The first thing that met my eyes when i rang the dojo's bell was the sight of Vincent opening the door, and a cat (yes, a cat!) lazing contentedly on the green tatemi mats.
"Ai, you come ke?" Vincent asked, but i had already bowed in the vague direction of the Shoman and had clambered towards the cat.
She smelled my fingers and allowed herself to be stroked gently under the chin. Vincent was pretty happy to have someone to talk to (as was i, since i didn't know who would greet me so early in the evening) and (as i suspected) the petting had to stop soon to do warm-ups.
While i was changing into my judogi, Tang came. He was much more disciplined than any of us and after passing an anime disk to Vincent he changed into his GI and started jumps. I followed suit and, for pure fun, we started practising newaza. Randori (free fight, which is free for choice of moves, but not free of bruises) was happening later that night and we were all nervous (although Vincent was injured - failed Uchimata- and was not competing), as usual.
Anyway, back to the match.
"HAJIME!" Sensei shouted.
Both me and my opponent stared at each other stupidly.
"Start!" yelled everybody.
We slammed into each other, grabbing the collar and sleeve of the opposing person in the usual manner and immediately concentrated on footwork.People were yelling, but they seemed like buzzes in my ears, saved for Tang, who was shouting to me, "Relax man, relax!"
I immediately laxed my muscles, warily keeping an eye on his legs.
He spun, taking the position of Seoinage, but i backed off, forcing him to go back to his original position to prevent himselffrom being exposed.
I instantly cut into Osotogari, trying to hook his right leg and push him back, but i lacked the leverage - at this moment, an online article came to mind - a weird, and very useless wedge of thought squeezed in the unforgiving second, suspended in time - called 'Traditional Osotogari Doesn't Work.
I couldn't remember a word.
Damn.
He pushed, easily toppling me since i already had one leg up, and we both slammed the ground. He tried to newaza, but scrabbling for freedom, i grappled at his chest, preventing him from going into a dead pin.
"Stay there! Stay there!" Vincent and Tnag were yelling. Hell, they had more experience, so i stopped moving on the mat. Unknown to me, i had given my opponent two options:
A. Remain in that useless position
B. Let go.
He did let go, but only after Sensei yelled "Matte!"
We started again, taking starting positions and pulling and pushing wach other. My opponent spun into seoinage, but this time i sliced my foot at his to block him and swung downwards. A surge of hope filled me. He fell, but before i could get to an effecticve lock, Sensei yelled:"Matte!" again. I must've done something wrong, but my mind snapped back to the third round, not worrying about what Randori rule i broke.
This time i was tired, and was moving more wearily. "Seoinage!" Yam called out to my opponent. Even as my brain struggled to process those words, my opponent had spun around and wrapped his right arm around mine. Then the entire dojo became a blur as the familiar thrown feeling swept throught me. I landed on the mat with a sharp slap of sound, followed by my ukemi.
"IPPON!" Sensei shouted, showing my opponent had won.
We got up and bowed. Strangely i wasn't feeling the pang of failure. I was happy and strangely ready to do it again.
Defeat? Nah....
Experience.
