I attended the 2008 NSW State Kendo Championships today. Originally I was only going to go as a spectactor since I hadn't signed up to be a volunteer and I wasn't competing due to my wrist. I received an email though from Doug Stouffers who was a co-ordinator for the event asking for more help since the numbers of people volunteering had been disappointingly low. I decided to pop in much earlier and help out and also drop off some stuff in my office for someone for something else on the way from the station. I arrived quite early and chatted to the people there and helped out also tie some shinai tsuru and nakayui so they would pass the shinai weigh-in that was going on.
The volunteers were called in and assigned some tasks. While I had volunteered before, I was on scoreboard at the 33rd AKC only so had never really done time-keeping or scoring officially. I got to do both today. Timekept for the Under10's/12's, Kyu and Womens divisions, and then scored for the Dan competition on Court 2. They weren't that difficult though actually telling what to score was sometimes because some of the shimpans didn't give clear indication with their calls on what the points where and it was quite reliant on your eyes. I am happy to say though that I think my eyes are getting better at seeing the cuts land and movements which I am very happy about indeed. While there were some points I missed in the Dan matches, I think I improved a lot compared to when I volunteered at Easter.
At the risk of sounding arrogant and egotistical, watching some of the matches (not all of them), I felt that I could have had a good chance of winning against some of them. There were a lot of very very scrappy matches, a little rough-housing and shoving but there were also some brilliant matches played today.
The highlight of the day in terms of speed was one match which finished in just under four and a half seconds in the Womens competition, while in the Dan competition, the semi finals and finals were marathon affairs. One competitor, from our club who finally came in second fought a eleven minute, eight minute and then nearly fifteen minute series of fights in a row with very little rest time inbetween.
The crowd were pretty responsive today which was excellent and overall a really good day though the weather was very humid. I didn't take any photographs because I was volunteering unfortunately.
The volunteers were called in and assigned some tasks. While I had volunteered before, I was on scoreboard at the 33rd AKC only so had never really done time-keeping or scoring officially. I got to do both today. Timekept for the Under10's/12's, Kyu and Womens divisions, and then scored for the Dan competition on Court 2. They weren't that difficult though actually telling what to score was sometimes because some of the shimpans didn't give clear indication with their calls on what the points where and it was quite reliant on your eyes. I am happy to say though that I think my eyes are getting better at seeing the cuts land and movements which I am very happy about indeed. While there were some points I missed in the Dan matches, I think I improved a lot compared to when I volunteered at Easter.
At the risk of sounding arrogant and egotistical, watching some of the matches (not all of them), I felt that I could have had a good chance of winning against some of them. There were a lot of very very scrappy matches, a little rough-housing and shoving but there were also some brilliant matches played today.
The highlight of the day in terms of speed was one match which finished in just under four and a half seconds in the Womens competition, while in the Dan competition, the semi finals and finals were marathon affairs. One competitor, from our club who finally came in second fought a eleven minute, eight minute and then nearly fifteen minute series of fights in a row with very little rest time inbetween.
The crowd were pretty responsive today which was excellent and overall a really good day though the weather was very humid. I didn't take any photographs because I was volunteering unfortunately.
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