Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

I'm just at home, decompressing after another Tiger Challenge event.

As with any big event, once over, I always have this sense of melancholy.  And I usually overanalyze what I could have, or should have, done different.

There were some wins.  Laughs.  But also some losses.

I dropped my weapon.  Even more sadly in a section that hadn't even crossed my mind as a "problem area".  I chose to just continue, rather than starting over.  In the moment I was frazzled and shaken.  And for the remainder of my form I struggled to gain back any real control or flow, especially in my articulations.  I was so worried about another drop.  And so I definitely did not perform as I would have liked.  But I still think that once I develop some real confidence in my form, and nail down all the timing, it will be something that I am going to be proud of.  I also know exactly what went wrong.  I knew it in the moment, and also confirmed with a video that was taken.  I stepped too soon into that particular articulation.  It needs to happen fairly quickly, and I only have a small window to make it work properly.  And being in front of judges, I think I was rushing and getting ahead of myself.  So lesson learned.  I hope.

I also only made 3 of my 4 board breaks.  Again, I know exactly what went wrong.  I didn't give myself enough room for my final technique and I found myself pulling back, went I wanted to move forward.  I just remember turning and looking for the board, and instead of it being ahead of me, where I expected, it was immediately to my left...not where I expected.  I still hit the board dead center, but had lost the majority of my power in having to pull back.  I confirmed this with yet another video and I know what to fix.  

In terms of my knee...I survived without anything severe occurring.  So that's good!  But in all honesty, I know I pushed it in a few places where I maybe shouldn't have.  I had anticipated that though...knowing that in the moment, instinct could kick in.  It was a risk I was willing to take while also keeping things as controlled as I could throughout all the different events.  Having said that, I'm fairly sore this evening, but some ice and rest should do the trick.

Although a few things didn't go as planned, I'm still counting the tournament as a "win".  I had a blast with the fight choreography and am looking forward to fine tuning it.  We goofed with our team form, which was more amusing than anything else.  And for once, I got to see most of my kids events and was super proud of them both.  

Already looking forward to the next one.

(ps.  Dan made me put "Dear Blog" because he feels very strongly I should start all my blogs this way.)