Best foot forward

         Saturday was my first in-person Tiger Challenge, having avoided it early in my Kung Fu career, then taking part online, and then missing last years due to illness.  It was a blast.  I had fun watching everyone else perform while score-keeping, and had even more fun competing, though I did have my moments of doubt.

        First I wanted to say how amazing it was to watch students at every level perform, they all put themselves out there, and that right there is a win in my book, regardless of how they scored.  On top of that, it was an opportunity to flex my eye for detail more, watching closely to the movements and ignoring the form for the most part.  What I liked best out of everyone is that they gave it their all.

        As for me, my performance started off a bit rocky.  My hand form I did Lung, and in my head I had it that I would have some time to meditate and play with my energy ball before competing, but it didn't work out that way.  There was very little time between score-keeping and performing, so I was not in the desired headspace for such an internal form, and thus felt I wasn't giving the judges my best.  Prior to this, I thought maybe I should have done Lao Gar, since I am very confident in that form and would do better, but Lung is the form I've chosen for the IHC this year, and I wanted to see where I was at.  Then came my weapon right after, and I had to quickly shake off my feelings from my hand form and get back into the right headspace for my weapon.  It went better, but again, didn't feel it was quite my best.  Sparring helped reset my mind frame the most, and I found my groove there.  Then there was the board breaking.  Going in I knew I was challenging myself.  Part of me knew I was reducing my chances of succeeding by doing something so ambitious as trying to break all four boards in succession, and there was the confident part of me that envisioned breaking board after board with ease.  First bard broke, and then thud.  Oh well.  Disappointed sure, but a great learning opportunity nonetheless, and I was proud of myself for trying.  I could have easily done two separate techniques that played more to my strengths.

        All-in-all it was a good day and I took home a plethora of knowledge to sort through and apply to my training.  There was no shortage of inspiration to be drawn from all the students there.