Your Japanese word of the week is...

[Note: I'm still sorting the pics. I'll put them in/put up a new post when I'm done.]

"hashafukukatsu" which, in all its complicated-kanji-ness, is the Japanese equivalent of "repechage". Repechage (lit. re-fishing) is French for "rescue " or "save" and is a practice in sports that allows competitors who have been eliminated from the tournament ladder to compete for a separate spot.

In the case of karate, it would be something like competing for 3rd place if you got knocked out of the semi-finals and can extend all the way back to the very first round that the eventual 1st place competitor fought in. It's arranged such that the first and second competitors who lost will have a match and the winner fights the one who lost the following round, the winner of which fights the one who lost the fourth round, etc.

So, technically, one can lose in the first round to the gold medalist and still be in for a chance for bronze, provided you prove your worth by defeating all the other competitors the gold medalist beat on his/her way to the top spot.

"Hashafukukatsu" is the Japanese word for such a process and includes the word for "revenge (fukushuu)" in it.

And why would I bother explaining all of this?? Well because this past Nov 13-16 was the 19th WKF World Karate Championships at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. It's been 31 years since the biennial World Championships were held in Tokyo so it was quite an event.

I volunteered on the last two days of the event which was great but unfortunate because all the events that I liked most (kata, team kata, and team kumite) were run on the first two days. Despite that, I got ring side seats to some very exciting individual kumite matches between some of the best karate athletes in the world.

What follows are a couple of anecdotes about my time there.

Saturday
Up at 6:30 like any other workday and at the Budokan by 8am. I get my staff ID card (they've named me LIANG in katakana- I hastily write my first name in cuz there's nothing worse than people shouting LIANG at me all day, though one staff member still did it) and a really nice staff jacket and head off to do......... whatever it is they're getting me to do.

Turns out Richard (who volunteered there all 4 days) has got me helping out with the head table, where the WKF officials are running the show. I meet Mr. Esteban Perez, head of the WKF Organizing Committee and official "guy who runs everything".

For the better part of the morning, I felt particularly useful running around passing on orders and making sure the results are sent to the press room every 15 minutes (after a few times though, I passed this job on to some other volunteers). From about 11am onwards though, I started to help organize the competitors as they waited their turn in their rings.

That I did for most of the day and it involved a lot of "firm yet polite" speaking to many different coaches and competitors. I also had to help keep the area in front of the head table clear, so it was more "firm yet polite" speaking with people who had barged in. Lastly, the volunteers (and the hired security) eventually realised I wasn't Japanese, so I was called over to deal with a lot of the non-Japanese people who poked their head through the curtains set up around the perimeter of the competition area.

During the day, I could take a few minutes here and there to just stand and watch the fights from ring side and that was amazing. Perhaps I shouldn't be that surprised though, considering it was a world-class event with the top competitors from over 100 countries. The day ended off with all the final matches of each division run that day, which was............. well, I'll get to that.....

After all that, I headed off to dinner with Richard, Arakawa Sensei, Oliva Sensei (whom I mentioned in the previous post), Mrs. Oliva Sensei, and a few friends of Richard's.

Miscellaneous notes

They're SO FAST
Nowadays, kumite has evolved to the point that the distinction between styles has all but disappeared and has led some to start calling it "sport karate" vs "traditional karate". What I mean is that while one use to be able to tell one karate style from another based on how they fought, it been developed and honed to the point where all the athletes now fight the same way because that is that most effective way. Kata, on the other hand, still maintains its distinct, style-specific visual form and kata from one style is easily distinguishable from another style's kata.

It's easy to make the argument that kumite competitors need only to be exceptional athletes because of its focus on speed, power, and flexibility. And while some kata competitors can be successful based only upon athleticism, those who can demonstrate the essence of their style and a true function to their movements define that which is what I believe to be the core of martial arts.

Having said that, there's no question that the fighters I watched were extremely athletic. Their movement speeds and reactions were unbelievable at times. Coupled with the strict officiating of the WKF Judges, the way the athletes scored points was utterly amazing....

Final Rounds
... except in the final rounds. On Saturday, all the finals were actually rather boring, with many of the fights running the entire time limit (2:00 for women's, 3:00 for men's) with nothing but the fighters circling each other.

Understandably, everyone wants to win a world championship so no one is ready to risk going first, making a mistake, and letting their opponent score with a counterattack. But, at the same time, watching only the final match gives almost no indication of how good the athletes are.

Watching the final few rounds of eliminations as well as the repechage are often more exciting...

Rafael Aghayev (AZE)
... except when it came to this man. Aghayev is one of the best fighters in the world and finished the tournament with TWO gold medals- Men's Individual Kumite Open and Men's Individual Kumite -70kg.

Not only was he exciting to watch, he was fearless in his matches and not afraid of going on the offensive if the opportunity arose even in the finals. And when he did, he was consistently faster and sharper than his opponent to make sure he got the point he was going for.

But the most amazing thing was that the Azerbaijani was only about my height, which only serves to underscore how effective his fighting is to defeat opponents particularly in the Open division, where there is no weight category and he had to make his way past fighters sometimes 7 or 8 inches taller than him.