It was another stunning year at the "All Hawaii State Karate Championships", the annual state wide tournament, which was a serious deal for our strong, competitive students because unlike the Maui or Oahu tournaments, this Championship is not a club tournament, but a state-wide tournament plus some students from the mainland and even Japan. The drive to success was very prestigious, as being ranked in the top three for every student meant not only a huge confidence booster, but a job well done reward from the judges, who are Karate veterans and Sensei Maeda was one of the judges at the tournament!
As always, the tournament was not held so kids could gloat in front other kids, showing off their beautifully, crafted medals. As other sport coaches put it, "it's not always about winning." True, because if you don't land in the top 3, it gives a chance for you to improve next year and keep on trying until you reach your goal. If you think you lost because of one single mistake, try to improve on that spot as many times so you feel confident about the certain move.
The tournament this year was extremely harsh, according to some onlookers of our JKA Hawaii members. Since the tournament has different expectations and rules that we, our gym did not emphasize on, we were left with thoughts of confusion as most of our students performed flawlessly but did not get credit for it from the judges.
The Kata portion of the tournament, was to me, the perfect opportunity for our students to shine as it is the best performance to give thanks to experience and long hours of practice. The different types of Kata ranged widely, from "Heian Nidan" (yellow belt level) to a more complex Kata like "Jion"(brown belt level).
The Kumite portion of the tournament was a hard struggle for some, as there wasn't a lot of practice to really polish our skills to defend ourselves. Nevertheless, our students did their absolute best, as new students got to step out of their comfort zone and become newcomers in the exciting but dangerous sparring section.
At the end of the day, every single student of JKA Hawaii should be proud of their progress, that excelled increasingly high because of this tournament. Ultimately, this is the most difficult and distinguished karate tournament of all, so just having a massive amount of our students compete was the true winning moment of all. Congratulations to all our members who participated, whether win or lose:
OAHU TEAM: Anthony Wada, Jenna Kaita, Christopher Kaita, Justin Okazaki, Renier Okazaki, Sierra Okazaki, Tryphena Hsu, Priscilla Hsu, Caleb Hsu, Arianna Wilkins, and Hana Maeda.
MAUI TEAM: Iokepa Supnet, Kaimana Supnet, Kameron Gerard, and Justin Campos.
These kids are well trained at an early age. Which is good.
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