"Kata Scoring - The Perfect "10"

2001

 

Victor and Joe Brague

My last post on Scoring Kata has brought several other topics to mind.

I was competing in my first tournament as a brown belt, in Wilkes Barre, Pa.  As luck had it in Kobudo competition the Brown and Black belts were competing together.  I did get through my form Chantan Yara No Sai, but in the division I was also competing against Cynthia Rothrock.

It takes no stretch of the imagination that my form was no threat to the Black Belt competitors.  But I survived my kata, and as the Brown Belts went first, I then settled down to watch the pro’s. Cynthia received a 10 from one of the judges (who as fate had it was her then husband and instructor, Ernest Rothrock).  I recall that clearly as a friend who was a Sho Dan in Kyokushinkai later discussed with me he felt it was impossible to receive a perfect score, and obviously this was just her husband’s choice.


Perfection can exist, however, in a time and place, for an instant, for a judge or judges.  You’ve seen it on occasion in Olympic diving and gymnastics competition.  Or watched a Billy Banks float over the air through opponent after opponent in a different dimension of time and space.  In many places in many different ways.  It just requires an open mind to clearly look at that time and place and find no openings, no imbalances, nothing to detract from the instant of incredible human perfection.

 

The first instance I recalled reading of the Perfect 10 in Karate involved the Okinawan Isshinryu instructor Angi Uzeu, being asked to enter a karate tournament in Pennsylvania long ago. He had never entered one before, as they didn’t have them in Okinawa at that time.  The report was after he did his kata, all of the judges awarded him a perfect 10.  Another well know and respected competitor of those days Hidy Ochai was due to compete next, and as the story had it, simply turned around and left the floor after seeing the judges scores.  [Now don’t turn this into Angi was obviously better than Hidy.  I am quite sure that is not the case in either direction. I’m sure there were many complex reasons behind this, and I also expect most or all of the judges were Isshinryu, perhaps creating a stacked house in Hidy’s mind.]


On other occasion I’ve seen 10’s, too.


In the late 70’s through mid 80’s Pennsylvania had a host of incredible kata and kobudo competitors, all of whom were, are and always will be champions. In no particular order, the students of Vince Ward and John Hamilton in Shorin No Tora, Gary and George Michak from Goshin Jutsu, the Shotokan of Tristan Sutrisno, the Goju Students of Ron Martin, John Chung from Jhoon Rhee, Cindy Rothrock, John Snyder with Bruce Heilman, and many others who were just as incredible, alas the years make the names fade for the moment.  While I’ve separated from the tournament scene over the years, when I attend on occasion those of today, I have not seen a group of so talented individuals as in those days.  [That is perhaps a moment of introspection for another day.]

 

On occasion they would draw other National level competitors into the region to test their mettle, too. Several of them entered the national level competition. Gary Michak received to 20 recognition in forms, weapons and kumite. Cynthia Rothrock in forms and weapons rose to stellar height in anybodies book.  Yet almost any of them had that potential to excel, chance, cash and serendipity were as much the driver of the larger recognition.


On any given day they could exceed.  And they had to be prepared for incredible levels of mental preparation.  They could not excel at one form or two forms.  On occasion I’ve seen them have to do three or four different forms to break ties.  Likewise in weapons, I remember when Cynthia Rothrock and a member of Manny Augreila’s Green Dragons, had to do four different weapons to break a tie. The judges having decided, doing the same weapon twice, would give the individual doing a different weapon the win, assuming they did a great job, which they did.


That was competition. And they weren’t competing for, training for or being satisfied with second place.


Who really was better?  The answer was obvious, they all were. The created a forge of excellence to drive them and those of us who dared to step up and try, to excel and find a way to exceed.


I cannot go back into that past to review those days.  Perhaps with older eyes I would see some of it differently.  Consider Gary Michak with his incredible choreographed kata “Superman” done to the theme music of Superman.

After all who was I to call Superman less than a perfect '10'.