff the check out. I recognized some of the Hung Gar and Choy Lai Fut mostly by their uniforms, watching closely as they did their forms to get a sense of their flavor. If you walk away from a tournament with nothing else take the time to check out the different styles. This in it self is a good learning experience.
Well what can you say about the stage, if you competed on the stage you had some serious competition. Personally if I could do as well, I suppose I would, but… I think I saw enough, aerial kicking, staggering, flips, rolls and bug picking to hold me over till next year. There were a lot of awesome folks up there and I truly admire their abilities. However, I enjoyed the older slower moving masters, most. They may not have jumped very high and they don’t do their entire form at mach 3, but it looks so good. Precise movement, striking and block, when they move fast it was very fast and when they stop, they’re motionless. Lets not forget the newbies, yes I truly enjoyed watching some of the beginners as well. I like seeing what they were doing right and wrong. I am not a judge but if you want to understand you have to watch all levels. I remember my first competition and how nervous I was. So you have to give it up to the newbies, I give them a few points just for showing up.




Points of Interest.
There were a lot of interesting things going on and I know I missed half of it, so maybe someone else will do a report to fill in the blanks. Anyway… So much neat stuff! I like the guy with the wolfs tail. Scary looking. I was surprised he was a novices / beginner level, and considering how big he was he moved very well. In his long weapon set with the wolfs tail he made it look easy, not sure if he placed. I think everyone likes to watch the monkey guys and the drunk forms. There was a guy in the white Shaolin uniform doing form that had a strong Shaolin flavor, very clean. I like the postures in the Shaolin forms, very up right like you’re standing against the wall. The two man sets are always fun to watch. Were the kids competing against the adults? Not sure what was going on there. I didn’t get to see as much of flexible weapons forms as I would have liked. The few I did see were pretty good. I did get to see some of the double weapons forms. The double hooks are cool the only thing I don’t like is when they hook them together and spin them around. It’s more the catch, seems to take to much time and if it not smooth it kind of slows down the energy. Don’t get me wrong I don’t even know the double hook form, it’s just an observation. One guy did a set with double nun chakus. I realize this is a Japanese weapon, and I'm not sure of the rules and how they out line what you can or can’t use. Who cares, this guys wiping around two nun chakus, it was great! The Italian coach was totally awesome he was flying around the place talking to his students as the competed. I don’t know what he was saying but I could make out “Ok! Good! Go!”. Give it up for the Italian team coach. I spoke with him after the contest and told him I thought his team did great. He doesn’t speak English but he understood replying “Gracias, gracias”.
How about all those folks that came from other counties to compete. I saw people from Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Germany, China, and yes Italy. The whole experience is one I will remember for a long time.


Seminars
I did not do any seminars but wish I had taken at least one. Most likely the double handed gim, alas it was a holiday and I had to cut out to go be with my family.

The Master’s Demo
It was three hours long. I think I’ll sleep on this one, or suggest just buying the video.

The Man.
I hope you did not think I was going to forget about “The Man” did you? I have given it up for a lot of people so far, but you have to really give it up for Nick and his origination. What an outstanding job. I know not everyone is happy with the out come, some complain about the scoring or judging, for some it’s the politics, but in the big picture it went off with out a hitch. The amount of people, all the events, the size of the venue. Wow!

The Officials and Volunteers
Sitting around all day watching kung fu may sound like a great day, if it’s really good kung fu. I guess depending on the ring your assigned to and the divisions your watching it can be a great or just a long day. I think I made out on both my sets as they were right after lunch. Fresh judges has to be an advantage. So give it up for the officials, who sat there all day and endured our kung fu. The time keepers, score keepers, the people working the doors, all volunteers. Give it up for the volunteers and I would like to point out the person in charge of the volunteers, talk about working you’re a$$ off. Good job Swannee.

Conclusion.
This is not about me or my school, it is not about who won and who lost. There were no losers, that I saw. It’s not this school or that school. It’s about the individual who stepped into the square and became part of something bigger then themselves, bigger then their school and even their local community. It is about the International Martial Arts community, coming together meeting new people sharing the martial spirit, building bonds and fellowship. I hope that everyone had as much fun as I did, and I look forward to next year.

RibHit
fm
:cool:

[yu shan]

Gee Frogman, what about "the KFM posters I met" ?! It was nice meeting you too.

[PaiLumDreamer]

Sounded great :P Nice report.

[Frogman]

:(
Yushan,
Sorry dude it was great meeting everyone. I had a longer version of the report that had The KOL Meeting section but forgot to paste it into the final version. I will dig it up and post it today.

fm

[Frogman]

:D

I did not realize that I had left this part out, till this morning.


The Meet,
One of the things I was looking forward to going in, was getting to meet new people with the same interests. What better place then a kung fu tournament. The main reason I enjoy these forums is that I can read and talk kung fu with so many people. After about three years of posting here, I have finally meet some of my kung fu online brothers and sisters. Green Tea was the first one I meet and I recognized her from the pic she had posted. I really like the ribbons you had in your hair it was easy to spot, and of course once you started LOG, ok that’s Green Tea I thought. I was very nice to meet you I hope to see you there next year, or maybe sooner. YuShan, well I must admit that I was really looking forward to meeting yu. I was introduced to both YuShan and 18Elders, they were very friendly and did not try to push PL or bash WL. We hung out and talked a little bit and found that we know some of the same people. I hope you guys do bring a team next year as I enjoy seeing different styles, and didn’t see that much non-WL PM. I prefer to stay away from the politics but hope everyone can work things out. Tai Chi Bob, I happen to run into TCB Sunday, he seems to be a very interesting person. Very humble and friendly. He complimented me on my posts. I asked, “which one?” He replied, “All of them.” Thanks TCB. Hopefully in the future more of us can get together it is good to put a face to a name. In these modern times so much is lost in the text and screen names it almost makes these tournament that much more important.

PS: I also did a section on my sets but decided not to post them since I didn’t think anyone wants to here me continue to talk about myself.

RibHit
fm

[yu shan]

Green Tea was easy to spot, the ribbon was a dead giveaway. She was a sweet-heart, I thought she did very good with her form. She was nervous as h e l l, told me she didn`t remember performing... been there, done it. If she sticks it out, the instructors at the Temple will whip her into a champion.

Frogman was easy to pick out... only dude with a fork. You came strong with your weapon, good job. I missed your hand form, I was all over the place trying to get in as much as possible. It was nice hanging out and BS-ing. I`d like to hear about your sets! Especially what you put together for your hand form.

Tai Chi Bob was just what I expected, a very coooool dude.

18 Elders and hung out with Leung Shum for a while, it was nice to get his perspective on things. Had a conversation with William CC Chen while we watched his son fight San Shou.

I have a question, can you get a video of this tournament anywhere?

[Hua Lin Laoshi]

Sorry I couldn't make it to meet some of you guys. I had the chance to get in a few days work and I really needed the money. Hopefully we can get together some time in the future.