kregh99

Front kick is more than enough, and that will probably look horrible because they haven't spent enough time on stances yet.

Ditto. Month to month is the only good contract I know of.

Get used to it. That's what open tournaments have degenerated to over the years.

When I tested, it was with a panel of varying ranks. Usually 7 people. All the current instructors plus other instructors who had gone off to open their own schools or who moved out of town came back to be on the test panel. Senior brown-belts were selected to show them what a test looks like and to have them call out drills. All were at least shodans. Most were nidan or above. It was a 2-day test: 1st day - drills, drills, more drills, then some drills, and lastly, maybe a few drills. Then once the panel was done seeing the group of candidates perform drills, any member of the panel could ask for any technique to be repeated again by any student if they wanted something clarified. 2nd day - forms, forms, more forms, maybe some forms thrown in for good measure, then forms, then one-step sparring, then free-sparring. 3rd day - banquet at chinese or japanese restaurant and certificates handed out for promotions.

The problem I have with tournament sparring is three-fold: 1. The disgusting quality of judging that I see 2. The watering down of fighting 3. This every event being a "Championship", every competitor a "world champion" bullshit Judging: Very simple. You are student from school ABC. You face off against student from school XYZ. It turns out that sensei XYZ is one of the judges. All of a sudden, it seems that when score a good, focused, clean, legal hit, sensei XYZ suffers from momentary blindness. Sparring: I understand to a point a need for protective gear, but it has gotten out of hand. The amout of gear now is so ridiculous that you no longer need to hit the guy anymore to score a point. Gloves that extend your reach by an inch and half, footpads that look like clown feet. And headgear. Get rid of the @#$!ing headgear. Now you don't have to protect your head anymore. Shingards too. Ditch them. Events and Competitors: Where do I begin with this one. We all know what the tournaments are that really count for something, so stop calling every freakin' tournament a "Championship" especially when it's at a smelly gym in some podunk town where they can't even afford flags for the judges. Competitors need to have their uniiforms not look like freeway billboards. You don't need 88 thousand patches on them. Ideally, starched whites would be the norm, but at open tournaments, it's looking more and more like some Botticellian nightmare. Overall, martial arts in general is turning into more style, less substance.