darksoul

It's going to be point with corner refs. Not my personal favourite (I think continuous shows more knowledge of fighting than point, but I didn't make the rules ) but it should be fun.

Well we practiced both techniques for kata judging - the side by side and the points. The tournament itself, I don't know yet. I've been checking the sparring rules since, to answer your next question, I will also be judging that. It's a mixed style tournament, but mostly Karate based (Shotokan, Shaolin Kempo, Shorinji Kempo, Shorin-Ryu, etc...)

Montreal was completely spared. We had rain and that's it.

^this! Thank you from me as well

Congratulations!

Thanks lit-arate! I'm a shodan in Shaolin Kempo and will be starting up Aikido with my wife in the new year. It will be my wife's first martial art, but I'm hoping to use this as a cross-training thing.

I don't practice either of the styles, so I can't say first hand besides the fact of having sparred a Krav Maga guy, however, I did find this on the net -

I completely, 100% agree with this. Are you sure you want to do this?

Thanks! I got the rules from my master and have been memorizing them

Sadly there are bad people in every style. By bad I mean morally inept and egotistical individuals. I'd say look for another TKD school to see if they are a better fit for your cross-training/experiment.

Oh absolutely. I definitely judge one against the other, not one against himself. As I said, this will be my first competition as a Dan and I am super excited at being one of the judges. I feel like I've made it in a sense

Great tips! Thank you! Monday we had a "trial run" as the other Shodan and I judged the Kyu's Katas. Basically a little kata competition within the group. We didn't seperate by rank, but just an all around. Ended up between a 3rd Kyu and a 8th kyu. There was a split decision between myself and the other shodan and they did a tie-breaker. The 8th kyu won. I was approached by the 3rd kyu asking why I went with the 8th kyu both times. I explained that while his techniques were good, he was too stiff on the first kata. On the 2nd kata he had hesitations and was again too stiff. Since his 2nd kata was Stature of the Crane (one that is meant to be light, springy, and balanced like the crane) the stiffness was a big issue for him. Taking that, and both their ranks into consideration, we felt that the 8th kyu performed better. I think I'll be ok, but I am always up to hearing the experiences of people that have judged before.

Sandy is getting here tonight from what I've heard. We'll see. She lost a lot of power though so I doubt we'll have any issues.

/facepalm lol

Feel free to add me when you have the chance - sean.rickerd

So there's a competition in Laval on November 25th and most of our dojo will be entering. I wasn't really considering competing, but was basically told I'm competing... sooooo... yeah... I'm competing. The one thing that I'm nervous about isn't the competition, but the fact that I will also be reffing and judging this time around. Have any of the other Dans here ever judged at a competition? If so, can you give me any tips? Thanks all!

Extremely well said. I've face-planted more than once while learning to blitz.

I've been wanting to start filming my kata's, just haven't gotten around to it. I've always been told it's a great tool and the responses on this thread definitely enforce that.

To defend against something is it not advantageous to know how it works? I don't at the moment (but I'd like to) train with the knife purely so I can understand how someone, trained or untrained would use said weapon against me. And in a lot of Filipino styles, techniques using the knife easily translate to empty hand movements. I agree that if you had a knife, don't wave it about - just use it. Coincidently this was in the news recently: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-19944833. That is very true. Ouch! Tough guy not noticing that big of a blade in his arm!

I'm with bushido_man96 on this. If it helps you achieve your goals, go for it

Sad to hear

Luckily, I don't have any medical problems similar to yours, but I have a bum knee that acts up once in a while. I don't think it's stupidity though. You love the martial arts and you love training, sometimes we get in that zone where we feel like we can do anything and push too hard. Just try to stop yourself next time

Wise words!

I'm trained as an Ethical Hacker and Penetration Testing specialist. You have no idea how easy it is to get access to your stuff.

I train AGAINST it. As for training WITH it, no. What is the point in being trained in a weapon that will land you in jail whether it is used in self-defense or not? In Canada, defense with a weapon is EXTREMELY hard to defend in court. I do, however, see this as very good training for military. Our Canadian Forces are well trained in dagger combat during their CQC courses. JTF2 are stupid good with just about everything with a blade, a blunt end, a round end, a fuzzy end, or an end that expels projectiles... but that's JTF for you.