2008 Tai Chi Chuan Championship

Being able to attend the 2nd World Tai Chi Chuan Championship was a new and exciting experience for me. It introduced me to the competitive world of martial arts, both physically and mentally. I'd have to say, the week before competing, I was not nervous. However, once I was up and performing in front of all the judges, I was a little bit shaky.

Upon arriving at 8am at the stadium for the second day of competitions, the routine day, I found out that my group was one of the first ones up and that I was supposed to compete first within it. I ran down to the registration table to hand in my name tag and found out that my category was about to start. I had to rush around to the other side of the stadium where my arena was to give them my name before I got disqualified. Luckily I got there right in time when they were looking for me. I barely had time to put my competition top on before I was up. I didn't even have time to switch from my street shoes into my kung fu shoes. Being rushed into the competition and having my adrenaline already going, I guess I wasn't too nervous. Well no.. I was, but I guess I didn't really have time to think about being nervous. Things happened way too fast for me and by the time my head had caught up to the events, my routine was already over. I'm still not sure if this was good or bad. Although I wasn't nervous or anything during my routine, my mind wasn't fully into it. Oh well, I did the best I could under the circumstances and according to Sifu, I didn't do too bad. That's good enough for me.

Taiji sword and Taiji saber weren't until the afternoon so I had plenty of time to bum around and watch everybody else. I'd have to say, the other styles there were nothing like what I had learned in YMAA. I shouldn't say "nothing like" because there were some similarities. However, most of the other styles seemed way too stiff and rigid.. and the ones that weren't like that seemed a little too.. "movie-ish." Anyways, sitting around wasn't so bad, besides my muscles getting cold and stiff from my lack of stretching in the morning. I was able to watch my fellow YMAA International teammates compete in Taijiquan and moving push hands.

My mom and uncles stopped by an hour too late and missed my Taijiquan routine. Oh well, I guess they'll get to see it when we get the video clip out (whenever that may be.) I was able to hang out with them while I waited for my turn to compete. I introduced them to Grandmaster Gao (who apparently lived on the same street as my uncle. Turns out they live almost directly across the street from each other... funny how things work out. My uncle is now taking Taijiquan lessons from Grandmaster Gao. I guess that makes him not only my uncle, but my martial uncle too? Weird.)

After lunch sometime, it was finally time to compete in Taiji sword. I stood there, in a pool of YMAA people next to the arena, waiting for my name to be called. I guess I wasn't as nervous for this routine either, mostly because I had Corlius (YMAA South Africa) competing next to me. Yes, next to me. For all events, they had two people competing at the same time... even in the weapons categories. It was a pretty scary thought of either being impaled by someone else's sword or accidentally decapitating somebody with my own. I felt a lot better when Corlius was assigned to compete with me because that meant we were doing the same form, which provided less of a chance for collision. We began, and after about a minute, he was at a different place than me. Luckily (for me), we didn't cross each other and nobody was hurt (..I say for me because Corlius had managed to buy himself a massive battle sword for competition. It was heavy. It seemed sharp. And it was intimidating.) I have to admit, I almost laughed mid-competition. When Corlius and I started our routines, one of the judges asked the other one in Chinese, "Are they doing the same form?" The other judge replied, "Yes. They have the same teacher." I found it amusing and I'm glad I didn't lose focus completely at that time. It could have proven to be bad.

A few hours later, I was up again for Taiji saber. This didn't go very well for me. For some reason, I was extremely shaky during this routine. I'm not quite sure why, but I'm sure it's because I didn't have the confidence because of lack of practice. Somehow I managed to finish the form without the judges noticing too many mistakes. I was the first of four YMAA people to compete in this category. After me were Nicholas Yang (YMAA Boston), Fredric Talandier (YMAA Paris), and Patrick Manriquez (YMAA California.) It must have been weird for the judges to see the same form so many times.

YMAA International did pretty well overall. Our pushing hands needed some work, but our routines made some placements. For placement information, please click here. I think the best part of the tournament was the end. Two reasons. One: It was over, and two: Grandmaster Li patted me on the back and said, "Good. Good." I'd say that made my day.. and trip.