AKR 2011 Tournament Report
The AKR 2011 tournament was completed successfully and safely the
evening of August 2, 2011. We had 72 participants (the largest AKR
tournament ever!) and were divided into 3 shajo. We started at 7:00pm,
finished closing Rei by 8:50pm, and exited the Rec Center at 9:03pm,
just 3 minutes over our allotted time. Both because of the strict time
limit for the tournament, imposed by the College facility, and because
we wanted to allow as many seminar attendees to participate in the
tournament as possible, we modified the standard tournament timing to
"kai-uchiokoshi" timing. This meant that everything moved along pretty
quickly. We also eliminated Yawatashi performance, and for
tie-breaking, we eliminated the izume in favor of enkin in the interest
of time.
Most people thououghly enjoyed the tournament experience, and I
extend my sincere thanks to the dojo assistants and target judges that
kept us on track with the fast tournament timing pace. A few
participants seemed uncomfortable with the quick pace. To those who
found the timing uncomfortable, please practice tournament timing in
your home dojo as often as possible. Try standard tournament timing;
also, try kai-uchiokoshi timing. There are times when the situation of
the event demands that we keep to a strict time schedule, and we need to
be able to maintain Heijoshin (everyday mind) even under pressure.
Congratulations to those that achieved the highest number of hits
in the tournament! The winners were awarded with gift certificates to
be spent at the kyudo equipment vendors, Sambu or Takahashi, that were
present at the AKR 2011 seminar. Gift certificates were given to first, second, and third place for each of A group and B
group winners.
Winners from B Group (Nidan and below):
#1 Yukiko Itokawa (7 hits)
#2 Audrey Yang (4 hits, and winner of enkin)
#3 Cesar Ortiz Rojas (4 hits)
Winners from A Group (Sandan and above)
#1 Fumiko Takada (5 hits, and winner of enkin)
#2 Eric Ruth (5 hits)
#3 David Boswell (4 hits, and winner of enkin with 2 others with 4 hits)
Thank
you to everyone for your sincere support for the tournament, especially
the dojo assistants (Yoshiko Buchanan sensei, Eric Kong, Miho Oyasu,
Rik Center), the target judges (Steve Scott sensei, Daniel Kim, Andrew
Platzer, Bill Reid), the MNKR and the AKR.
Respectfully submitted,
Maria Peterson
AKR 2011 Tournament Coordinator