Tai Chi Legacy Recap

So did any of you guys meet up at the TCL?

I came to watch the San Shou on Sat which was interesting as always. The important day was sunday as my 2 newbie fighters were going to spar against strangers for the first time. It went well at first until one of my fighters felt a pop in his knee. I wanted to let him sit it out for a bit to get a better "feel" for it but he said he wanted to fight. Thirty seconds later his kneecap was turned around to the side and he had to go to the hospital. Horrible moment. It was way out of hand. There was a guy who was sitting right next to us whose face was ripped open.. literally had the skin held together right by his eye and GUESS WHAT.... not a disqualification. They said redness of face or blood and peeps are DQ'd. I think its frikkin ridiculous.. am I going to have to train my guys to fight full-contact to compete in these tournaments? It sure seems alot safer than the continous sparring. Its not that I have problems with fighting in conditions where there is a chance of physical damage but... this is the beginners division!!! I have lost students to just the difficulty of my training but to see people get hurt like this is a detriment to any teacher.

p.s. I have it recorded on a tape (my digital cameraman wasnt able to make it) but I would need to convert the files to post it.

I hooked up with Norther Practicioner and the other LostTrack (Mizong_Kid?). We also introduced ourselves to Gigi, who was an extremely nice person and very kind. Thanks to NP, she got my Monk Spade form on tape, so GENE, if you see it, stop watching right after I swing the thing around my neck. I lost my balance on the next move and wound up getting a bronze medal for it.:(

Our school came home with 3 golds, 1 silver, and 2 bronze medals.

I watched some of the San Shou on Saturday night, but I didn't stick around to watch the sparring on Sunday.

Losttrack
I hear yah on the continuous sparring complaints. We did our best to try to alleviate similar situations at our (Wong) tournament this weekend but it's difficult. Still waaaaay too many DQs for blood happening. IMHO do continuous once, but go for the San Shou.

MK, the only thing you missed forms wise on Sunday seemed to be the forms grand-champions... The taiji was ill, the external was pretty dope too... Eddie Quintana won for the external, this Yang taiji lady from Taiwan won the internal (which was close, .02 won it)...
Gigi was very, very nice, not hard to miss with the got qi 10th anniversary shirt on (I hope she made her flight).

My school came home with two bronzes and a gold (I was the only one to compete for my school)...

All in all I had a good time, got to meet many people, got to see some good taiji and some good northern stuff. I didn't get to see too much of the other divisions however.:D

NP,
I left a message on your phone about 10:30 PM Saturday night.

I didn't get back to the hotel until then... shirfu was judging until almost 12..... Long day.. I'm sure I would have, I wish I got the message.:D

Cool. I'm pretty sure it was your phone, and it may have been later than 10:30. I was supa tired after hanging around the tournament all day.

The name on the outgoing message was different than what you said your real name was, but it was close enough to be a variation, I guess. Maybe I dialed the wrong number. If so, somebody got a weird-ass message. "This is Masterkiller, call me.":p

I didn't go, I had to work that day. It was worth it too, I walked out with like $115 in my wallet in tips plus my hourly wage. I'll probably get some highlights from my classmates tonight.

The part was, last year I said "Oh I will go to Taiji Legacy in 2003" and I didn't get to go. So now I have to wait until next year to go. Though that gives me another year of training and practice and maybe this time I will get to do some fighting. Or not, I dunno.