Harvard's Rakow Fights to National Title

Sophomore Rebecca Rakow actually lost the competition she was gunning for.

An engineering concentrator in Quincy House who has been studying karate since the tender age of six, Rakow spent all summer training for the Shotokan Karate Federation's national collegiate competition, held the last Sunday in September in Rakow's home town of Phoenix, Az.

Without access to a regular sparring partner, Rakow trained primarily for the kata division of nationals--an individual competition where contestants perform kata, ancient Japanese exercises in which every move is predetermined. Rakow was eliminated by a freshman from San Francisco City College in the first round.

"It was really disappointing," Rakow said. "This was what I'd been focusing on for so long, and to lose in the first round. They chose my worst kata, too."

Other athletes might have packed it in and gone home. Rakow responded by claiming first place in the national sparring competition.

"When sparring came around, I was put against the same girl as before," Rakow explained. "I was just like, 'You won last time. This time, it's my turn.' I didn't give her much of a chance."

Having lost the competition she came to win, Rakow entered the sparring competition with nothing to lose. Facing smaller, quicker opponents in her first two rounds, Rakow said playing it fast and loose helped maintain her mental concentration, possibly the most critical element when it comes to sparring.

"Bigger people are easier for me because, generally, they're slower," she explained. "But [in general] a lot of it is getting your person to lose their focus. Getting their attention, hitting their leg on the bottom...and then they leave their head open."

Sparring rounds are two minutes long, and the first person to reach two points wins, so even an instantaneous break in concentration can be costly. Rakow kept hers, winning that first round 2-1 and her second 2-0 to reach the final.

"There were about 1,000 people there," Rakow said. "The really intimidating things is sparring in front of the masters."

Rakow scored the first point quickly, moving in for a fast, light punch to the stomach. Going on the offensive again, Rakow went in for another punch, only to be cuffed by her opponent on the recoil.

Tie score, 1-1.

"It was a little nerve-racking, because I had like 20 seconds left and I had to score a point. I just sort of sat there for a while and looked at her, and then I went in and scored the point," Rakow says.

She pauses.

"I uh, I hit her pretty hard in the stomach," says Rakow as she laughs sheepishly. "She dealt with it well, though."

And while Rakow remembers very clearly throwing the punch that won her the national championship, she says her newly won rank, as number one in the nation, still feels a little unreal.

"It's really weird," she admits. "I've been doing this for so long, and I came in third last year and second the year before in high school, but to win the whole thing..."

She trails off.

"Well, it's just a really great feeling."

Rakow has been studying karate since the age of six.

"I actually cried until my parents let me train," she says. "My brother was in training, and he would practice on me; I needed a way to defend myself."

Rakow says that despite those early sparring sessions with her brother, her parents are still slightly nervous about their little girl sparring. While Karate Kid-style "Sweep the leg!" theatrics are unheard of in the disciplined, traditional world of Shotokan Karate, like any parents, they still worry.

"My dad didn't want me to enter the sparring competition, and so when I kept winning they were just laughing the whole time," Rakows says.

She pauses again.

"Sometimes they're like, 'Oh, Rebecca! All that money we put into your teeth," says Rakow as she laughs affectionately.

A veteran of international competition since her junior year in high school, one suspects Rakow can take care of herself. She credits her sensei in Phoenix, known as Kaoyama Sensei, as her biggest influence.

"I was very lucky in Phoenix to have one of the five masters of the United States, one of the five highest ranking black belts in the country," Rakow says. "He's just an amazing influence. He kept my drive and my interest in Shotokan going."

Rakow says that keeping that interest going in the stressful world of Harvard has been surprisingly easy. She says that karate's mental side--which stresses maintaining a calm, clear focus--has helped her in other ways as well.

"I find that when I train I tend to do better in school" Rakow says. "You need a stress release. It's a great way to learn to focus and to keep that focus."

Aptly enough, the word kata, as translated from the Japanese, actually means 'personal meditation.' Rakow guesses that 'kata' is something she'll be doing as long as she can.

"One of the amazing things about getting to train with the masters is that they're all in their sixties, and it just makes you realize that this isn't something that's just for when I'm young and when I'm strong," she says. "This is something I can do, almost forever."