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The Tang Sou Dao National Championships
A Personal Recollection by Sarah Green, 6th Ji - Rochford

This year was my first chance to attend the Tang Sou Dao Championships and having heard so much positive banter on this, I definitely wanted to experience this for myself.

The day started quite early with a group photograph. Soon after this the forms competition took place. The ladies within my group looked particularly good, which added to my nervousness, consequently I forgot my form half way through; I imagine this is all to be expected, having not competed before in this way. Once the forms competition had taken place, the awards were presented for each group. Everything took place very quickly, and soon after the free fighting was started.

The free fighting event started with the under eighteens. The fighting on the day seemed more intense than in class, but everyone was keen to watch for this reason. Unfortunately there was only one group for the ladies free fighting, from 7th to 4th Ji. There were quite a few orange tags like myself, which was good as everyone was at the same level of experience.

Each round was supposed to take two minutes. If there was a draw between the competitors then they were given another minute to decide a winner. Emotions were running and I found it interesting to fight against other women in my group as there seemed to be a range of different tactics going on. At the end of my fighting I had gained 2nd place, silver, which I was very pleased about as I had not expected to win an award on the day.

The awards ceremony was a great chance to see a lot of very proud faces. At the end of the awards for fighting some special awards were presented to some of the students who had done particularly well on the day. I highly recommend attending these championships as it is good experience and a chance to meet similar people to yourself practising the art of Tang Sou Dao.

Tang Sou!

Article by Sarah Green, 6th Ji