Tears and joy “The WUKF World Karate Championships, Scotland 2018”

Jacek Lipinski

This post is about what I experienced within a couple of days of the WUKF World Karate Championships in Dundee Scotland, 14-17.06.2018. I will discuss what occurred day by day. If this is something that interests you, keep reading. If not, keep reading.

I’ll start by talking about the preparation for this competition. 
 
It’s a privilege to take part in a competition like this, however the outcome is related to more than simply your performance on the mat. Preparation for this competition was spread out months prior to the competition. There are three main stages: strength, endurance and speed training. Tactical training is based throughout all three stages. We trained most days of the week for a couple of hours. During the preparation stage we took part in national and regional competitions to check the progress of our abilities. Training sessions took place in the dojo, gym and park. This allowed us to get closer to our goal of competing successfully in the WUKF World Karate Championships. The preparation for the competition is not only physical but psychological as well. The aspects that are also important are health, mental state, supplements, experience from other competitions, student-coach rapport and many more. To conclude, hard work pays off. 

The journey to Dundee:

Early Tuesday morning we set out on our journey, London to Dundee. This was very stressful as one our competitors hadn’t arrived on time as she hadn’t woken up from her alarm clock. We set out on our journey “slightly” later than expected. After 9 hours we arrived at our hotel, which was on the outskirts of Dundee. We only had a few moments to unpack and drink some hot beverages before once again jumping into the car. We had to take our competitors to register (document, weight and height check). Some of our competitors were in a certain weight category, this meant they had been limiting both water and food intake for the past couple of days. So the sooner we registered the sooner they could eat. Thankfully everyone was within their correct weight category and no one had to layer up in clothes and skip/run to lose the extra weight. After the check in we ate in the closest restaurant we could find and had a stroll around town.

The next day was for exploring the town, coach meetings, referee meetings and officials meetings. 
That evening will forever be stamped into my memory. After I had returned to the hotel all of my teammates were in a good mood. We were all laughing and joking about random things outside as the June days are long. Suddenly WUKF updated their official page and put up the draws. It made everyone realise the reasoning behind our trip to Dundee as some of us were competing the very next day. All the joking around stopped suddenly. It was the first time for some of the competitors to be attending such a large scale event. They were experiencing an array of emotions they hadn’t previously felt. Our hearts started racing and adrenaline started pumping. The less experienced competitors and more experienced competitors felt different emotions and had different thoughts after the draws were revealed. The less experienced competitors were confused about the tatami’s, competitor numbers, time of their category, warm up area and many other factors associated with their categories. The more experienced competitors weren’t as confused. They were aware of what these competitions look like and how they functioned. They were only unaware about who they’d be going up against in the first round. After discussing all the information regarding the competition everyone went to bed.

WUKF World Karate Championships:
 
In 2018, the Dundee Ice Arena was the host venue of the 7th WUKF World Karate Championships, the largest sporting event to be held in Dundee as well as being the first city in Scotland to host the event.

 During the championships, the ice rink was converted into a platform, which was used for the karate event.

The World Karate Championships were demanding not only because of the high level of the competitors but, because of the necessary technical, physical and mental preparation. I concluded that we usually spend 95% of our preparation time on the physical aspects but only 5% on the mental aspect of competitions. These proportions aren’t correct. More time should be spent on the mental aspect, as this is what determines whether you win or lose. It’s all about mentality. The competition took place over 4 days, 12 hours a day on 10 tatami’s. There were 2300 competitors from 40 countries.

SKC was represented by 17 competitors. Our SKC team earned 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal. Most of our competitors were one win away from a medal position.

Ewa Lipinska

 
Ewa Lipinska made history. She was the first person from SKC to ever win a gold medal from the federation of WUKF in the World Karate Championships. She won gold in individual kumite.

Jacek Lipinski

I, Jacek Lipinski, a couple minutes later also won a gold medal in individual kumite.

The silver medal was won by Ewa Lipinska, Joanna Krasowska and Malgorzata Wozniak in team kumite. This was a big success as this was the first time these women competed in a team together. 

Malgorzaty Wozniak earned a bronze medal in individual kumite.

We had the opportunity to take part in the opening ceremony of the event. It ever so slightly reminded me of the Olympic games as the national teams entered the hall to the sound of music, flashing lights and thousands of spectators. It was a fascinating experience for us all. We were surrounded by a friendly atmosphere and competitors who proudly represented their country. We now had time to take pictures with competitors from other countries. 

This competition contained every emotion: tears of sadness, tears of joy. Undoubtedly, everyone made their own conclusions about how to improve for the next upcoming European Karate Championships.