A sore loser. In both senses of the word.

Bronze. Not quite the stuff of legends. Neither was it the metal/medal I was expecting. But then again, neither was my second opponent. Ah well at least bronze is SHINY too! Like ice-cream.

I got to Yishun Sports Hall at around 12.20. Took a cab with my mother. Butterflies were in my stomach. The waiting was the worst. The competition was supposed to start at 1, but it ended up starting at around 2. Yiliang was there too, with his shiny camera to help me take photos.
Well I blame the bloody organisers. But blaming doesn't solve crap. While I was waiting I was watching a video of a junior black belt who had won the previous week. He was from my club and I must say I'm impressed. He fought 3 bouts and during the third bout he still seemed to be brimming with energy.

I don't remember what time my bout started. But when I was called up I was pretty nervous. And it would seem I didn't get to stretch properly. Or maybe it's just my weak mind. Anyway I was looking at my first opponent when we were both called up to get ready. He was slightly taller than me, and wore a crew cut. I was trying to size him up, and he had a small open wound on his foot. "Good, that's probably going to be to my advantage. If the fight ain't going my way, maybe I could step on that" - I remember thinking to myself. Evil, but it probably wouldn't come to that. And it didn't. Anyway I would probably not have done it even if it meant the difference between winning and losing. Just kind of a fleeting thought. The torso guard they supplied was new and clean, which was kind of a pleasant surprise after using all the smelly ones to train at the CC.

So when the waiting was over and the fight finally started, I was feeling kind of lethargic. Or maybe I was just feeling weak. I haven't been training much, or maybe it's just my minds playing tricks on me.

During the fight I was using quite a bit of pushing kicks. Cause my turning kicks kept getting turned away by Mr Baldie's blocks (pun intended). I kicked him out a few times. And he fell to the ground once during the process which I kicked him again I think. Lol. He wasn't half bad, he managed to get a few kicks in. And he blocked quite a bit of my kicks, which is really quite annoying. Especially during the third round. You're feeling tired and you just want to win. To win you have to land some hard, solid kicks. And I can do that. But not with him blocking it all. But I managed to triumph, with a score 4-2. Not bad i guess, but not too good either. I wasn't really injured, except for a small bruise on my shin.

Bout 2
My opponent's name was Norman Lee Wai Pong, or something like that. I remember laughing when I saw his name - it brought back amusing memories of Arthur Teo Wai Pheng. Anyway he was a littler shorter than me, and darker too. Seemed to be the athletic type. I thought I could take him, after my first victory I was feeling a little more confident. But sadly, I thought wrong. He had a bald indian coach, who had chinese letters tattooed into his muscular forearm. So anyway round 1. I was told not to do pushing kicks by my coach. You don't score a point by using them unless the other guy falls on the ground. I don't know why but I just couldn't resist using them. So anyway round 1 went ok. I was leading by a point. But I was still using some pushing kicks. And Norman had come in hard and fast, something I wasn't really expecting, so my confidence was dropping. So anyway during round 2 I made a boo-boo. I didn't block one of his kicks and he followed up with a slew of others, which I couldn't really take. So I went out of the arena. When round 2 ended I was losing by 2,3 points? So round 3 started and my morale was pretty down. Tried to give him a few hard kicks but he was agile enough to dodge them. I fouled him once during the third round, when I was moving in to kick him but my hands went before my legs and i ended up hitting his neck. On hindsight, I should have throttled him. So anyway I lost 6-9. I was pretty depressed. Or you could try bereaved, bitter, blue*, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, down, downcast, forlorn, gloomy, glum, grief-stricken, grieved, heartbroken, heartsick, heavy-hearted, hurting, in doldrums*, in grief, languishing, low, low-spirited, lugubrious, melancholy, morbid, morose, mournful, pensive, pessimistic, somber, sorrowful, sorry, troubled, weeping, wistful, woebegone. You get the idea. But hey it was over and I was glad it was over for some reason or another. After each bout i would get really tired, and my whole body would feel like it's been soaked with napalm and lighted up.

Analysis of failure:
Myself for the most part should be blamed. But I really didn't like the audience either. We were fighting on the left arena, which unfortunately had some sort of Norman fan club. They kept clapping for him when he kicked me, whether it was a good or lousy kick. Now the judges are pretty blind, which is pretty much a fact. Mostly they are old or unfit, but I guess they still serve a purpose. Needs must. And when the bloody audience starts clapping they'll just think it's a good kick and award the point. So basically when blocking Norman's kicks(which are powerful), I would hear resounding claps. So I would be wondering wtf to myself, which is quite a distraction. And when they announced Norman was the winner the Indian baldie coach was like winking at my instructor. Blaik. And there was another indian in the audience who chuckled(if I'm not wrong at me) when I walked past him. Maybe I'm paranoid, maybe I'm not. If he really was laughing at me, I think he should be ashamed of himself. He had a mop of long white hair, and I probably could kill him. If I'm wrong about him laughing at me then I apologize. Whatever the case, the audience seriously deserved to be shot. Or since they had so many hands to give maybe they ought to get their arms chopped off. I'm blaming other factors for my loss, which is a defintion for the word sore. The second is due to the facts my legs are quite sore from getting my kicks blocked. I'm not fast enough. Yet. Think I need to work on my side kicks and back thrusts. Didn't use either during the competition.

Solution to the problem:
Train harder.

Simple as the solution might sound, I don't dig it. I like lazing around and doing nothing, or bashing up virtual opponents. Doesn't take much exertion to do those. However I will try and get better at this game, cause I think it's pretty fun. When you get to a certain level, you'll get a high from fighting.(kicking heads in is cool!)

So anyway after I lost I went to North Point with Yiliang to eat. Had chicken bryani from the banana leaf stall in the food court. It was pretty good, and the long queue was evidence to that.
After that we went to Time Zone, which unfortunately did not have King Of Fighters. So I went back to the arena to catch the last few fights, and Yiliang went home.

During the last few fights there was a particularly notable one. There were 2 black belts fighting, and they had gotten into the sudden death round. Sudden death occurs when the final score is tied, and whoever scores the first point wins. Think of it as Golden Goal in soccer. So anyway it was a chinese man and a african(or indian, probably the former cause he was so dark) fighting. So basically they both went in for the kill and got tied up. They held each other till they got separated by the referee. So anyway they both went in again and the african ended up going for the head and the chinese went for the african's body. I thought the african managed to get the kick in, but I believe I was wrong. According to my instructors the chinese hit the african's body and the african missed the chinese's body. But the chinese pulled back his head to avoid getting kicked, and therefore the judges thought he was reeling from the blow that did not occur. And the african won. I'm as blind as the judges I guess, but still my heart goes out to the chinese. He should have won, but as I said earlier, the judges are blind.

So anyway that was pretty much the end of the exciting fights, and I stayed to collect my bronze medal. I talked to Norman while collecting the medal. Turns out he won. Bugger that. The silver medalist was a malay. He was sulking when he collected his medal. I found out later that he got DQed for kicking Norman's head during the finals. Hurhur. Pretty hilarious if you ask me. Reminds me of Singapore's contestant in the SEA silat competition. Or something like that. Maybe he just wanted to shut Norman up. Cause Norman likes to shout when he's fighting. Which is something I don't really like. It's irritating. Or maybe the malay was just too excited to think. Oh well at least I could console myself that I lost the the champion. But hey losing is losing. It sucks.

Now I just have to imagine that the medal looks golden. And train harder.

A big thank you to Yiliang, and my instructors Mr Quek and Samuel Tan, and all those who either came down to support me or had me in their minds! Sorry to disappoint, but it couldn't be helped.

For photos check out:
In the first round I'm the blue guy and in the second one I'm the red guy. Note some pictures of 2 people fighting don't have me in it, someone asked Mr Siew to take photos of her son to which he kindly acquiesced to.


And we have Wai Pong exposed!


IS IT A MONSTER?