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IWKA 2005-Akron, Ohio by Rob Jacob
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The weekend was a blast! I left Rochester Friday morning, and after four and a half hours of driving, I was in Akron Ohio. The first seminar started at 1:30pm, which was still too early for hotel check-in, so they didn’t have a room ready for me yet. So I used a teammate’s room to change into my gi. Master Shimabuku covered Sanchin kata during the first seminar. Then following a ten minute break, the kyu belts came in, and then we worked on Seisan kata.
Following the seminars, I practiced my katas to get used to the rings and the floor. The floor was carpeted, but as opposed to the kind of carpet that grabs your feet, it was kind of slippery. I was also concerned about ring-size, as they were a bit on the small size. The original rules that I was given, was that my katas must stay in the ring. I was concerned about my Tokumine No Kun, as I didn’t want to be shoving my bo in the faces of the judges. So I found a couple places where I could adjust by stepping back a little.
As I was getting ready to leave, a guy came up and asked if I was Rob Jacob, and I said yes. It turned out to be Greg, who participates in my EI message board. So we chatted for while.
My room was ready, so I dragged my stuff up. The room was very nice. The tournament was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel which was built from an old Quaker Oats plant, and the rooms are built in the old grain silos.
I went the banquet, and since our team was very large, we had tables reserved for us. The food was good, and the desserts were excellent! The entertainment was a video with pictures and video clips from some Isshinryu dojos. There were of course the usual speeches. As always, our tournament team had our 9pm curfew, which was fine. I went back to my room watched a little TV, called my wife to let her know I made it okay, and then crashed.
Greg and Rob
The morning of the tournament, I had the buffet breakfast in the hotel restaurant. For some reason I thought the black belt meeting was originally supposed to have started 9am, but had been moved to 9:30, but when I showed up earlier then 9am it was already in progress. I think I caught most of it. At the black belt meeting we were told that we could start outside the ring if we asked permission. Cool!
The place was packed! This tournament broke the record for the largest IWKA with over 570 competitors. My first event was going to be team weapons kata. Sensei Cynthia Smith and I were going to be doing bo/bo kumite. Due the various things going on outside of the dojo, we didn’t get as much time to practice as we would have liked. But as the competition went on, I felt we were in pretty good shape. I was keeping loose track of the scores. Mike and Vince, the pair that went before us were from our school also, and they got scores good enough to put them in 3rd place. When Cynthia and I went, were put doing pretty good. Then towards the end, I did a strike to the head, and Cynthia got a little confused and did the wrong move. We covered, and I repeated the strike to the head, and we continued without event. We got our scores which I though were all slightly better than Mike and Vince’s scores, so I thought we had 3rd place. The last pair Nick and Dan who were also from our school did their kata but didn’t beat our scores. So I thought we had 3rd locked up. But when they called up the winners, Mike and Vince got 3rd. So Cynthia and I must have gotten a narrow 4th place. I teased Mike and Vince about a probable math error, but they did do a nice kata.
I was scheduled to judge in ring 11 after I finished my division. So I went to the ring where my division was to be held. They were running the 3rd-5th dans. It was afternoon before they were finished.
While I was waiting, I headed out to the lobby where some vendors were set up. I recognized Norbert Donnelly. I hoped he might be here as he is out of Michigan. I talked to him for a while, and later got him to sign my copy of Dojo, and my Who’s Who In Isshinryu. I also got to meet Wayne Wayland and H.P. Henry of the bohans-family.com website.
Then they had split my division by age because of so many people, the younger guys got to go first, so again I waited. Then it was our turn. I got 2nd place in weapons performing Tokumine No Kun. I got 3rd place in kata with Seiuchin.
The sparring was fun. I won my first match with kicks. My second match was against a guy taller then me. As we lined up, I looked over at the head ref, and asked if I could fight someone smaller, as this guy was too tall. It took her a second to realize I was joking, and she smiled and said I had to fight this guy. I lost the match, though I think I should have won. The score was 2-2, and the guy threw a ridge hand which I caught with my left hand, and countered with a reverse punch. They gave him the point for the ridge hand. Oh well. No trophy for sparring. At least I won two of the cool little Mizugami statues!
So I was done. I got something to drink, and headed over to ring 11. They were in the process of running some blue and brown belt teenage boys through kata. Following that I was in to help judge sparring. We ran them through the sparring. For the next division they made a change of judges as they were going to run the grand champions. So I was done judging for the day. I got to judge a single event for a single division. I did get a great T-shirt that says World Championship Judge. Hopefully next time I will get to do more judging. We got a team picture, and then I headed back to my room to change clothes.
I headed to party which got off to a slow start. The party started at 8pm, but other than a bunch of kids, no one was really dancing. Then they played Pump Up The Volume by MARRS, and there were several guys that were doing break/hip hop dancing, or whatever your would call it. They were doing flips and kips, and all kinds of crazy moves. Then they played the Macarena and I got out there and danced for that one. For the next song everyone did the electric slide. I danced nearly non-stop for the rest of the night until close to midnight when they closed the place. I wish they would have stayed open longer.
About six of us from our team hung out, till they kicked us out of the room. Then we hung outside for a while, before we headed up to one of our rooms. We hung out there talking and having fun. I finally headed back to my room a little after 4am.
I was awake before 8am. I ran into Greg again in the hotel lobby. He gave me an IWKA 2005 mug! Thanks Greg! I was on the road by 9am, and began my four and a half hour drive home.
After I got back to Rochester, I went to the local martial arts supply store and bought myself a new bo, a new kumite bo, and a new bo case. I felt I needed them. Especially after I realized that I had left my old bo's in Ohio. I am not that concerned as the bo case was held together with duct tape and wire. The one bo had some dings and was starting to splinter a little. But I did have them for almost years training, testing, and competing with them. Oh well, I have new bo's now.
I am looking forward to the IWKA in 2007 wherever it might be held.
Rob Jacob is the author of: Martial Arts Biographies - An Annotated Bibliography.
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