Recently, I competed in the Kenseikan All-Island Karate Tournament. To clarify, Kenseikan Karate is a sub-sect of Karate (almost like different teams), where there are subtle differences with other sub-sects of karate, such as Shotokan or Wadokan. therefore the tournaments is organized not by the Ceylon Karate Association, but by the smaller Ceylon Kenseikan Karate Association. Only practitioners in Kenseikan Karate can participate, and it is seen as an opportunity to rank the practitioners in each sub-sect, which is used in decisions such as which members from the sub-sect will represent the sub-sect in larger tournament to come, such as the Western Province or All-Island.
In this tournament, I came in first place for Kumite (sparring) in the under 18, brown belt division. This was my second tournament. In my first tournament i did not do as well as i wanted but afterward i trained very hard for this tournament, and it payed off.
My plans for the future include attempting to qualify for the All-Island Tournament, which can only be achieved by ranking in the top three in my division in next years Western Province Tournament, which will be very difficult due to the fact that there will be nearly 200 participants in my age group alone.
Through this achievement and the training that led to it, I have undertaken new challenges by varying and further intensifying my training routine, increased my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth as I have now become much more comfortable in the tournament atmosphere and have identified and fixed flaws I observed in my first tournament, and developed new skills, also through my additional training, as well as training specific to skills needed for tournament sparring.
