De-evolution of competitions

[scottnshelly]

I may have already mentioned before on here that I was planning on watching a tournament after a five year hiatus. Well, that was Saturday, 6/11/05. I have to say that I’m very disappointed with the direction that the organization is moving. When I was competing, it was a very traditional organization with very strict rules. It was open to all styles, but the competitors were mainly Tae Kwon Do, Okinawan and Japanese Karate and a very small school of Kung Fu – I was about the only Kenpoist.

I missed the Black Belt forms due to a minor miscalculation with directions to the venue. I arrived in time to watch some kids fight, then the adult Black Belts. It used to be two divisions, Men Black Belts and Women Black Belts – anyone over 18 is an adult. This time there were weight classes and age brackets, mostly one competitor to each division. The only woman there won grand champion without even gearing up – she was in a knee brace too. Then they had a grand champion fight for the men. Some young rookie won by jumping and tapping the top of the head – which used to not be a point – every time the judge said go.

I was also disappointed to see a waning in gi/dobok/uniforms. Out of all of the Black Belt fighters, there were two in a complete uniform, one was with mixed colors. Everyone else was in sweats, t-shirts, sleeveless tops, torn hippie-style pants or some other tacky article of clothing. By the looks of the fighting, I’m glad I missed the forms. I think that the forms are a very sacred thing that should be kept traditional. I think were would have been a lot of XMA type stuff by the way these guys fought.

I saw three people that I recognized. None of them remembered me. I used to know everyone by name, style, rank, Instructor, etc.

Overall, besides the wonderful BBQ afterward, it was a bad experience. At first I thought this would motivate me to get back into competing, but now there’s no way. I can’t win with my traditional form; and I couldn’t beat someone that just reaches out and (with an open hand) touches the top of my head every time. I think I would be ridiculed for wearing a solid colored gi and not dragging my belt all over the dirty gym floor. I guess I’m just too old fashioned.

[Sam]

Not too old fashioned.... just guess the organisation has gone for the more popular sport side of it .... get more people in that way....just out of interest what about quality of their technqiues ? did you get to see any exmaple of that?

[Sabumnim]

Sounds disgraceful to me.

It isn't to old fashioned too want to compete in a respectable tournament, I have the same questions as Sam.

What was their quality of technique?

[scottnshelly]

I only got to see a few forms, mostly from kids. The forms that I saw were pathetic. What really got me is I saw several kids doing my Black Belt forms - all underbelts. They disgraced the forms terribly. Some were moving way to quickly to have good snapping punches while others tried to change the techniques. For instance, in Chung Mu, toward the end there used to be a 180 turn with a double upper palm strike. One kid did the turn then started hissing and slowly moving his hands upward, not in any type of strike, just moving his hands with a hissing sound. In Toi-Gye, one kid change the scoop blocks at the end a lot. I noticed several changes like this for dramatic purposes.

As far as the fighting, it was very sloppy stuff. It was that XMA stuff where everyone just does a bunch of jumping kicks and slaps.

It really looked like the organization went toward the XMA sport side for the popularity, but the attendance was way lower than the ones I went to years ago. Maybe this is just what the competitors are moving toward, not the organization.

I hope I don’t offend anyone with my statements, it’s just sad for me to see such a change in competitions. Years ago, there was some applicability to the competitions, now there’s not. Now this is a trophy collecting business.

Is this the direction that competitions are moving everywhere?

[Sam]

In choong Mu ive always been taught they were block rather than strikes - but still done at full speed.

It really annoys me when i see people changing the pattern. ..... ok the rhythm is open to interpretation but the moves are set.

And yes - a lot of competitions ive been to lately are moving that way [with the division being very small] - ive been lucky and the tournaments ive been at have had some high quality forms nad sparring - but sometimes you ned up with 2 small a group

[Kicks]

Scott,

Maybe you ought to consider changing organizations, to one that enforces a more uniformed set of standards. You may have to start over, but at least you'll be in an organization that is stable.

I belong to both USA Taekwondo (the old USTU) and the AAU. Both organizations require that competitors wear the triditional white gui, and only black belts can have black collars. Neither allow school names on the dobaks, bur USA TKD allows state names whereas AAU does not allow anthing other than brand logos. USA TKD is WTF and does Olympic style sparring, while AAU does both point sparring and Olympic style.

USA TKD requires the TaeGuek forms, but AAU allows the IFT, WTF, and TSD forms. Since each school teaches some variation in their forms you can expect to see that in competition. However, any major variation (XMA stuff) will result in lower scores.

Another organization is the ITA. There are even more strick. They have regular regional training for instructors so thay are all teaching the same way. They even have a CD with video of the forms that students can buy. This way everyone knows exactly what is expected of them. ITA does point sparring.

[Sam]

I think that standardisation is a good thing.... but we are learning a Martial Art so variance should be encouraged as well during training.... working with new ideas, etc.

However at a competition a standard is needed to judge by, and if everyone does it in a different way and there is no set way how do you judge it?

[Aodhan]

However at a competition a standard is needed to judge by, and if everyone does it in a different way and there is no set way how do you judge it?

Standardisation is a good thing. ATA does this, and requires specific forms and outlines how they are to be done. You still get differences from instructor to instructor, but the basic form is the same, and as a judge, we are instructed to allow for "regional differences".

This doesn't mean that they can switch a palm heel to a spear hand, but that we don't downgrade if there are minor differences from the "approved" form.

One of the nice things about it is, I can walk into any ATA school in the country, and be assured that the forms will be the same.

Aodhan

[Sam]

I agree that the whole tendancy towards XMA is probably a bad thing as it teaches teh wrong sort of style - i have no problem with XMA as something to do once you've mastered teh basics as it is possible to actually generate power with some of the technique.... its when you see people starting out learning XMA they might as well do gymnastics.

I agree that going back to more traditional values with respect and if you do do kata then doing them properly is definitely a good thing, but schools that encourage that [especially in the UK] are quite difficult to come across especially as a TKD practitioner.

[Armbar]

I don't frequent tournaments to often, but I did go to one a few months back. It was an open tournament, with mostly Shudokan, TKD, and Kenpo guys competing. All were wearing full Gi, except for a few TKD guys while sparing.

There were a few cases of small divisions where there were only two competitors. If there was only one, they were asked if they wanted to be given a trophy that wasn't really worth any thing or if the wanted to try and earn it. Those who wanted to earn it were placed in another division.

Kata was relatively traditional, excluding one rather flashy Bo kata, complete with one of those nice graphite crome Bo's that flash when spun fast.

They had an entertainment division where one or more people could show off the flashy stuff. Mostly group routines with lots of board breaking. There was one XMA kid who lost horribly. He mostly flipped around allot and then popped up in a Zenkutsu dachi every once and a while, threw a punch or front kick, and let out a Kiai.

Sparring did get interesting, and there were a few points called that, in my opinion, shouldn't have scored. There was one guy who would jump in the air sideways and throw rapid fire punches to the top of his opponents head. If that failed, he wouldn't throw any other strikes. He'd just turn around and run out of the ring with his hands down, as his opponents chased him. This was allowed to happen far to often in my opinion.

As far as XMA, it's great for entertainment but bad for basics, IMHO.