Cornell tournament report
Nov. 14th, 2005 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarigwaemirLowell House, on the Feast of St. Sidonius
I am still on hiatus, yes, but I thought I should write a post for the Cornell tournament before I forget. (By the way, I really miss reading my friends list, but I must be strong and continue resisting the tempation until I catch up on school work. ;_; Hope things are going all right with everyone...)
On Friday, we took two rental minivans, piled our bogu, shinai and other essentials into the trunks, and set off to Ithaca. Daera drove one van with yours truly as navigator, Zach (one of our sophomores) the other. Needless to say, our car managed to follow the Mapquest directions pretty smoothly. The other car, however, made a brilliant start by taking the I-90 highway east instead of west (because you know, the way to get to New York state is to drive straight to Boston and the ocean beyond). Apparently, this sort of mistake would characterize the rest of their trip, from what we heard afterwards, and I spent so much time checking up on them by cell phone that Joe pretty much answered, "Yes, Mommy," when I called for the millionth time.
Anyway, all seemed to be going smoothly, and Shirleen, Santiago, Daera and I were happily chatting away about genetic engineering, balancing family with career, the problems with raising children, scientific research and a life in academia, the economics and ethics of pharmaceutical industries, and other such elevated subjects of discourse as we drove through the long, boring state highways of upstate New York. We even played Twenty Questions and started a game of Truth or Truth? (i.e. Truth or Dare? without the dares), when suddenly, seven miles out from Ithaca, a deer jumped out in front of the car.
Yes. You read it correctly. We hit a deer. It managed to collide with the minivan just as it was in the middle of a leap and hit the exact center of the minivan before tumbling away, probably instantly dead on impact. I watched it roll off in slow motion and had a moment of pure disbelief. Daera pulled to a stop some distance away, and we all got out to inspect the damage to our van. The creature had taken out the radiator which was leaking water profusely all over the pavement. Luckily, everyone kept their calm, and we managed to call 911 from a nearby house, after finding out upstate New York has no reception whatsoever. The sheriff was awfully nice and stayed with us until the van was towed and got us a cab to take us to campus. We put all our stuff in the other minivan, which arrived about twenty minutes later. (Apparently, they'd been quite worried about the deer and were saddened to hear that it had died.)
We got to Cornell safely, and for the rest of the trip, there was no end to the deer jokes. Actually, there still isn't any end to the deer jokes, and I doubt they'll stop anytime soon. Daera's officially won her eternal spot in the annals of the kendo club. But unfortunately, the ensuing headache over insurance and repair costs and towing and the most immediate problem of how we were going to get all nine people (and their considerably hefty kendo gear) back to Boston with only one seven-person minivan kept us all too sober about the situation. Daera kept her calm and handled the situation admirably, although she ended up not being able to compete since she had to run about making calls and trying to figure out the whole mess. Really too horrible that we came all this way, and she wasn't even able to participate in the tournament.
The tournament itself was pretty stiff competition. I had forgotten that Cornell not only allowed grad students to compete (which meant there were quite a few people whose names I recognized from Kofi and Izzy's stories about previous Shoryuhai participants, like Summerlin Walker and Danny Han) but also allowed mixed teams. Actually, since Daera couldn't compete, we agreed to let someone from Virginia Tech fill the jiho spot on one of our teams. It was his first tournament, and he was a complete beginner, but by that point, I'd realized that we wouldn't have had much chance to win anyway. There were fifteen teams and two courts, so they began with a round-robin round with four brackets to seed the teams and then a single-elimination round to decide the winner. The A team played against SUNY Stony Brook A, West Point and Cornell C...we only really stood a chance against West Point, but we still lost even though Brian started us off so well by winning his match with two men strikes. Stony Brook A completely dominated the bracket. Their team members pretty much toyed with all of their opponents, playing around for a while until they got bored and finished off the match with beautiful, perfect points. It was kind of sad, actually. But even Cornell C was pretty good, which is surprising because you normally expect the C team to be full of beginners. I forget all the teams that Harvard B played against--Rutgers and was it Wesleyan? and one more team that I just can't remember--but they held their own pretty well. I think they even managed to tie with Rutgers, if I remember correctly. In the single-elimination round, A team played against Yale and lost, mostly because the taisho and fukusho were both very good, although Ong managed to defeat their chuken pretty easily. I forget which school Harvard B played against, but there was this amusing point where Zach, who played a really excellent, exciting match, suddenly became really aggressive, and all of us watching said, "Oh man, he's really pissed off, isn't he?" Anyway, even if we didn't win, I was really proud of the sophomores because they improved so much just in the course of a few matches. Shirleen scored a kote in one of her matches, I remember, and Jenn by the end had fixed her problem with leaning forward and was doing a great job of chasing down her opponent. Zach, of course, had his usual solid, well-rounded kendo, although clearly he needs to get aggravated before he really shows his stuff. Brian was Brian--in his first match, he was strangely timid, but then again, that was against Stony Brook A, whose sempo was scary (even went into jodan at one point during the tournament), but he returned to his usual fast, aggressive self by the second match. Ong's developed a freaky kiai (I hadn't realized until this tournament just how scary his kiai was), and while his kendo tends to be less physical, he always shows rather clean form. I think his wrist snap habit has improved too, which is nice. I didn't see much of Joe's matches because I'd be too busy warming up for my own, but from what I saw, he also played really solidly. All the sophomores did their best, sometimes better than their best, so I don't really have any regrets, even if we didn't win.
As for myself, well, I know I was playing the best player on each team, and all of them were taller and heavier, so I'm not surprised that I lost all my matches. What I am disappointed about is that I let them score on me so quickly and easily. The only match that lasted any length of time was against Stony Brook A, and I have a feeling it was because my opponent wasn't really trying. For the other matches, I had men scored on me as I attacked kote, every single time. I think this is a sign that I have a problem with keeping center. I'm also a bit annoyed because the men scored on me was almost never really a decisive ippon (they were usually off-center with weak tenouchi), and I would be startled each time I heard the judges shout "men-ari" and think, "Wait, that was a point?!" Not that it's any excuse; I shouldn't have been open in the first place. But still, it rankles. I'm just too slow, both in anticipating attacks and in chasing people down. In any case, I know that I could have played better even if I couldn't have won. More practice, it is.
The Cornell tournament really brought it home just how much more professional the Shoryuhai (our tournament in the spring) is by comparison. We have twice as many competitors, three times as many judges, twice as many courts, who-knows-how-many-times as many schools...our judges also have higher ranks, we have much more supplies and equipment, and we're just more organized. That being said, the Shoryuhai is older, and we also have more connections and resources. In any case, the Cornell team was incredibly friendly and very sympathetic about our situation, and what they lacked in organization, they made up for with hospitality. (Still, I'm annoyed that one of our white embroidered tags ended up lost. They asked to borrow our personalized sets, even though we had already brought an extra set for them to use. I shouldn't have brought those tags...I thought it would have been nice to wear our own, but it wasn't worth losing one. Stupid of me, in retrospect.)
Oh, and of course, the best part about the tournament:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bottledgray was there, as chuken for Columbia! We even got a chance to sit down and chat, which was great because I hadn't seen Dianna for over a year. We promised to make sure to meet up during Christmas break, and she said she'd try to come to the Shoryuhai, which would be really awesome. Definitely the highlight of the trip. I guess it was worth it, deer accidents and all, just for that.
Anyway, since we couldn't all fit into our one intact minivan, Joe and I took the bus home to Boston. This meant taking a bus from Ithaca to New York (which took four hours) and then from New York to Boston (which took three and a half hours). We ended up wandering around confusedly at midnight in Port Authority Bus Terminal for a while, but managed to buy our tickets and even stand outside and stare avidly at the lights of the AMC 25 theatre near Times Square. Chit called me to ask about the tournament while I was treating myself to a hot dog for dinner (it's been so long since I've had a New York hot dog), and I told him about the deer, which presumably caused a flurry of calls to other alumni because Kofi called soon after we got on the bus, to check up on us and hear about the deer (as well as the rest of the tournament). ^_^ I slept through most of the bus ride, and we took a taxi from South Station to Lowell. We arrived at 5 AM. All in all, I think we handled it pretty well. That being said, I never told my parents that I was going to Cornell, which is a good thing because if they knew that not only did we get into an accident with a deer but also that I ended up wandering around Port Authority at midnight, then they would have had an aneurysm.
In short, it was quite an adventure! But ugh, dealing with the aftermath is going to be a pain.
Yours &c.
I am still on hiatus, yes, but I thought I should write a post for the Cornell tournament before I forget. (By the way, I really miss reading my friends list, but I must be strong and continue resisting the tempation until I catch up on school work. ;_; Hope things are going all right with everyone...)
On Friday, we took two rental minivans, piled our bogu, shinai and other essentials into the trunks, and set off to Ithaca. Daera drove one van with yours truly as navigator, Zach (one of our sophomores) the other. Needless to say, our car managed to follow the Mapquest directions pretty smoothly. The other car, however, made a brilliant start by taking the I-90 highway east instead of west (because you know, the way to get to New York state is to drive straight to Boston and the ocean beyond). Apparently, this sort of mistake would characterize the rest of their trip, from what we heard afterwards, and I spent so much time checking up on them by cell phone that Joe pretty much answered, "Yes, Mommy," when I called for the millionth time.
Anyway, all seemed to be going smoothly, and Shirleen, Santiago, Daera and I were happily chatting away about genetic engineering, balancing family with career, the problems with raising children, scientific research and a life in academia, the economics and ethics of pharmaceutical industries, and other such elevated subjects of discourse as we drove through the long, boring state highways of upstate New York. We even played Twenty Questions and started a game of Truth or Truth? (i.e. Truth or Dare? without the dares), when suddenly, seven miles out from Ithaca, a deer jumped out in front of the car.
Yes. You read it correctly. We hit a deer. It managed to collide with the minivan just as it was in the middle of a leap and hit the exact center of the minivan before tumbling away, probably instantly dead on impact. I watched it roll off in slow motion and had a moment of pure disbelief. Daera pulled to a stop some distance away, and we all got out to inspect the damage to our van. The creature had taken out the radiator which was leaking water profusely all over the pavement. Luckily, everyone kept their calm, and we managed to call 911 from a nearby house, after finding out upstate New York has no reception whatsoever. The sheriff was awfully nice and stayed with us until the van was towed and got us a cab to take us to campus. We put all our stuff in the other minivan, which arrived about twenty minutes later. (Apparently, they'd been quite worried about the deer and were saddened to hear that it had died.)
We got to Cornell safely, and for the rest of the trip, there was no end to the deer jokes. Actually, there still isn't any end to the deer jokes, and I doubt they'll stop anytime soon. Daera's officially won her eternal spot in the annals of the kendo club. But unfortunately, the ensuing headache over insurance and repair costs and towing and the most immediate problem of how we were going to get all nine people (and their considerably hefty kendo gear) back to Boston with only one seven-person minivan kept us all too sober about the situation. Daera kept her calm and handled the situation admirably, although she ended up not being able to compete since she had to run about making calls and trying to figure out the whole mess. Really too horrible that we came all this way, and she wasn't even able to participate in the tournament.
The tournament itself was pretty stiff competition. I had forgotten that Cornell not only allowed grad students to compete (which meant there were quite a few people whose names I recognized from Kofi and Izzy's stories about previous Shoryuhai participants, like Summerlin Walker and Danny Han) but also allowed mixed teams. Actually, since Daera couldn't compete, we agreed to let someone from Virginia Tech fill the jiho spot on one of our teams. It was his first tournament, and he was a complete beginner, but by that point, I'd realized that we wouldn't have had much chance to win anyway. There were fifteen teams and two courts, so they began with a round-robin round with four brackets to seed the teams and then a single-elimination round to decide the winner. The A team played against SUNY Stony Brook A, West Point and Cornell C...we only really stood a chance against West Point, but we still lost even though Brian started us off so well by winning his match with two men strikes. Stony Brook A completely dominated the bracket. Their team members pretty much toyed with all of their opponents, playing around for a while until they got bored and finished off the match with beautiful, perfect points. It was kind of sad, actually. But even Cornell C was pretty good, which is surprising because you normally expect the C team to be full of beginners. I forget all the teams that Harvard B played against--Rutgers and was it Wesleyan? and one more team that I just can't remember--but they held their own pretty well. I think they even managed to tie with Rutgers, if I remember correctly. In the single-elimination round, A team played against Yale and lost, mostly because the taisho and fukusho were both very good, although Ong managed to defeat their chuken pretty easily. I forget which school Harvard B played against, but there was this amusing point where Zach, who played a really excellent, exciting match, suddenly became really aggressive, and all of us watching said, "Oh man, he's really pissed off, isn't he?" Anyway, even if we didn't win, I was really proud of the sophomores because they improved so much just in the course of a few matches. Shirleen scored a kote in one of her matches, I remember, and Jenn by the end had fixed her problem with leaning forward and was doing a great job of chasing down her opponent. Zach, of course, had his usual solid, well-rounded kendo, although clearly he needs to get aggravated before he really shows his stuff. Brian was Brian--in his first match, he was strangely timid, but then again, that was against Stony Brook A, whose sempo was scary (even went into jodan at one point during the tournament), but he returned to his usual fast, aggressive self by the second match. Ong's developed a freaky kiai (I hadn't realized until this tournament just how scary his kiai was), and while his kendo tends to be less physical, he always shows rather clean form. I think his wrist snap habit has improved too, which is nice. I didn't see much of Joe's matches because I'd be too busy warming up for my own, but from what I saw, he also played really solidly. All the sophomores did their best, sometimes better than their best, so I don't really have any regrets, even if we didn't win.
As for myself, well, I know I was playing the best player on each team, and all of them were taller and heavier, so I'm not surprised that I lost all my matches. What I am disappointed about is that I let them score on me so quickly and easily. The only match that lasted any length of time was against Stony Brook A, and I have a feeling it was because my opponent wasn't really trying. For the other matches, I had men scored on me as I attacked kote, every single time. I think this is a sign that I have a problem with keeping center. I'm also a bit annoyed because the men scored on me was almost never really a decisive ippon (they were usually off-center with weak tenouchi), and I would be startled each time I heard the judges shout "men-ari" and think, "Wait, that was a point?!" Not that it's any excuse; I shouldn't have been open in the first place. But still, it rankles. I'm just too slow, both in anticipating attacks and in chasing people down. In any case, I know that I could have played better even if I couldn't have won. More practice, it is.
The Cornell tournament really brought it home just how much more professional the Shoryuhai (our tournament in the spring) is by comparison. We have twice as many competitors, three times as many judges, twice as many courts, who-knows-how-many-times as many schools...our judges also have higher ranks, we have much more supplies and equipment, and we're just more organized. That being said, the Shoryuhai is older, and we also have more connections and resources. In any case, the Cornell team was incredibly friendly and very sympathetic about our situation, and what they lacked in organization, they made up for with hospitality. (Still, I'm annoyed that one of our white embroidered tags ended up lost. They asked to borrow our personalized sets, even though we had already brought an extra set for them to use. I shouldn't have brought those tags...I thought it would have been nice to wear our own, but it wasn't worth losing one. Stupid of me, in retrospect.)
Oh, and of course, the best part about the tournament:
bottledgray was there, as chuken for Columbia! We even got a chance to sit down and chat, which was great because I hadn't seen Dianna for over a year. We promised to make sure to meet up during Christmas break, and she said she'd try to come to the Shoryuhai, which would be really awesome. Definitely the highlight of the trip. I guess it was worth it, deer accidents and all, just for that.Anyway, since we couldn't all fit into our one intact minivan, Joe and I took the bus home to Boston. This meant taking a bus from Ithaca to New York (which took four hours) and then from New York to Boston (which took three and a half hours). We ended up wandering around confusedly at midnight in Port Authority Bus Terminal for a while, but managed to buy our tickets and even stand outside and stare avidly at the lights of the AMC 25 theatre near Times Square. Chit called me to ask about the tournament while I was treating myself to a hot dog for dinner (it's been so long since I've had a New York hot dog), and I told him about the deer, which presumably caused a flurry of calls to other alumni because Kofi called soon after we got on the bus, to check up on us and hear about the deer (as well as the rest of the tournament). ^_^ I slept through most of the bus ride, and we took a taxi from South Station to Lowell. We arrived at 5 AM. All in all, I think we handled it pretty well. That being said, I never told my parents that I was going to Cornell, which is a good thing because if they knew that not only did we get into an accident with a deer but also that I ended up wandering around Port Authority at midnight, then they would have had an aneurysm.
In short, it was quite an adventure! But ugh, dealing with the aftermath is going to be a pain.
Yours &c.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-15 05:00 am (UTC)Am I invited to your partay with ianna?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-15 05:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-15 05:19 am (UTC)Erm... this post is full of things that intimidate me, because people swinging weapons scare me. But glad that it was fun for you.
By the way:
READ
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-15 12:40 pm (UTC)Ooh, thanks for the link. XD
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-16 12:52 am (UTC)