Three Boards

We have all heard the line Quality vs. Quantity, but how many of us learn that to be true as one of the greatest thoughts to live by.  My personal experience of the idea was at my first Karate tournament.  It was at the Tropicana casino in Atlantic City, my parents, brother and my cousin Paul were all there to watch me compete. 

My first competition was breaking.  I had practiced my routine for months and would be breaking one board with a chop followed by an ax kick breaking two boards.

As my age and belt group was called I knew I was ready! 

That is until I saw six other women walk up with their stacks of boards.  I panicked and pulled my buddy Rommel (a Black Belt) to the side and said “Mel, I need more boards, everyone else has like seven, eight and nine boards.”  He told me not to worry and to go out compete just like I had practiced. 

I was last up to compete out of the group and sat while watching the others setup with all their fancy boards as I looked at my little stack of three boards. 

It was finally my time to shine so I setup my routine, introduced myself and asked permission from the judges.  This is it I thought to myself as I chopped through one board turned around and broke through the last two boards with the ax kick.  I bowed to judges and turned around so they could give their scores and saw my cousin Paul gave me a thumbs up. 

I turned back around, bowed to judges and then lined up with other six ladies as we awaited the results. 

I stood there staring at three trophies – first, second and third place.  They announced third place and then second place and I didn't take either.  I thought to myself great, I probably won’t even place with my three dopey boards, but my thoughts were interrupted as I heard Master Giacobbe announce “First place goes to Danielle Vermitsky.”

I was thrilled and shocked to say the least, but made sense as I was the only one who broke all the boards on the first try.  The other ladies took at least two tries and some didn't even break all the boards they had.  You see, performance was based on proper form and execution all in one try. 

I still have those three dopey boards, which are now six halves and often look at them as a reminder of a lesson well learned – Quality not Quantity.