Montana

Well said Kruczek!

OOPS! My mistake, it should be "not" instead of to. Fixed. Thanks.

With Spring and tournament season just a few months away for a lot of you, I thought I'd bring this thread back up to the front in hopes it might help any of you that are planning on competing in tournaments. Enjoy. This section often has tournament competitors asking what judges look for, or suggestions for improving their "performances" before a panel of tournament judges and referee's, so I thought it might be a good topic for discussion. I've been a tournament judge and referee since 1978 for open, all style tournaments. I don't attend XMA-style tournaments, so my comments are for the traditional tournaments. The tournaments I attend are light contact for lower belt adults and young children, and medium contact for middle to advanced belt adults. Legal target areas include the front and side torso and kidneys (the spine is a no-no), front and sides of the head and the groin. Sweeps are allowed, but not directly on the ankle/knee joints. Take downs are also allowed but must be controlled and no "slamming" your opponent to the floor. The reason for this is that we don't use mats at our tournaments. The floor is usually a wooden basketball court or tile over cement (such as a closed grocery store might have). When I first started, the only gear required was a mouth piece, groin cup and hand pads, but it has progressed to require foot pads and head protection now. Personally, I'm not a fan of protective gear of any sort because you won't be wearing it in a street confrontation, but that's just me. Depending on the tournament, competitors are lined up by age groups and belt/experience levels. Typically the sparring divisions are like this: Beginning (under 1 year experience) Youth 6-8 years old Beginning Youth 9-12 years old Beginning Youth 13-15 years old Children 16 and above go into the Adult Division. Intermediate Youth (over 1 year of experience but under brown belt) 6-8 years old. Intermediate Youth 9-12 years old Intermediate Youth 13-15 years old Children 16 and above go into the Adult Division. Advanced Brown/Black Belt Youth 6-12 years old Advanced Brown/Black Belt Youth 13-15 years old Children 16 and above go into the Adult Division The Adult Divisions are typically: Beginning Adults (under 1 year of experience) Intermediate Adults (over 1 year but under brown/black) Intermediate Adults (Brown belts) Advanced Adults (Brown and Black Belts) Sometimes we will have a division for Advanced women, but typically the women I know that are that level choose to compete in the regular Advanced Adults Division also. Personally, I admire those women and give kudos to them for stepping up and recognizing that they are holding an advanced level belt rank and aren't afraid to get in there with the "guys". Referee's for the beginning and intermediate levels can be brown or black belts, but the center ref has to be a Dan level belt. Depending on the tournament, sparring can be who gets the most points in 2 minutes with a maximum of 5 points, and the action stops when a point is called by any of the 3-5 (5 required for advanced sparring) judges. The clock only stops in case of an injury, so points are awarded fast and the action starts again immediately. The other way that sparring can run in our tournaments is 2 minutes of continuous fighting where the clock only stops if there's an injury or the action is gridlocked (basically, no action is going on. At the end of 2 minutes the 3-5 referee's all hold up their flags as to who they think won the match. Very often referee's are bad mouthed because we didn't see your point/technique that you scored against your opponent. You need to keep in mind that we are only human and can't see everything...or we see something that YOU don't see. Sometimes that great punch that you are sure scored, we see as being to far away from the opponent, or not strong enough in our opinion to be a legitimate scoring point, it was blocked, or you were so off balance that the technique wouldn't have landed with any power to actually do any good. That, and we have to have a majority (2 out of 3, or 3 out of 5) of the judges must see and agree that there was a point. Angles of view are everything in a tournament. If we can't see it, we won't call it. ALWAYS kai when you do a point! But if you kai EVERYTIME you do anything, we will get used to hearing it and tend to ignore it. Kai ONLY when you have made what you think is a good point. It's not the length of the kai (ie: a 5 second kai is way overboard) that is important, it's the strength of the kai. Now for empty handed kata judging. Because this is an open, all styles tournament, judges can't base their scores on the accuracy of the kata that is being performed for them. Although I've seen kata from Okinawan, Korean, Japanese, American and all other styles of martial arts over the years, I don't know them well enough to say whether they are doing them correctly or not, so we have to base our opinions on certain criteria. Such as: -speed -control -timing- -power -balance -focus -strength I'm typically the center, or controlling judge, for kata, so I always have a short meeting prior to the start of the event with my fellow judges. For beginning levels the judges must have at least a brown belt, with the center ref being a ranking black belt judge. For intermediate levels all judges are black belt level, with the center judge being sometimes the highest rank (but not always), or most experienced judge. We have a few "masters" that show up for tournaments, but they are sometimes VERY biased towards their own students, or they are just not very good judges, and thus are not allowed to be center judge. I also hold a short meeting before the contest with all of the competitors and give them a pep talk and wish them well. When the competition begins, the competitor approaches the judges (usually at a run), stops before them and gives their "salute" or bow, is expected to announce their name, system practiced, name of their kata and then ask permission to begin. I the motion them to begin their kata. We will typically watch 3 competitors, chosen at random representing different systems, by the score keeper sitting behind us before we give any scores. We use the 10 point system (10 being the highest) and can either score by the half point (ie: 8.5), or by the fraction (ie: 8.3, 9.1, etc) depending on the rules of the tournament. After we have scored the first three competitors this way, then each remaining competitor is scored at the end of their kata. Weapons kata can be a real challenge. Judges are picked because of their knowledge of kobudo/weapons. Again, I am typically asked to be the center judge for this competition. I hold a short meeting with my fellow judges prior to the beginning of the event and state some basic rules. First of all is the weapon of choice. Is it a real weapon, or something else? For example, I had a black belt woman enter the competition with a broomstick painted black. Man, could she whip that thing around FAST! However, because of the type of material and the weight of the weapon, she scored very low with the judges. The reason was because if she had actually hit somebody with it, as a kata represents her doing, the weapon would have snapped and caused little to no damage to them. Keep in mind, this is NOT an XMA tournament, but rather a traditional tournament. We also look for good technique. I wouldn't want to even try to guess at the number of competitors over the year that didn't have a clue how to use nunchauku, sai, tonfa, etc other than to whip them around or poke at the air. The best example I can give would be a 3rd dan black belt that laid out nunchauku, sai, bo, katana, and a few other weapons in a half circle in front of us and announced he wasn't going to do a kata, but rather demonstrate to us his expertise with each of the weapons. Sadly, and I was very embarassed for him, he was nothing short of terrible! His technique was very weak with all of the weapons, but hey, he had good KAI's! Out of a possible 10 he scored a 7, which is the lowest score we will give a black belt. My best advice, if you're going to enter a weapons division, is to use a REAL weapon, and really learn how to use it. The nunchauku, for example, isn't ONLY used as a swinging weapon. There are a multitude of blocks and parrys that can, and should be demonstrated. Under no circumstances is the nunchauku passed between the legs, around the back of the neck, twirled between your fingers like a baton, or held close to the rope/chain. Not in a traditional tournament anyway. On the bo, it is a two handed weapon. Swinging it over your head by one hand is NOT good technique or control. Nor is your ability to twirl it with one hand using your fingers. There are a few one handed techniques used with the bo, but essentially it is a two handed weapon. With the sai, kama and tonfa, learn the proper way to hold the weapon when doing a block. So many times I have seen a competitor do a high block and the "blade" of the weapon that is supposed to be blocking isn't where it should be and if the situation was real, the competitor would have their arm cut off or broken from the strike. I hope this helps you understand a judges perspective to tournaments.

Why does everybody miss the most obvious answer? Ask your sensei! That's why you're in his/her class is to learn and be taught. Right?

Well, here's my $.02 worth. I used to be a school teacher and taught classes in high schools and colleges, where I've had a lot of high school and college level wrestlers in my classes over the years and this is what I've learned. In a fight situation, where your wrestler opponent doesn't know what you know, you have an advantage to strike first, and strike hard. Basically, use the element of surprise. Secondly, every wrestler I've had in class, until they learn otherwise, approaches you with hands held wide in a grappling stance. Their head is VERY exposed and vulnerable to a hard jab or back fist, which needs to be followed up immediately with a hard technique such as a lunge punch or snap kick. They also sucker easily for a fake front snap kick (make it fast or they'll grab it) followed by a hard punch...then keep on punching. Third, the wrestle loves to dive for your legs. What always seemed to work for me was to take a half step backwards leap and push their head down when they dove in and follow up with a punch to the back of their head/neck, which could be followed by a tap dance on their back in a street situation...then get the heck out of there! As has been said before, keep your legs apart so that they can't grab both of them if they shoot, and pummel the back of their head if they do grab one of your legs. Anyway, that's what I've experienced and it's worked for me.

My journey began in 1973 while stationed in (West) Germany while in the US Army. There was an enlisted man in my barracks that had a couple of years of TKD training prior to his being drafted into the military and he would work out with a few of us occasionally. The TKD he taught never really thrilled me that much, but it did spark my interests in the arts. When I got back home in late 1974 there were 2 people teaching in the small (12,000 people) Montana town I lived in. One taught TKD, the other Hawaian Kenpo. Both were well known bullies that went into the bars on weekends looking for fights. I pretty much forgot any thoughts of learning the arts because I didn't like either of these instructors or their methods. Then in January of 1975 I called up a friend of mine to see if he wanted to grab some beer and go cruising around town (That was the big thing to do back then...) in my 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner. He said "I can't, I have to go to karate class." Come to find out there was a new sensei in town by the name of Dennis (Denny) Miller teaching Shorin Ryu Matsumura Seito/Orthodox. I went and participated in the class and never left! My friend quit after a few months. Sensei Miller had a life long impact on my life, and if you're reading this Dennis..."THANK YOU!"

Just because we don't agree with it doesn't make it wrong. My biggest pet peeve is young kids (6-12) that wear black belts. If that's ok in your (anybody's) dojo, then that's fine. For me though, I see those kids and it makes me laugh because of what I personally think a black belt represents and means.

As I said in my first post, there are always exceptions. My personal definition of the requirements for black belt are that they should be able to handle themselves against the majority (not all) of people they meet on the street. This excludes trained fighters, such as boxers and other martial artists. However, IMHO, a black belt should be able to hold their own against trained fighters as well. Not necessarily expected to defeat them all, but at least hold their own. Having a black belt does not mean you are the biggest, baddest person on the street by any means. It means (to me) that I have a certain amount of training to defend myself against the average person I would confront on the street. Obviously, a well trained boxer/MMA fighter is NOT your average person on the street. I'm 6'6" tall and weigh 245 lbs. I hold a 4th Dan in Shorin Ryu and have been in the arts since January of 1975. I feel comfortable that against your average, to above average, person on the street that I would be successful in a street confrontation I don't feel I'd fair well in the octagon or such because I train for self-defense, not 3-5 rounds against a professional fighter. My goals in the arts are not anywhere aimed at competition.

AGREED! To me, a black belt symbolizes the skill level of the person wearing it, and that person should be able to handle themselves against the majority of people they should encounter on the street This includes ADULTS! Under that definition (MY definition), a 6-15 year old kid wouldn't qualify except under an extremely rare circumstance.

I've been buying belts since 1975 and have NEVER had one "bleed" before. My guess is that you're buying cheap belts. Spend the money and get better ones.

Depending on where you live and the laws/ordinances there, and if you're charging fees for classes, you may have to get a business license. Otherwise you need no license to teach martial arts...which is unfortunate in some cases.

When I started training while in college I used to go to the gym, a local park, or at home and work on kata...over and over again. God knows how many times I did my kata, and I did them with enthusiasm and worked for accuracy, speed, power and good technique. Trust me, it works!

Good point! I'd also like to add, depending on the system you are taking, and that it takes time to get to this point in your evolution as a martial artist, but eventually you'll sort of detach yourself from the "fight" mentally and just react to your opponent movements. I'm 6'6" tall and 245 lbs and very non-aggressive when I fight. I find I seldom look at my opponent(s) directly unless I'm watching them and coaching them at the same time. If we're just fighting, my mind sort of detaches from the situation and I just react to my opponents moves. I'm very calm and relaxed and waste very little energy (which is good, because I'm getting OLD! ).

Personally, I've never even HEARD of the guy, let alone been influenced by anything he's done. I quit subscribing to BB Mag years ago when it got to be full of ninja crap and flash and awe martial arts. I don't think I've bought one in over 20 years.

I was a school teacher for 11 years and taught a mixed class of junior/senior high students after school for free. I was a 2nd and 3rd Dan at the time. One of the biggest things you need to consider is a liability factor. Anything less than a black belt rank is considered a student, not an instructor, and if one of your students were hurt in a school sponsored class, or even one that is being taught to school age kids on school property, could POTENTIALLY be a large liability for the school system because you would not be looked at by the courts as being "teacher rated", or qualified to teach.

Be that as it may, it still does not change the truth, that most modern Korean MAs came out of Japanese styles.And most (not all) Japanese fighting (empty hand anyway) arts came from Okinawa.

If it's who I'm thinking of, I met him once when I went to Mn to meet Greg Ohl and train with him for a week. Fred Ettish I believe. This was about 20 years ago, but if it's who I'm thinking it is, he's a student of Greg Ohl's, and from what I hear, very good! He picked me up at the airport and drove me to Willow River, Mn where Sensei Ohl was living at the time, but I didn't get to work with Sensei Ettish.

Might that be with sensei Greg Ohl perhaps? If so, an EXCELLENT sensei and martial artist! I had the opportunity to train with him once for a week way back when...

I have been under the teachings of the late Sensei Kuda since I began my journey back in 1975. As for a comparison between this system and Kobayashi Shorin Ryu, I haven't a clue as I've never had the opportunity to see Kobayashi Shorin Ryu before. Sorry I couldn't help.

Sorry to hear that, but...ROFL...and I'm still laughing. Sounds like something that I'd do! Doh! After she smacked me I just sort of stood there for a few seconds while the rest of the class sort of "Oooooo....oh oh'd" and didn't know quite what to say. I moved my tongue around a bit to see if I was going to lose a front tooth or something, then said something quite profound...like "Well, that didn't work out quite like I wanted it to...". The lady in question, once she realized what she had done, was VERY apoligetic and said "Well, you told me to punch you in the face...so I DID!" *sigh*..sometimes total obedience isn't always good.

A couple of years ago we were talking in class about distance, and I, having had about 30 years in the arts at that point, stupidly stood in front of one of my students (female) to make a point about distance and told her to punch me right in the kisser. Well, I knew how long her arms were and how far she could reach (experience) and that in her current stance/posture, she couldn't reach me by a few inches. What I failed to take into the account was that the woman was going to lean into the punch and step slightly forward...and yes, she smacked me full on the mouth with my hands behind my back! Needless to say, I won't be doing THAT again!

Long suits and belts? Nope! How to make your kata look better is simple...do it RIGHT!

We train not to finish, but rather to stop the fight. Our aim is to use whatever force is necessary, yet not excessive unless the situation warrants, to stop the opponent from attacking us. If that means we have to "finish" him, then so be it. If it mens we just have to knock the wind out of them or bloody his nose to end the fight..even better.

*ahem*..well, other than that's a typical example of the type of kata that I, personally, do a daily basis...it was pretty ok. Well OK...maybe a bit more flexible than I am.... Anyway, she's very impressive in the flexibility and balance areas..,.but I'm a hardcore traditionalist and really hate turning the arts into a flash-fest.

I disagree here. I think self-defense should be taught as the core of a style, and everything else should come out of that idea. That way, you know that the bulk of what you are learning is self-defense based. Absolutely CORRECT!