Kuk Sool Tournament in St. Louis

[taiji fajin]

Is anyone going? I'm planning on it, but unfortunately I'm running short on the funds and cannot compete. That, and Master Jack Harvey has put me on a list of possible judges, so I need to be ready to do that.

Has anyone here judged a ks tournament before? I'd like to hear some tips on how you score, as I've never done it at a large tournament. In the past I've seen they normally give out between 9's and 10's, increments of .1, so here's how I was considering judging it:

everyone "starts" with a 10, .1 deducted for each of the following:

any missed part of the 5 hyung laws (.1 for each law)

form does now flow smoothly, is too rigid and choppy

lack of body control

lack of solid stance / structure

minor mistakes (.2 max)(.2-.3 for large mistakes, .4 max)

improper etiquette

what about techniques, though? Weapons? Self defense?

[swooshfinn]

I didn't judge at last year's tournament, but I was score keeper for brown-black belts 5+ stripes, I was running short on funds and time to get ready for the tournament then too. If you get a chance, I would talk to all the black belts that you can that have judged before, they can give you pointers and standards for scoring....

Kind of hard to believe that this will be the first time in over four years that I haven't made it to the St Louis tourney.

Keep an eye out for the Knoxville, Illinois school. Although rather small in numbers, the quality of Kwan Jang Nim Zefo's students is superb! They usually place 3rd or 4th after Kwan Jang Nim Harvey's school and Jan Butler's (Davenport, IA) school.

[taiji fajin]

Hmmm, thanks for the tip, I'll try to watch for them. I train with Master Harvey on occasion (mainly weapons), and even more with SBN Butler. Jan loves to grapple, and so do I, so we're always going at it. He's a fun instructor.

[swooshfinn]

Unfortunately for me, I just didn't have a cooperative work schedule or enough funds to get into Jack's studio more than once or twice for the year I lived in the St. Louis/St. Charles area, and I am afraid that it my work schedule is even worse to try to sneak over to Milwaukee and train in the Marquette school, which is a lot closer to UW-Milwaukee than it is to Marquette U.

[taiji fajin]

Well, I'm back from it. No competing, but it was fun to judge.

The master's exhibition was short this year, much shorter than in previous years. I'd have to say my favorite part was Master Sim's demo, though it was pretty much him just beating someone up . Overall, not nearly as good as in the past, though. I did get to see master Zefo's demonstration. It mainly centered around rope and handcuff techniques.

Kuk Sa Nim was fun to talk to. He was telling me about how he got a new uniform from some (national?) Korean television station.

[swooshfinn]

Master Zefo is a county sheriff in Illinois, so it makes sense that his demonstration is handcuff and rope techniques.

How about school results? Master Harvey's school take 1st? Master Zefo's school make it in the top 5?

[taiji fajin]

http://www.kuksoolwon.com/results_2005_STL.htm

Master Harvey got 1st (no surprise), and SBN Jan got 2nd (again, no surprise). Master Zefo came in 4th, behind JKN Gholston. Also of interest, Kevan Samiee, who I've worked with a good amount, took home the 1st dahn men's grand champion, for the 2nd year in a row. Go Kevan . Always knew he was awesome.

[MJB55]

My brother lives in St Charles, I was there a couple of years ago, I think there was a Kuk Sool Won school on the main road, i can not remember the name of the road but one of my neices friends trained in KSW. Is there different organizations?

Tang Soo

Mikeb

[taiji fajin]

If its called Kuk Sool Won it (should be) the same organization. I don't know of any school where you said it was, but it might just not be listed on the website.