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IHOF 2005-Gatlinburg, TN by Rob Jacob
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I had a blast at the Isshinryu Hall Of Fame 2005 event. It all started at 2:15am on Friday morning as I got up to get ready to head to the airport. My flight was scheduled to leave at 5:30 am, so I was there at 3:30am, 2 hours before the flight. The Delta counter didn't open until 4am. So I checked in, but couldn't pass through security as they didn’t open until 4:30am. So much for being at the airport 2 hours before the flight.
The flight was on time, and with a layover in Cincinnati, I made it to Knoxville about 9:45. I got my rental car, and made my way to Gatlinburg. It was a really pretty drive through the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. I arrived in Gatlinburg about noon. I hadn't eaten since 4:30am, so I was looking for something to eat. The seminars started at 1pm, so I wanted something quick. But I also wanted something different than the normal fare that I can get at home in Rochester. I drove through town slowly as traffic moved at a crawl, but I didn't see anything like a Sonic or Hardees. And I didn't want to pay for parking just get something to eat. I finally went to Subway as they had free parking.
I made it to Park Vista Hotel. My room wasn't ready yet, so I found a restroom, and changed into my gi, and made my way to the seminar. I ran into Daryn and Chris Clark from Master Clyde Stanley's dojo. I had met them at Tatsuo-Kan in Palm Springs a couple year before, and was happy to see them. A little while later I got to see Clyde Stanley himself. Clyde was on crutches due to a recent surgery for his hip.
The first seminar was taught by Master Scott Shamblin, and covered some basics as taught by Tatsuo Shimabuku. Daryn agreed to be my uke for the seminar. The second seminar was taught by Master Toby Cooling. Master Cooling is a police officer, and taught pressure points and holds that he uses in his job. This seminar was a lot of fun, with the ukes saying "screw you pig" just before the pressure point or hold was applied. The third seminar was taught by Master Steve Young and covered Kyan No Sai kata. I hadn't known about this seminar, so I hadn't brought my sai. If I had known, I would have been leery about packing my Shureido sai into my checked luggage. Maybe I should get a cheaper set of sai to travel with. I watched this seminar from the sidelines.
Following the seminars, I checked into my room, and brought all my luggage up. My 9th floor room had a great view, but then with the hotel being round, and all of the rooms being on the outside, all of the rooms have views. I took a short nap, and then a quick shower.
The view from my window
I dressed for the banquet in Dockers, and a short sleeve polo shirt. When I went down to find the room where the banquet was to be held, I was surprised to see people in tuxedos, suits and gowns. I was suddenly thinking about skipping the banquet, but I did see a few people that weren’t dressed up as much, so I decided to hang out. When I got inside, I spotted Daryn Clark and asked if they had room at their table for me (they had a couple of reserved tables), but unfortunately they didn’t. So I found another table, and had some nice conversations with people there. It was a Who’s Who of Isshinryu Karate. J.C. Burris, Tom Lewis, Albert Mady, Joel Chandler, Denny Shaffer, Toby Cooling, etc, etc, etc. You couldn’t throw a rock in this room without hitting an Isshinryu Master! So many people who’s names I had read in books! Very cool!
The Hall Of Fame Members
Following the banquet, I headed back to my room. I tried to call my wife who should have been home from work at that point. The instructions on the phone said dial a 9 followed by a 1 and the area code/phone number. I did this, and it told me I didn’t need to dial the 1. I tried without dialing the 1, and this didn’t work either as it told me I needed to dial the 1. After a couple attempts, I called the operator. She told me to dial an 8 instead of a 9. I tried this, and I got the same results with either dialing the 1 or not. I called back the operator, and I think it might have been a different one at this point. The PBX operator was named Janet, and she was very nice. She tried to dial my home number, and could not get it to work either. She worked with an engineer, and he couldn’t get it to work. Janet finally called my wife on her personal cell phone, and had her call back in on the 1-800 number, and patched her to my room. Janet went above and beyond the call of duty! Thanks Janet! Then I watched a few minutes of TV, and then went to sleep.
I got up the next morning, and following a shower, I headed down to get some breakfast. I got the all you can eat buffet, but only ate a reasonable one plate breakfast. Many people there had their gi pants on, which I thought was strange as the tournament didn’t start for a while, and why risk spilling food on your gi? Maybe they were kyu belts excited by the tournament as opposed to seasoned tournament veterans.
I went back to my room, got dressed, got my stuff, and headed down. I found a spot in a corner to store my stuff near the ring where I would be competing. It turned out to be by where the nice folks from Palm Springs had staked out their area. I had met many of them at Tatsuo-Kan 2004 when they hosted it. I managed to get in the ring, and walk through my katas. There was a divider right along the back of the ring, so I played with where to start my Tokumine No Kun so that I wouldn’t be hitting my bo against it, or be shoving my bo into the faces of the judges.
I went to the judges meeting even though it was unlikely I would be judging. Apparently there was some sort of sign up for judges when we registered, but I missed it. That’s fine, as by the time my ring was done, much of the tournament was done. I did get to learn more about the rules, and hand signs.
Following the bow in, the tournament slowly got under way. My first event was called: Men’s 1st-2nd Dan-Weapons. I lined up in the middle of the line. I am not sure how many people there were, but I am guessing about 15. There were about 12 to 15 people in each of my three events. The judge decided on one end of the line, and they started taking names from that end. So I would be going into middle of the line-up. There were some excellent katas, but I managed to get 4th place for my Tokumine No Kun. One of the judges gave me a lower score than the other four. After the event, I asked him if he had seen something in my kata that caused this. Without saying a word, he reached out, and hefted the light weight graphite two-piece bo that I was forced to bring due to size restrictions of Delta Airlines that would not allow me to bring my 6 foot ash wood bo.
My next event was Executive Men’s 1st-2nd Dan-Kata. We all lined up again, and not knowing which end they would start from, I lined up in the middle. This time, they divided us in the middle, and moved one half of the people to the other end of the line. This left me at the end of the line where they were going to start taking names. I would be the first to go. I started joking with the guys next to me that after I did my kata, that they might as well go home, as they wouldn’t have a chance. I did Seiuchin kata, and did it well. I managed to hold on to second place up to the last three competitors, but then got bumped to 4th. I was happy with my 4th place.
The next event that I would be competing in was Executive Men’s 1st-5th Dan-Kumite. I didn’t know how they would be matching fighters, so I tried not to stand next to Daryn Clark (to increase the chance of both of us making it to the later rounds), and I also avoided standing next to Brian West who is also from Rochester, and who I knew was very good. Sensei West was the Grand Champion at the IWKA 2005. It didn’t make a difference. They took our cards, shuffled them, gave them to a spectator, and had her draw four cards. I managed to get a by in the first round as did Brian West. I would be fighting the winner of the 3rd fight, and Brian West would fight the winner of the fourth fight. If we both won, we would fight each other. At this point I started getting pumped with adrenaline, lost track, and missed watching Daryn fight. I watched the third fight, and was trying to figure out how I would fight each of the fighters. One guy threw a lot of kicks, and I was pretty sure I could beat him, but the other guy was blitzing the kicker, and he looked like he would be a tough fight for me. Sure enough the blitzer won. I watched the fourth fight, and was pretty sure I could have easily beaten either of the fighters. When my second round fight came around, we both fought hard, and time ran out with a 2-2 tie. We went into sudden death overtime. The first exchange ended with me getting punched in my right eye. I felt okay, but then I felt myself falling to the floor, and had people shoving stuff under my head. I have been punched to the head before, and seen stars, but I felt none of this. My legs just sort of gave out from under me. Very weird! The contact in my right eye was either gone, or shifted. After a minute or two, I got up, found a mirror that was conveniently mounted on the wall as decorative trim, and managed to slide my contact back into position (it was shifted completely to the corner of my eye). I lined back up prepared to fight again, but was awarded a penalty point, and won the fight 3-2. Brian West won his fight as expected. In the third round, Brian and I met to fight. I was pretty sure he would win. Some people have asked me if I had maybe lost the fight before it began. No, not at all, because as the fight began, those thoughts were gone, and he ceased to be Brian West, but was a nameless faceless competitor. Brian did win the fight 3-0, but it wasn’t 1-2-3. There were some exchanges in there where I got him, or he got me, but there were not enough judges to award the point. I knew before my fight with Brian that we were both in the final four. So I don’t know why it caught me by surprise when I was called to fight again. Maybe it was the blow to head. This fight was for third and fouth place. I hadn’t seen the guy fight, so I just fought him. One of the first exchanges, he came in throwing punches that landed on my arms, and kiai’d something that sounded like ‘SAAWWWW’. My brain thought it heard the judge yell ‘STTOPP’, and the guy caught me off-guard with a reverse punch that landed on my stomach. I thought, fine! That was the last point he would be getting like that. In another hard fought match, I ended beating him 3-2 and got third place. Brian West won first place. Many people congratulated me on my wins, including Master Denny Shaffer who said he was cheering for me from sidelines.
Following the event I was done competing and was able to relax. I got a photo with the guy who punched me in the eye whose name was Rod (I think his last name was Baugh). He was a nice guy, and it was just an accident. It happens sometimes. If I got a dollar for every time I punched someone in the face, I’d probably be sued a lot.
Rob And Rod (notice red mark under my right eye)
I watched some other competitions, talked to people, and got a photo with my friend Master Clyde Stanley.
Master Clyde Stanley (sans crutch) and myself
I saw a fight break out in the Men’s heavyweight black belt kumite ring. Judges and coaches managed to get the guys apart, and calmed down. At one point, it looked like one of the guys was going to take a swing at Denny Shaffer which probably would have been a bad mistake. I thought for sure that someone was going to get disqualified or ejected. The kumite resumed for one last exchange, and Master Shaffer’s student lost, to which Master Shaffer loudly shared his disagreement with the judge’s call. During the awarding of the trophies, the Red Dragon team began chanting ‘Dragons! Dragons! Dragons!’
I watched the grand championships which had some great competition. Brian West competed in both the kata, and kumite events. Again the Red Dragon team began chanting. They sure are a spirited bunch.
Following the tournament, and went to my room, changed and went and soaked in the hot tub. Every tournament I bring my swim trunks, but I can’t remember the last time I actually got a chance to use them. It was very nice to relax in the warm water.
About 5pm, I decided the drive into town, and get something to eat. The party didn’t start until 9pm, so I had lots of time. It had rained recently, so the roads were damp. As I was driving down the steep winding driveway of the hotel, my rental car decided it didn’t want to go around the corner, and bounced off of the guardrail scratching up the paint on the front corner of the bumper. Looking at the dented-up guardrail, I could tell that I wasn’t nearly the first person to do this. I pulled off the road, and examined the car, then I continued down into town. I realized it wasn’t that far to walk, so I turned around, and returned to the parking lot. I got a few pictures of the damage.
The scratches on the rental car
See the skid marks and red paint?
I got my mp3 player, and walked down into town. On my way down the hill, Clyde Stanley and group stopped to ask where I was going. I told them to go get food. They asked if I wanted a ride, but I could see their car was full, and also I could use the walk to decompress. So I thanked them and decline the offer. I walked down the hill, and around the town. Being from Seattle, I was amused by Gatlinburg’s ‘Space Needle’. The main drag of Gatlinburg is filled with tourist trap type stores, and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Attractions. There were a few “martial arts” stores, but they were filled cheap knives, swords and airguns, and not much in the way of martial arts supplies. I ate dinner at some place called the Brass Lantern, and then made my way back up the hill.
The "Space Needle"
I kicked back and relaxed in my room until 9pm when the party was supposed to start. I worked on packing my bags, trying to fit the three trophies inside, and pad them so they wouldn’t get broken in transit. If I had won a larger trophy such as second place it wouldn’t have fit in my bag as is. Someone suggested that I could have disassembled them though.
About 9pm I wandered down to find the room with the party. I found a room with a little card stating IHOF, so I assumed this was where the party would be. There were a couple of dressed up people inside, and a DJ. Oh no, I thought, here we go, dressed in denim shorts, t-shirt and sandals, I am underdressed again. But fortunately, as more people showed up, I was dressed fine. The DJ was okay, but it took a while to get things going, and the dance floor was rarely full. I hung out with Bob (Scherer?) who beat me in sparring at the 2005 IWKA in Ohio. When the DJ started playing some good dance songs, I got up and started dancing. I got to talk with many people including Master Albert Mady who I have seen many times on TV in breaking competitions. He was very nice and talked with me for a couple minutes. I got to talk with Master Stanley for a bit. And I joked a little with Master Shaffer. The DJ closed up shop at close to midnight, and I headed up to bed.
I got up early the next morning, and hauled my bags out to the car. I checked out, and got on the road to the airport. I wanted to leave some extra time in case of traffic, and also to deal with the rental car company. I didn’t hit any significant traffic, and dealing with rental car company was quick as I only needed to fill out a form about the damage to the car. When I arrived at the gate there were people waiting for the plane to Cincinnati, but unfortunately I had arrived so early that this was not my flight but the earlier flight. So I waited for hours. About an hour before my flight I saw Master Tom Lewis was also waiting for the same flight. I was wearing an Everything Isshinryu t-shirt with an Isshinryu patch printed on the front. I am pretty sure he saw it, and I figured if he wanted to talk, he would approach me, but he sat a ways away, and I was getting a vibe that he wanted to be left alone, so I left him alone. I kept thinking about one of the master’s had said at the banquet encouraging us to talk to the masters, and ask them questions. It would have been cool to hear about his training in the old days under Tatsuo Shimabuku. Oh well. My flight home was otherwise uneventful.
I am looking forward to the IHOF in 2006.
4th place Men's 1st-2nd Dan Weapons
4th place Executive Men's 1st-2nd Dan Kata
3rd place Executive Men's 1st-5th Dan Kumite
Rob Jacob is the author of: Martial Arts Biographies - An Annotated Bibliography.
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