Phew, what an active vacation i've just experienced! Just came back from Ireland, where I participated and observed Larry Tatum's Open International Kenpo Karate Championships. That's one name to call it, but we also call it an L.K.K.A. organisation. To be honest, this trip had it's ups and downs.
Let's just start from the beginning, with a large group of fourteen we went to this international tournament not just to show our techniques and forms, but to also enter seminars from Black Belt users and of course to enjoy some of Dublin, where we resided in the Green Isle Hotel. Our flight went well as well as transportation towards Schiphol and the hotel. After scouting out the area and packaging our stuff out, us seniors had our first seminar from the grand master himself, Larry Tatum. A bit unexpected, because from what I recall, other seminars were planned instead of this. However this was a unique moment to watch and listen to this legend for 2 hours.
On friday we basically had nothing to do regarding the tournament for the whole day except for the evening, so we went on a bus trip towards the centrum of Ireland's capital. Lucky for us it was the majority of the time a sunny day, unfortunately the bus trip itself was not good for the stomach for some of us including myself. Then we explored Dublin's spots and shops and we noticed the very expensive prize these people labeled onto their products. I guess Ireland really is in dire need of help.
After heading back to the hotel we experienced another seminar of Larry himself, however this time it only lasted for 30 minutes. After that, a 2 hour seminar of a certain Black Belt named Joseph would follow, going deeply into the subject "Gun disarm" or just basically weapon disarming. After hearing from the others that this was too tough to follow (and a good chance of hurting yourself) , most of us followed a private seminar by Kevin Mills instead, known for his Sublevel 4 lessons.
Saturday was the first big day for the juniors, and the amount of children present was so unexpected that instead of being finished around 13:00 PM, the tournament lasted late until 21:00 PM. Inbetween performing the things we exercised about generally speaking, both juniors and seniors in our group had to wait at least for an hour before we were able to go to the next division. So, while the juniors were participating, us seniors could only watch, support and record the things that were happening. Tiresome at some moments, I felt lazy.
That evening, some of us decided to eat in the hotel's restaurant. Well that sucked, I cannot describe it more precise than that. We had to wait for an hour after ordering our meals, but not before we witnessed that an individual and after that two others of our group managed to get their food before us, and one of them even had the same meal I ordered, all of that in a time span of 15 minutes. Turns out that the kitchen was very confused, the waiters did not communicate and both of them were slow moving. And by the way, the next day we went with the whole group this time, giving it another chance, but they foolishly served us our meals first while we clearly stated that we wanted to order drinks, very amateuristic.
So, on sunday the senior events happened, and that is when I did Long Form 2 in front of 3 referees including Romano, our own master, and my score was roughly a 7.6. I was content, but that's all I entered into for this year's tournament. Next time however, I will definitely try to enter more events including freestyling, which is a competitive form of fighting where you must gather points from your opponent to win. Also, our group managed to get 7 golden medals from various divisions, which is amazingly well done.
That evening, we had the traditional Brotherhood Dinner event, where everyone from every country would dine and dance together. Well, that was enjoyable, but what I only mentioned once up until now is that pretty much on every official day, there were massive delays. For example, we had to be gathered by 8 PM sharp for this event. We could finally enter the conference room at 21:15 PM. And at the beginning of the junior events, we had to all wait for an extra 30 minutes before the juniors were being called out to their destinations.
And then there is Patrick Kennedy himself, who by now has become a 10th degree Black Belt and also hosted this whole tournament on behalf of Larry Tatum. With all respect towards that degree achievement, everyone from our group noticed Pat's very, very stressful personality to control everything in the tournament, and that feeling already started at thursday evening.
I will only give out 2 examples of Pat's moments, but trust me, there were many more. First one happened during the senior events, where another Dutch group of Kenpo Karate fighters had a Self Defence performance for 3 referees (including yet again Romano) . There was only 1 attacker for the performance available though. After it was done, Pat interfered with it and said that according to the rules (I presume Irish rules) it is forbidden to only use 1 attacker and thus these two fighters were instantly disqualified. Which resulted into what you could call a cold chaotic moment of discussions and anger levels. The two Dutch fighters permanently left the tournament on their own, calling it a joke, while other Dutch fighters including from our own group could not believe what they just experienced.
Eventually, ALL of the other people in the tournament (not just limited to Dutch persons) were able to continue to do their performances that were different from the rule Pat mentioned: that it is necessary to use atleast 3 persons as attackers in Self Defence. Where as in the Netherlands that rule does not exist.
Second example is before we could enter the conference room to dine, Pat tried to talk to everyone in the reception room. After a second time, people were quieting down but small talk was still happening. And at the third time, Pat literally said that he would wait in the conference room itself for 5 minutes before returning in order for the people to start listening to him. Jesus, did that really happen? Yes it did. Really, thinking about it now, Pat kind of looks like Tourette Guy (YouTube that), just a coincidence heh, no offense.
Despite the low points of this trip, I had a very enjoyable time with my group, constantly laughing about many things, had fun with the tournament and it was exciting to see plus now I have also been to Ireland. Next year, Spain will be the location, but personally I still have to think if I will go to that one, since it is coming pretty fast in may already.
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