Oyama Fighters Cup

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This weekend on Sunday was my very first fighters cup tournament. This kind of tournament is full contact knockdown sparring and no kata. My first thought was that it was a smaller tournament than I was used to, there were only three mats but the divisions went by really fast considering it was only knockdown sparring. I was really surprised to see that there were even kids younger than 10 fighting full power but it was cool to see. There were 9 people in my 16-17 advanced boys division, the person that I fought was named Luke and he was a 16 year old black belt. I knew he had a lot of experience in this kind of tournament so I had to give it all I had. I wasn’t really nervous or stressed about the fight but I wasn’t expecting it to be so fast paced. From videos I saw online I thought there was going to be more distancing since you are trying not to get hit but I guess I was wrong. As soon as the referee said guards up and fight it was just an all out brawl of kicks to the head and body and a ton of body punches because head punched weren’t allowed. It was a rough fight and I kept getting pushed back and he got me in the head with several kicks which made me really dizzy. Even though it was my first fight I feel like I did a great job staying in there and I got a lot of good body shots in as well. My classmate Elinor was competing as well in the 13-15 advanced girls division. I was really proud of how well she fought and stayed in the fight. She won her match and got 3rd place in her division of 6. In really glad that we were there together cheering each other on. Overall it was a really fun tournament and everyone was friendly and respectful especially my opponent. I’m already excited to train and compete next year.

My current Challenge progress as of May 19, 2024.