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| Photo Courtesy of Kendo Photography |
The weekend was full of not only great kendo and competition at the tournament itself, but also the night before as we were able to join Cascade Dojo's practice and train with the locals there as well as the Hawaiian team that had flown in for the tournament. It's always a pleasure to train with them as they have such nice, strong kendo, and I was able to get in lots of keiko with almost all of the visitors, as well as make some new friendships along the way. The practice was relatively light so it gave us plenty of time to train, catch up, chat a bit and still be ready for the next day.
Saturday was upon us and we arrived early to the venue and warmed up with our friends from Kent and Federal Way. My division, 4th Dan & Up, was up first, with my dojo mate going later in the afternoon. My first match was about four matches into the bracket, and was against J. Kim from Northwest. I'd never fought him before, or trained with him, but I had seen him around at various tournaments and events so I was somewhat familiar with him. I do welcome new opponents and challenges, though, so I was looking forward to it.
Our match was up, and we bowed in and started. I took my time, feeling out my new opponent and seeing what to expect and what I could possibly use to my advantage. He was quick and attacked hard, but I was able to fight him off. About a minute in I seized an opportunity and charged in, pressuring the right side of his men before reversing and striking the left side of his men for the first point. We reset and I kept the pressure up but didn't rush into anything and was able to fend him off for the rest of the match to take the win.
Final Score: 1-0 (Ruiz)
My next opponent would be a bit more of a challenge, I felt. A. Fujimoto of Team Hawaii fame. He has competed nationally and internationally for years so I knew I'd have a hard fight on my hands. I watched the rest of the matches and finally stepped in to face my next opponent. One of my friends and coaches had given me some advice after my first match, telling me to close the distance after striking faster to avoid leaving myself open, so I focused on doing that as much as I could. We exchange blows and, to my surprise, I was actually able to hold my own a bit. I had fully expected to be pointed in the first few seconds, but as the match went on I thought that maybe, maybe I could pull out a win. Four minutes came and went and our regular match time was up. We'd be heading into overtime. The head judge called for "encho" and we started again. Two more minutes came and went with both of us attacking hard, but neither of us scoring a point. One more overtime round and we'd have to go by a judge's decision. We restarted and came out swinging again, but again neither of us could grab a point. At this point I knew he would probably get the decision, but I felt like a had a small victory myself, having faced such a powerful opponent and not conceding any points. The command for judge's decision, hantei, was called and two of the three judges raised the flag for Fujimoto. The other raised for me. Fujimoto took the win, but again I felt like I gained a small victory for myself. I enjoyed watching the rest of our division go, ending ultimately in a win for R. Asato from Vancouver as he took first place. I was also able to watch some amazing matches in the other divisions, absorbing as much as I could and cheering on my various friends as they fought. It was a full day of kendo and we still had teams later on in the day!
Final Score: 0-0 (Fujimoto by hantei)
Since we didn't have enough people from our dojo to field a team of our own, we were thrown into a mixed team. After some last-minute shuffling we ended up with R. Atagi from Redmond, R. Asato from Vancouver, K. Acoba from Everett, myself and my dojo mate A. Rossi. Our first match was against the team from Edmonds. Atagi started us out strong, taking two points relatively quickly. I was next up and, even though I gave up a point to a hiki dou, was able to continue with two points of my own to take the match and bump our lead a little more. Asato, Rossi and Acoba followed, each posting 2-0 wins on their opponents to give us the match. Next up - Youshinkan.
Final Score: 2-1 (Ruiz)
Team Score: 5-0 (Mixed)
Youshinkan is never an easy team to fight. I've fought them at least three times in past tournaments, with mixed results, but they have a lot of strong players and always field a good team. This tournament was no different. We'd be fighting against four 5 dans, plus a 4 dan for good measure! We definitely had our work cut out for us. The match started and Atagi came out strong, taking a hiki men for an early lead. Unfortunately his opponent came back strong and was able to tie and eventually take the match 2-1. It was my turn. I as fighting against J. Schmidt, a strong jodan fighter. We started up and I moved cautiously but still tried to keep the pressure on him. We traded blows to no effect for a while, as we either guarded, countered, or neutralized each other. Schmidt came in about halfway through the match, though, as I was attacking, and caught my kote. I had struck his men and was just hoping that I had been a bit faster. Turns out I wasn't. He took the point and shut me out the rest of the time, even though there were a couple close calls where I could have tied. Asato did well, taking his match 2-0, but unfortunately it wasn't enough as we were overpowered by Youshinkan in the final two matches. It was a hard fight, but a good one, and Youshinkan took the win.
Final Score: 1-0 (Schmidt)
Team Score: 4-1 (Youshinkan)
Mixed team is always a toss up. Not knowing how each other fights, it's hard to effectively utilize everyone, but we had fun and gave it our all and made some new friendships. I was able to watch the rest of the team matches, with some big upsets and surprises happening before the showdown between Youshinkan and Renbu in the finals. Youshinkan took an early lead and never let up, ending as PNKF team champions.
All in all, a great kendo weekend. I got to fight in some spectacular matches, I surprised even myself with some of them, and I also received a few pieces of advice to help improve and tighten up my kendo. Looking forward to working on it all in the coming year and coming back next year to do it all over again!
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